Friday April 10, 2015 Fort Bragg CA. Sat. and Sun. April 11, 12, 2015 Boonville CA.
Kayaking the Noyo River
The plan for the day was to drive over to the ocean and up to Fort Bragg to look around the Noyo Harbor in our kayaks. We loaded my kayak on Marty’s jeep and were out of here by about 11:30. It was about a two hour drive to Fort Bragg. We headed for MacDonald’s to post blogs, then drove on down to the south Harbor road to the launch ramp and put our boats in the water.
Once in the water we headed on down the river towards the main harbor, about a half a mile or so.
This was our view as we paddled into the main part of the Noyo Harbor. Coast Guard Cutters on the left.
We continued on down the harbor where we ran into about a half dozen sea lions doing some serious feeding, which continued pretty much the whole time we were there.
Here’s one of the sea lions fishing around us.
We worked our way all the way down the river to the highway one bridge where we stopped and looked out through the jetty to the ocean here.
We didn’t stay there long as the purpose of this trip was to explore around the working part of the harbor so we started working our way back up the river to the working area where we stopped and sat and watched.
We had to watch for big boats coming into the channel as they only had a bit of room to maneuver and we didn’t want to get run over.
This was part of our view from this spot. Carb pots on the dock.
We watched some seals and sea lions fishing around us, then moved up river just a ways to explore this marina where most of the boats in this harbor were tied up.
We checked the marina out, then went back to the working part of the harbor where they unload fish and stuff.
A boat went by us carrying sea urchins so I said to Marty, let’s follow it and watch it unload.
The boat didn’t go far before he pulled in and started unloading the sea urchins.
These are the buyers of the sea urchins putting them in pallets to ship to someplace like Japan, likely on a jet. Sea urchins have some prized roe in them.
It wasn’t long before another boat pulled in nearby to a fish buyer and unloaded their catch. Here the guys on the boat are bringing the fresh caught fish out of their boat and loading them into a big bucket or bin that a crane hauls up to the dock.
This picture shows some of their catch a bit better as they are dumped into the haul up bin.
This guy pulls his boat up across from us and holds up a big salmon he shows to some friends across the channel. As we watched, a guy comes out and shovels ice over the side down to his fish for him in the boat. He drives off as we watch, not unloading his fish.
We watched all the action and soon we headed on back up the river passing close by these seagulls.
We paddled on back to the launch ramp and past it to the RV resort and marina about a quarter mile up the river. We entered the marina through the logs at the right and had a look around.
After that we headed on back to the boat ramp and loaded our boats back on Marty’s jeep and drove the two hours back to his cabin.
Steak and baked potatoes for dinner and we called it a day.
Saturday the 11th
Another day at the cabin
Marty and I had planned to cut down a few trees for firewood today, but first he had to split some firewood for the night.
We walked out the cabin door this morning, him going to the wood pile to split wood and me going to one of the chairs you see in front of the cabin to do what you do with chairs. :O)
Marty split wood for a short time then came and sat down and said his back was hurting.
I go for a hike up the hill
After awhile I decided to go up the hill and walk along one of Marty’s trails that goes through the redwood forest, leaving him to rest in one of the chairs.
I headed up the hill from the cabin throwing a lot of sticks off the trail that had dropped last winter during storms. It was a nice trail, not too steep and some nice soft ground to walk on.
It went up here through the big trees.
I walked it and then came back down to the cabin where Marty was still in his chair.
No tree falling today
We talked about the trail then he informed me that his back was hurting and it might not be good to cut down the trees today which was ok with me.
Back up the trail
After sitting some more, Marty’s says he’d like to go up and look at the trail, so we headed on up it again taking our time and resting along the way throwing more sticks off the trail as we went.
The trail goes through this spot, between the tree and the stump.
Enjoying the forest
We arrived at the upper end of the trail and had a good break enjoying the redwood forest, it’s noises and smells.
We could tell the day was coming to an end, so we worked our way back down the trail arriving back at the cabin, where we both plopped into our chairs and called it a day.
Nice day in the forest.
Sunday the 12th
Headed on home
Marty and I spent the morning sitting in the chairs in front of his cabin enjoying the day. While sitting there, we were looking and talking about making a little trail up to his waterfall stump by his cabin so he wouldn’t break his neck in his older age. I said get the tools and I’ll help you with it before I head on home.
We worked on it for about a half hour and then sat back and admired our work and talked about how to improve it. I didn’t get any pictures of any of that for some reason. I think I was too lazy at the time.
I looked at my watch and saw it was just after 1PM so left and did the two hour drive to my home. I unloaded some stuff from the van and spent the rest of the day puttering around in the yard.
Good trip.
