Saturday September 27, 2014 Monte Rio CA.
Since the river’s mouth is closed and it backs up the water clear to the Vacation Beach summer dam, which is above Monte Rio, I decided to kayak to the dam today from Monte Rio. This higher water level makes it easier to get over some of the shallower spots.
I put my boat in the water and headed on up the river. This female mallard duck swim by me just as I put in the water. Monte Rio ducks are fairly tame as they have it good in this area.
Usually, there is a shallow spot just below the Monte Rio bridge, but with the water level backed up, the water is deeper and it’s not a problem paddling through to the bridge.
As I started off, it looked like there weren’t going to be many people on the river today, but I was sure wrong about that. I ran into a lot of kayakers today coming down the river and later, even coming up from Monte Rio and back like I was doing.
I spied a bigger bird flying into the bushes up ahead so I checked it out. It turned out to be a green heron.
The wind was down as I made my way up the river at a leisurely pace.
Northwood golf course is off to the left in this picture, but you’d never know it from the river. I paddled on through this area, also known as the Boho area, because of the Bohemians camp on the right.
Eventually, I approached the Vacation Beach summer dam and road crossing.
They are slowly removing boards to drop the water behind the dam so they can take it down soon. This young lad was playing in the strong flow of the water, just checking it out. Note the dam boards to his left are gone as compared to the dam boards on his right. They’ll remove some more boards each day until the water is all out, then they can dismantle the dam for the winter.
I sat around that area for quite awhile resting up for my trip back down the river watching the people at the dam.
As I left the area, I passed this great blue heron getting some sun. It’s bill seems to be open for cooling purposes, as it was sitting in a warm spot.
Of course, just as I started back down the river, a breeze came up blowing against me, which is usually the case. I stopped at this spot to rest for a bit, looking down the river.
As I left that spot, some mallard ducks swam by.
I also passed a couple of cormorants sunning on a dead tree and here is one of them.
There was also a cormorant in the water hunting.
And also a merganser duck hunting along the weeds on the river’s edge.
Here I am headed down the river just above the golf course.
I’m approaching Monte Rio in this picture. It’s down there in the trees as far as you can see.
It was just after five PM as I went under the bridge at Monte Rio and the sun was headed down.
I paddled over to the boat ramp and was off the water and headed on home for the day.
I had a nap and didn’t do much else for the rest of the day.
Nice fall day kayaking the river.
