Kayaking with Marty and Kay on the Noyo
Saturday, I was to meet Marty and Kay at the Pomo RV park in Fort Bragg at one PM. to go kayaking. I was hopping they weren’t too tired out from kayaking the Big River the day before. I know I was pretty tired out.
I had some time to kill, so I headed up just north of Fort Bragg to Ten Mile river. It seems like just a short river.The main problem with it is access. It seems the local property owners don’t want people to access it as it couldn’t be easily accessed where I looked. But I was really interested on the road that takes off just before you get tot the highway one bridge on the river. I’d been out it before the last time I was up in the area and thought it looked interesting, sorta like BLM land. I mainly just wanted to see if the main gate was still open, if so, it meant that it was always open, which is the way I was hopping to find it and that’s the way I did find it. What this meant was that this would be a possible place to night camp in the area. It’s pavement just past the gate a ways, but then all the roads turn to gravel types and are in real good shape. The Ten mile river goes up this way and there are more creeks in the area also. It seems to be some kind of logging company conservatory type land or something like that? I like what I saw and will check out the area more some time when I get back in the area and have some time to kill.
I thought I’d get something to eat before doing the Noyo River, so I headed into town, thinking I could get a big bowl of noodles at China Buffet, but, darn, since it was weekend, they didn’t open until three PM. It was one of the few places I thought I might eat without getting corned.
Since that didn’t work out, I decided to go to Safeway to get something to eat. There is one little problem, of course, what can I buy that is ready to eat that doesn’t have anything made from corn in it. Well, it turns out, not much. I ended up with a bottle of not from concentrate orange juice, a bag of Kettle potato chips with sea salt and a can of Del Monte sliced lite peaches. Isn’t that sickening? :O) I was going to buy some fresh grapes too, but they had some kind of dust or powder on them and I didn’t have a way to wash them. Sure looked good though.
I went over to meet up with Marty and Kay, there was some delay as they moved their RV to a different site to try to pick up the history channel. I took the opportunity to take a little nap in my car. It wasn’t long before we left for the Noyo River at the South Harbor ramp, just up the river from the main ramp.
I was surprised to find the place full of cars and trucks parked everywhere, Kay said later they had a big abalone feed. Luckily the ramp we were to use, was way out there and that was mostly empty. We put in the water around two PM. Not much wind, we headed up stream.
Marty and Kay. That Marty is really kicked back.
Bob, Me, lazily kayaking along the Noyo. Marty and Kay photo.
This is the skunk train bridge on the Noyo River. This is where we turned around on the river and headed back. We were able to go just a little further. Marty and Kay were thinking, maybe this river is even better than the Big River. The train crosses the river here and goes into a tunnel into the side of a mountain just out of site to the left, then makes it’s dash into Fort Bragg on the north side of town.
Kay spotted this turtle and proceeded to try to get a photo of it. I don’t’ think she got one, but I did.
Kay is trying to maneuver her boat to get a shot of that turtle. Now that was a tame type turtle, but eventually it went into the water.
It turned out the be a real nice day. We were all fairly tuckered out from paddling the Big River the day before, so our arms where a bit sore and we were pretty tired when we got off the river around 5:30 PM.
Another shot of Bob, Me, on the Noyo River. Marty and Kay photo.
We went back to their place, where we exchanged pictures, said our goodbyes and I left in the direction of home. Of course that meant they could take a much needed day off without me around. :O)
Who forgot to tie the kayak on the car?
I got about a half mile down highway one from there place and heard something on top of the car make a noise. Went a little further and suddenly noticed my kayak was hanging in front of my side window, not good. I pulled over carefully, embarrassed, and had to get out the door on the other side. I’ve done this several times, this forgetting to put all the ropes on which hold my kayak to the car. I put a couple big bungees on my kayak then am supposed to tie it down securely with ropes, but sometimes when I’m real tired or somebody starts talking to me about kayaks during the loading, I may forget to finish tying up the ropes. No damage this time, worst is when it comes off and bangs into someone or a car. So, far, it’s only come all the way off the car once and didn’t do any damage, but did scare the guy in the car behind me.
Now, I gotta admit, this sounds like a dumb thing to do, and it is, but in reality, I’ve tied it on my car almost everyday for the last ten years. Percentage wise, I think some missed tie downs are just part of the game,………………….. unfortunately. :O)
That sure was sign that I was tired, and the next sign was when I went around one of the turns on 128 to Boonville and scared the crap out of myself as I was going faster than I should have been going. One of the problems is there are a lot of people headed home to the Bay Area and drive that road real fast, which I can usually do, but it was dark and I was tired and realized it wasn’t a good place for me to be at that time. I decided to pull off near Boonville for a nap and see how I felt afterwards. I pulled off on the road that goes to my friends cabin where I stayed on the way up thinking I’d just nap at the beginning of the road, but as I was looking for a place to pull over, I decided I might as well drive up to my friends cabin and crash there until tomorrow. I thought this was a much safer solution to my tiredness. So that’s what I did. Got up the next morning, sat around until noon and continued on home.
I got home and have been unpacking the car, between naps. I had a great time on this short trip, although I seemed to have pooped myself out again. Just don’t’ understand how that happens? :O)