Saturday, November 15, 2014 Jenner CA.
Paddling up the river from Jenner
Steve and I put in at Jenner this morning around eleven am. We paddled over to Penny Island and decided to head on up the river a ways, maybe about three and a half miles to the great blue heron rookery?
The wind was up a bit, but the sun was out for a nice day.
We took our time paddling up the south shoreline of the river, stopping often to enjoy the day.
We pulled under this big old fir tree at a place I call dead deer gulch. It’s full of ferns and out of the wind.
With the water level this high, I was thinking maybe I should change the name to dead deer grotto?
We had been watching these coots across the river from us. We paddled over to those green trees and continued on up the river on the north side now. That’s the highway one bridge.
Bovinosarous
Just above the bridge, we spied these bovinosarous grazing the grasses. We passed fairly close and lucky for us, they didn’t attack. :O)
Just past them were a bunch of coots that started to head back into the water as we approached.
One legged goose
There was this lone goose with them that Steve remarked that it must have adopted the coots. Looking closer now, it looks like the goose has lost it’s left leg. Maybe the work of an otter. Imagine floating along having a nice day, when all of sudden something pulls you down under the water by a leg. Not a good thought. The goose stayed with the coots as they swim off to our right.
More muskrat nests in the estuary
We continued on up past Seal haven and up to Markham hole. Steve wanted to go over to check out the boat in, walk in, state campground, so we continued up to it, where he looked for a place to get out without getting wet, but he couldn’t find one. In the mean time I was looking around and started spotting numerous muskrat nests along the shoreline in the trees. I’d heard from a person that camped here last summer that there were numerous muskrats making noise under the trees all night. Now, I know why, another place of muskrat nests. This makes the second spot that I’ve discovered them in the estuary.
One of the muskrat nests, a pile of sticks and reeds.
While Steve was looking around the camp area, I crossed back over the river to these big old cypress trees that were full of moss and I rested a bit.
Eventually, Steve did find a place to land and went ashore for a bit of exploring while I rested under the tree.
Too late for the sunset
It was about three thirty now, so it was about time to get back, as I wanted to see the sunset which was around five PM if we could make it back to Jenner by then, but I think we started back too late for that?
Starting back down the river, we passed by these birds. Cormorants, a seagull and a bunch of coots.
Just past them, I could see something bobbing in the grasses on the shoreline, so I went over to investigate.
It turned out to be this little bird which didn’t seem to want to move, maybe it’s spot for the approaching night?
Here we are just rounding the corner of Markham hole and the sun has less than an hour before it sets. It looks like it may be a nice sunset, or maybe the clouds might block it all?
Even more muskrat nests in the estuary
Just as we rounded that corner, in the trees to the left, I discovered another group of muskrat nests, that makes three places I’ve found so far. I think the muskrats have really moved into the estuary in the last year.
We were going to go into Willow creek, but it was getting late, so we passed on that and continued on down the south side of the river.
The sun set and was blocked by clouds, so we didn’t miss much.
After five
We were approaching the town of Jenner just after five PM and this is what Jenner looked like, just before dark.
The water went flat
This was our view of the sunset, just before we pulled into the boat ramp and went on home for the day. The wind had died down real nice and the water was beautiful.
I went on home and needed a nap and that was our day.