A Lazy Start But Then a Dirt Bike Ride, a Hike and a Paddle

Sunday October 18, 2020 Monte Rio CA.

  The day started out lazy

I woke up with a head feeling like it was a lazy day. I fed the chickens and went back in the house for a nap as I just couldn’t get anything going.

I was thinking of going down to the river for an evening paddle at Monte Rio but wasn’t sure if I could pull that off.

A ride and a hike

Around 3 I decided to go for a dirt bike ride up in the hills to do a little hike as I wanted to check an area out.

I rode up into the hills and parked here. My hike took me down that little road off to the right in front of the dirt bike.

I hadn’t been on this road for a long time and some old trees were across the road.

Steep hills

My plan was to walk to the end of the road and then off through the forest to check out the area beyond, but. The area beyond was real steep so I walked back to the bike.

And rode around to the other end of where I wanted to check out down this road.

I waked down to here where the road took off steeply down the hill so I thought that was far enough and headed back to the dirt bike.

Water level

On the way home I stopped to check out the water tank’s water level which was about the same as yesterday so I could do some more weed watering tonight.

Off for a yak

That little ride and walk got me some exercise and woke me up a little so  about 5 I drove on down to Monte Rio for an evening kayak for a couple hours on the river. The Monte Rio parking lot was packed being a Sunday but I was able to work my way to the boat ramp which wasn’t as busy as the swimming beach.

Down the river

I put my boat in the water and parked the car. Once in the water it looked like this so I headed on down the river taking my time paddling along.

Since the river’s mouth was closed down at Jenner by the ocean the water level gets backed up to this area so the water level was high like a lake.

The sun was just going behind the hills as I moved along.

I was only going about a mile down river to the area up ahead called the Villa Grande Hole where I was going to sit in my boat for a bit just enjoying the nice day.

I paddled on by these mallard ducks taking it easy on the shoreline. Most of the ducks down this way are wild but fairly tame and feed off people when they can.

Just enjoying the river

I made it to the Vila Grande Hole and sat here for a spell just enjoying the river at this time of day. This is looking back up the river.

After about a half hour I started my paddle back up the river towards Monte Rio stopping in this spot for a bit on the way. There’s a lot of duck weed floating on the river right now as it does in the Fall most years.

I was able to get fairly close to this pair of wood ducks as I approached Monte Rio. I think this is their spot to spend the night.

The sun was almost down and only shinning on the mountain tops as I paddled into the Monte Rio area. The wind was down so the water looked real nice and calm.

I heard loud music coming from the swimming beach area under the bridge so I paddled up to see what was going on. Some people were still on the beach enjoying the end of the day as a couple of ducks came by to check me out for food.

After a bit I headed for the boat ramp as the river looked like this looking down river where I’d been earlier.

That was nice. I pulled my boat out and headed for home stopping at this gas station for gas.

Troublesome poles

While there I noticed these poles that protect the pumps had been painted a different color since I ran my van side into the one on the right. They were yellow when I did that and I didn’t report my booboo. I’m guessing some other people had problems with those protection poles. The poles are new since they upgraded their pumps a couple months ago. It’s a tight station to get into and sometimes is very crowded and I’ll bet those poles are getting hit often.

The new paint color may help but what it needs is curbs around the poles to keep one’s car off the poles like they used to do in the old days.

Anyway I got the gas and headed on home.

I put the chickens away for the night which means I closed the doors on them to protect them from critters during the night and went on in for the day.

The day didn’t start off so good but it finished well.

Nice day.