Wednesday September 14, 2016 Jenner CA.
Some days are bluer than others
I headed on down to Jenner again and put my boat in the water. The sun was out and the wind was down for a very nice day. I paddled across the river to Penny Island and went down the side towards the river’s mouth.
I stopped in to see if John was there, but he wasn’t, so I left him some fresh fruit on the beach in a plastic bag. When he sees the plastic bag he’s going to think thrash, but when he opens it, he’ll know where it came from.
Just past his place I saw this pair of band tailed pigeons getting a drink of water.
Russian River’s mouth area
I headed on over to the river’s mouth which looked like this.
The river’s mouth is still sorta closed and there were lots of brown pelicans in the area.
Getting up close to check things out
I paddled in close behind the jetty where I could watch things up close.
Pelicans in front of the sand bar that is closing the mouth. They were mostly just taking it easy.
More pelicans on the mouth. Note the ocean wave coming over the sand bar, so there is still some water coming into the river during higher tides and rough seas.
Some more of the pelicans taking it easy in front of me with the ocean in the background and the river in the foreground.
Headed for Swamp Rock
I hung around there for an hour or so, then headed up the river to a place I call Swamp Rock trail head, just above Penny Island on the south shoreline.
I paddled by these two river harbor seals that I know pretty well. I didn’t recognize Coco at first as their coats seem to change colors a lot. They were resting on a submerged redwood log, likely full of salmon.
Swamp Rock Trailhead
I landed at the Swamp Rock trailhead and crossed over this swamp to get to Swamp rock up on the hillside there on the left. The swamp is dry right now, but may get water in it as the estuary rises because of the closed river’s mouth. There are trails in the grasses if you know where to look and also a bit of poison oak too.
Went to the top
I usually just go up in front of the rock, but today, I hunted for and found an old animal trail to the top of the rock. This was my view from the top of Swamp Rock towards the little town of Jenner which is across the river from here.
Take a break here
After poking around on the rock top, I headed back down to my boat here. There’s a nice grassy spot there so I sat down for a much needed break for a bit.
From there, I went on in for the day and went on home for a nap.
Repairing the heater housing with epoxy
Eventually, I went out and worked on the van a bit. I needed to repair the plastic heater housing. It had some plastic pieces broken out of it. I used JB’s SteelStik two part putty epoxy to repair it. It’s an epoxy you cut off what you need of the roll and kneed in your hands and apply to where you need it. I have applied some in this picture and after it dries a bit, about ten minutes, I will apply some more. The knife on the left is a special hand forged craft knife my friend Marty made for me. It’s a real good knife.
My new electric fan arrives
While I was working on that, the UPS man showed up with my new electric fan for the van’s radiator, so I studied that to figure out how I want to install it. I also removed part of the fan shroud and the engine fan blades to see how the new electric fan was going to fit. It looks like it will fit in there nicely, I just have to make some mounting brackets for it.
I hope to get the new electric fan and the repaired heater core back together this weekend if all goes right.
That was my day.