Friday July 17, 2015 Jenner CA.
Marty came by this morning to go for a yak so I took him down to Jenner and we put in our boats. There was only a little wind and the fog was lifting as we crossed over the river to Penny Island and started down it’s side headed to the river’s mouth along here. Those are pipers flying.
What’s that
I saw something brownish moving up ahead along the shoreline and recognized it as a bobcat which I haven’t seen in a long time. It was hunting along the shoreline and saw us coming. I said to Marty to get his camera out and told him where the cat was. We quietly sat and took photos.
It did something unexpected. It sat in the grass on the edge right in front of us like this not seeming to care much about our presence.
I was waiting for it to turn around and this was the best it gave us.
We left it like that and it moved off into the brush as we were leaving.
River’s mouth area
We continued our paddle down to the river’s mouth area. Marty is pointing out something, but I don’t remember what.
We continued on past the open mouth down to the end of the river where we sat for a spell watching things in this spot, looking back up the river.
There were some harbor seals frolicking around in the water near us. Here’s one of them checking us out. They watch us as much as we watch them.
Resting terns
Eventually we headed back up the river. These terns were resting on the lower end of Penny Island as we pasted by headed to the islands back channel.
We stopped in this spot I call the slot and rested and shot the bull some.
Fluffed up
This hawkish type bird landed in front of us on the island and started preening. It’s all fluffed up and hard to recognize.
Walk at Swamp Rock
We continued on up the back channel of the island. When we got to the upper end, I said let’s go for a walk to swamp rock which is just up ahead.
We put ashore here. Marty is a bit older than I am, and was having some trouble getting up this steep bank. I heard some mumblings of pain but he made it. We are headed off to the right of this photo to swamp rock.
Swamp Rock
About twenty feet below this spot, Marty says he was lucky to make it. I said there is still twenty feet to go, straight up through those rocks to this great sitting place. Here he is just getting to the spot, groaning a bit.
But once up there, it’s worth it. Here’s our view looking out towards the town of Jenner from Swamp Rock.
We sat there for an hour or so shooting the bull and discussing future trips and contemplating the people that must of sat in this spot in olden times.
Can you find the way out of here
When we left the rock, I asked Marty to find the trail out if he could as it’s hard to see and it’s the only way through the brush to get back to our boats. Sometimes I have trouble finding the trail, so it’s a challenge.
He did well and found the trail out. I said you have a new name. Trail Follower.
Here he is just after he got through the main part of the trail out. He’s trying to figure out where our boats are and how to get back to them which he did.
He got us back to our boats but we were too tired to get into them so we found a grassy spot to sit down and rested, just enjoying the day.
Eventually we headed on in and went on home.
Wild blackberry pie
Of course I remembered my wild blackberry pie I had hidden in the oven and had a piece trying not to eat it all which wasn’t easy. I did manage to save a small piece to enjoy a bit later tonight.
Van work
I napped a bit, then went out and worked on my van some. I worked on installing some new backup lights into my large wooden back bumper. I got the holes for the lights made and now have to wire them up.
I then put the air scoop shield on the bottom of my van so I could figure out how to mount an electric fan in front of the radiator. At first I wasn’t having much success in figuring out a good way to mount this fan, but eventually a new idea came into my head and I think I’ve figured out how to mount it. It got dark on me, so I quit for the night and just sat in the yard for a bit before going in for the night.
Nice day.