Thursday March 27, 2014 Jenner CA.
Just another day on the Russian River
It rained again during the night, but this morning it tapered off again, so off I went to Jenner.
When I arrived, John had just put his boat in the water and was parking his truck. I put my boat in the water and he said his brother Ray should be by shortly and he was.
They wanted to go down to the river’s mouth, so we headed on down that way.
A seagull landed with something on a rock near us so we paddled over to check it out. It was trying to swallow a fish that was a little hard to swallow. The fish seemed to be some kind of flounder, of which several different types are in the estuary. We got too close and the seagull took off with the fish. The photo shows the gull just taking off with it’s fish.
We continued on down to the river’s mouth area. There was very little wind with a light fog in the air.
The redwood slab
Ray and John stopped to check out the big redwood slab I reported on yesterday. They decided the other John was welcome to it. Good thing as the other John had it tied up with a rope. :O)
On to the mouth area
This was our view as we approached the river’s mouth area. The ocean was fairly rough, as you can see a big wave breaking on the jetty rocks.
The river’s mouth is open shallow
The river’s mouth was open shallow. Shallow means the sand in the outlet is not deep, so the water going out is being backed up a bit by the underwater sand dam. Open deep would mean the sand is down deeper which lets water in and out differently.
As usual, there were a bunch of harbor seals resting on the sandy beach at the mouth of the river.
We hung around the mouth area for an hour or so then leisurely started back up the river.
We headed over to the back channel of Penny Island and went on up it.
This is our view as we paddled up the back channel of Penny Island.
As we started up the channel we heard a big plane and looked up to see this coast guard plane going by in the fog. Naturally we said it must have been out looking for that lost jet that went down? :O) Well, it was that kind of plane anyway.
A little walk on Penny Island
We continued on up the back channel of Penny Island and I asked if anyone wanted to go for a little walk on Penny Island and they both said sure, so that’s what we did.
Here is where we landed on the east end of Penny Island in the nice green grass of spring.
Here we are walking past the old house. Nice vines growing on the big tree. It’s a real lush place.
We tried to cross over to the other side of the island, but the middle of it becomes a sorta swamp when it rains. John had boots on, but Ray and I didn’t so he made it across, but Ray and I had to backtrack and go back the way we came.
We met John back at the boats. They decided to go in for the day and I continued on up the river towards eagle’s landing.
I was sitting on the edge, doing what I do best, taking it easy and this little bird came by. It’s some type of little grebe. Note the real red eye. They are divers.
I paddled on up to eagle’s landing and over to Paddy’s rock before turning around and heading on back to Penny Island.
This is the view I had as I paddled back to Penny Island looking down the river to the town of Jenner, about five PM today.
As I approached the little channel on the east end of Penny Island, something caught my eye in the grass there. Two turkey vultures were eating some little thing there.
I paddled on by them and headed on in for the day.
Another fine day kayaking Jenner.