Friday November 8, 2013 Jenner, CA.
I headed to Jenner to Kayak today
As I approached Jenner this morning to kayak, I was surprised to see the river level had dropped indicating the mouth had opened somehow?
I put my boat in the water and then paddled over to talk with one of the guys with one of the local kayak rentals to see if he knew anything about the opening of the river’s mouth.
Normally, they post a sheet of paper on the visitor center door the day before saying they were going to open the river’s mouth, but I didn’t see one, so I assumed it might have opened by itself, which it can do.
But, he said, yes, they had posted that sheet of paper at their rental booth. What the?
They had posted it previously at a public place, now it was in a private place? Hummmmm. The powers that be?
The river’s mouth is now open
Anyway, apparently they had opened the mouth with the excavator the day before after getting the fire going, so now the river is open. Yesterday, Ray said he thought it looked like the excavator was opening the mouth, but I said, couldn’t be, no paper posted, but I was wrong. :O)
After talking with the kayak rental guy a bit, I paddled across the river to Penny Island and on up the south side of the river, stopping along the way. Since the river’s mouth was open, there might be some seals eating the salmon that are running now, so I kept on looking for clues of that.
I paddled on up to otter’s log and on to eagle’s landing and took it easy there for awhile. No seals eating salmon in that area.
From there I paddled back down the river, taking the back channel of Penny Island down to the slot near the west end that is out of the wind that came up.
There are and have been around five hundred or so coots feeding on moss and dead vegetation in the back channel of Penny island for awhile now.
Here’s a bunch of the little guys as I passed them by.
After stopping in the slot for awhile for a break, I ventured out into the wind and headed down to check out the river’s mouth area.
Lots of seals and gulls on the beach down that way.
It was going on high tide, so some foam was coming in the river. Seems like less wind in the foam, so I always go for it.
This picture is looking down to the river’s newly opened mouth.
This picture is looking right out the river’s mouth into the Pacific ocean were it is real rough. I don’t go out there. I stay in the nice river, where it may get windy, but it doesn’t get that rough.
I hung around the mouth area for about an hour. I didn’t’ see any seals eating salmon. A bunch of seals left the beach and came over to check me out.
Here are some of them. Someone watching might have said I scared the seals, but that’s not what happened, a bunch of them just left the beach and came over to where I was.
The wind was up fairly good and I had paid my dues and paddled into it to get down to the mouth area, but now, it was time for pay back. The wind mostly blew me back to the visitor center where I had a little problem.
My back has been hurting for awhile now
How to get my boat on the car with a back that has been killing me? I didn’t really want to lift the full weight of the boat, as it hurt a lot and I wanted to give my back a break.
Hummmmmmmmm. I backed the car down the ramp close to the boat and pulled the kayak up to the car. Now, just lift the front of the boat up onto the back of the car and then get behind the boat and left the back end up and slide it on. It worked. Easier on my back and giving it some time to mend.
I went on home and put an ice pack on my back for a half hour. Then I went out and put the new starter in the van. Tried starting the van and it started ok, but it seemed to be not releasing quite soon enough. I think it needs a shim of which some came with the new starter.
Tomorrow I’ll try a shim and also see what I can do putting the new exhaust gasket in. They actually call the exhaust gasket, an exhaust packing. I call it an exhaust doughnut.
My back said not to install it today, so I went in the house and cooked up some buns I had been letting rise since this morning. Hummmmm, they turned out good.
