Thursday January 23, 2014 Monte Rio CA.
Monte Rio to the summer dam and back
When I checked my email this morning Ray said he was going up the river from Monte Rio, so I said I’d meet him at the boat ramp as it’s a good time to go up there as the water is a little higher with the river’s mouth being closed.
I got to the boat ramp first, but Ray showed up shortly and put his boat in the water. There were a bunch of mallard ducks hanging around the boat ramp.
This is a male mallard duck that was checking me out at the boat ramp.
We leisurely paddled up the river, taking it real slow and easy all the way.
Eventually we made it up to the Bohemian area.
The redwood trees are doing their sex thing, big time
As we were pulling away form the Bohemian area Ray says look, pollen is blowing off the redwood trees big time. Sure enough, big clouds of pollen were blowing off the tops of the trees every time a gust of wind would hit them
This is a picture of some of the pollen blowing off the big trees. It’s a bit hard to see, but it’s the foggy looking stuff in the middle of the picture. Pollen continued to blow off the redwood trees throughout the day coating the surface of the river water.
Our view as we paddled up the river towards the Vacation beach summer dam.
Not many fishermen to be seen down here now
Surprisingly enough, all the fishermen had mostly pulled out of the area. The big fish had moved up the river, which is good as that is where they are headed.
There were some fishermen at the summer dam. They parked their boats and walked up the shallow channel above the dam to fish.
This is our view as we approached the summer dam area, fishermen on the right.
Ray and I pulled in between the cement pillars and watched for a bit as the fishermen headed on up the river to hopefully find some fish. Don’t know what they found up there as we turned around at this point and started back after Ray took a short break on the beach here.
Just as we were leaving the area, I spied something up in the tree. Actually, I heard it gnawing on something before I spied it. It turned out to be a grey squirrel.
Scenic Russian River
As you can see the river is real scenic right now as we started on back down the river.
Reflections always make for a good picture.
A great blue heron was fishing along the shore line as we passed.
Here is Ray as we passed under the Monte Rio bridge, almost back.
There are usually a bunch of mallard ducks at the boat ramp. Ray had to shoo these guys off the boat ramp.
Monte Rio up and back is one of my favorite trips as it’s always real scenic with lots of birds and critters to be seen.
Great day kayaking the Russian River at Monte Rio.
