Nov. 2, 2012 Jenner, CA.
Decided Jenner would be the place to kayak today.
Since I kayaked in the sun yesterday, I decided to do Jenner, sun or no sun. I got there just before noon and the sun was out and the wind was down, just a breeze. I put my boat in the water by the visitors center and paddled across to the island and hung out for awhile then, I went down to the mouth of the river, because it was almost high tide and I wanted to see what the water was doing down there.
A nice foam line had formed.
Yes, as I approached the mouth I could see a nice foam line had formed just inside the mouth of the river. To most people that foam would just be foam, but to me, it’s the place the colder ocean water flows down and under the warmer river water as the high tide water comes in the mouth of the river.
It’s fairly suddle, as all the salty, cold ocean water flows in the river mouth and dives under the fresh warmer river water, right in front of your eyes, if you can only see it. And you can see it, if you know what’s happening, otherwise, it’s just a bunch of nasty old foam.
In the picture below, I’m sitting in the foam in my yak and the foam line is right in front of me. On the right, the ocean water is flowing in from the river mouth, bringing foam with it. The foam is too light to sink with the cold ocean water, so it floats and piles up at this point. So, under and on the left of the foam is the fresh warmer river water.
I hung around the mouth area for an hour or so just taking it easy and watching things. Below is a picture of what it looked like down there, looking out toward the mouth of the river.
There were a half a dozen Grebes fishing in the area.
After that, I went up river just above Penny island and hang out for awhile. I went to shore for awhile at Poison oak alley, where there is a trail with of course, a lot of poison oak on it. If I’m careful, I don’t catch the stuff, too much. I hiked around a bit and just checked the area out in general.
Just across the river from this area these white pelicans where taking a nap. These white pelicans pass though here this time of year and mostly just sit around and rest. I don’t see them doing very much else most of the time.
On the way back in, I stopped off in the little channel on the east end of Penny island was resting my eyes when I heard a big splash, when I looked up, this eagle was diving on a cormorant. The cormorant just dived into the water and that was that. For some reason, the eagles around here seem to go after the cormorants quite a bit as I’ve seen them do it before, even two on one cormorant. So far, the cormorants seem to be getting away, at lest on the ones I’ve seen, so far.
About five PM, I headed back in and put my boat and gear on and in the car and went home intending to do some yard work, but mostly only wondered around the yard, thinking about what all I had to do. That was enough work for one day. :O)
Had a great day at the river again.
