Monday June 16, 2014 Monte Rio CA.
I’m back home again after a nice trip to the desert
I drove back home yesterday which was uneventful mostly, so today I was eager to get on down to the river to do some kayaking.
The Guerneville dam should be in today
First though, I wanted to stop in and see how the guys were doing on getting the Guerneville dam in as today is the day they can start backing up the water.
I stopped by on the way down to Jenner and this is what I saw. They’ve started to install the boards in the center of the dam to back up the water. They are now installing the yellow boards that keep people and boats away from the main dam structure for safety. It looked like they knew what they were doing, so I left them at it. :O)
Guerneville beach is all ready to go for the summer as you can see in this picture, also known as Johnson’s Beach, looking up from the dam.
Jenner was blown out
I drove on down to Jenner were the wind was blowing good, so after thinking about it for a bit, I went on back to Monte Rio where I put my boat in the water and headed on down stream in a light breeze.
This is the view I had just after putting my boat in the water and heading down stream.
There seemed to be a lot of wild life out today which is usually the case around the Monte Rio area.
Here a cormorant is sunning itself as I passed.
A lot of the ducks are growing up. I passed a group of young mergansers fishing together with their mom.
Here are two of the young merganser ducks I watched for a bit. They were diving under the water fishing in front of me.
And just below that were some young mallard ducks snoozing in the weeds. as I passed.
If one keeps their eyes open for turtles on the side logs, one might see one of these.
And this great blue heron was just landing on the shore as I passed.
I stopped and talked with Andrew and his wife at Villa Grande for spell then headed on down the river some more to this resting spot where I sat for awhile.
Occasionally I see one of these white egrets on the river, usually fishing on the shore line.
I paddled on down to the Sheridan beach where I have another sitting spot and sat and watched. This Kill Deer was running around on the beach making the sound Kill Deer make. They blend in so well on the beach I always have a hard time finding them in my view finder.
And as I was siting there napping on and off, these two butterflies fluttered into view, looking like they might be doing some kind of matting thing in the air. They finally landed for a bit, which made getting their picture easier than trying to follow them around in the air.
After awhile I headed back up the river at a leisurely pace. These big redwood trees are at Villa Grande.
I ran into Andrew fishing in his kayak at the Villa Grande hole and followed him up the river while he fished and shot the bull as fishermen do. He hooked one hard mouth about a foot long. I left him at it and continued on up the river.
This green heron was in some sticks as I went by and didn’t fly off as they usually do, so I was able to get it’s picture.
That put me at the Monte Rio Boat ramp around four thirty PM. I put the boat back on the car and went on home for a nap.
Blow that dust away
After resting up a bit, I went out and blew most of the dust out of the inside of the my van with my air compressor air. That was a bit dusty for sure. :O)
Another nice day on the river.
