Monday July 11, 2016 Jenner CA.
I needed to get the new engine ordered
Today was the day I was going to get my new engine ordered. As soon as I got it going, I called Crate Engine Depot back east so they were two time zones away and wouldn’t be in later in the day when I got back from kayaking, so I needed to get it done.
Tom at Crate Engine Depot
I spoke with Tom about the engine, a Chevy 350 V8, a new engine in a crate and some of the parts that bolt onto it. Tom was very helpful and easy to do business with. He will get all the parts together and put them in the crate and ship it out. It’s likely going to take a couple weeks to receive it.
In the meantime I still need to get all the other stuff that bolts onto the engine which I will try to do tomorrow.
Once that was done, I headed out to Jenner to kayak for the day. The sun was out and the wind was down as I put my boat in the water and crossed over to Penny island and started down the side and stopped here for a good while in the reeds, looking down towards the river’s mouth area, by the white rock. I was once talking with a friend that was admiring the white rocks in the ocean until he found out it’s white from a bunch of bird poop.
Eventually I made my way down to the lower end of Penny Island and had a look here to see if I could paddle onto the island yet. Not quite, the water level is still too low to get through the grasses, so I turned around and spent some time in this spot before crossing over the river to the mouth area.
On the way, I saw John who lives down by the mouth. He was out by his house, so I stopped in for a chat. He said he thinks the mouth may open itself soon as the water level is about the same height the sand bar is.
I left him puttering in his yard and crossed over the river to have a look at the closed mouth.
It looks to me like someone has breeched the mouth
This is the river’s closed mouth. You can see the river water level in the foreground is just about the same level as the sand so it may open up soon. Even more interesting is to the right of the seagull, something is happening. See the little sand mound.
It only takes a little water
I couldn’t get too close as the harbor seals where close by and I’m not supposed to disturb them. But right in the center of this picture someone has dug out a small channel in the sand, letting a small amount of water into the sand. This little channel is all that is needed to breech the sand bar and cause the river’s mouth to open up.
Letting just a little water across the sand bar lets the water soak into the sand, causing it to get heavy and slippery. When the ocean goes to low tide, the ocean water level drops and the sand bar can begin to slowly flow like water until it opens up with a surge, rather fast sometimes.
There’s a little ditch in the sand bar
There’s a little ditch right in the middle of this picture that has breeched the sand bar.
Hung out at Haystack rock
I continued on to the end of the river here at Haystack rock and paddled around to the back of it to sit for a spell in my boat.
Here I am sitting in back of Haystack rock looking back up the river.
I could see these geese resting on the sand in front of me. They were being very quiet.
Paddled by the mouth again
As I left that spot, I noticed the wind was picking up a bit. I paddled by the mouth again which looked like this with some birds and lots of harbor seals resting on the sand.
I let the wind take me back up the river and headed around that big stump on the left, up the island back channel.
Blackberries
I was thinking eating some blackberries would be nice and remembered there were quite a few of them in this new spot I’ve been exploring on the backside of Penny Island’s channel.
I put ashore here for a walk and to look for blackberries, looking across Penny Island to the town of Jenner.
Looking for the bottom end of Poison Oak Alley Trail
I did pretty well finding some blackberries to eat and eventually got side tracked exploring through the trees and the brush and yes, the poison oak too. Lots of poison oak here, as this would be the bottom part of the Poison oak alley trail which is just up river from here. Poison oak alley trail will extend down here once I find where it is in the brush and the trees.
There’s some pretty good animal trails in this area, but they require a lot of crawling under trees and brush and a lot of just pushing though, rolling off the poison oak. That’s pretty much what I was doing.
I was pushing through when I ran into these flowers blooming.
I think they are some kind of lily. It’s interesting, but Al of the Bayfield Bunch blog which is in my side bar just fell a tree on the same flowers in his yard.
Should be more careful sitting down
I went through the brush for quite awhile wearing myself out and by now my back was pretty sore too, so when I got back to my boat, I sat down pooped on the grasses. Only problem was there were some stickers in that grass which I just sat on. I was able to roll off the stickers and sat here and rested up.
Enjoy the waves
Once I had enough energy to get back in my boat I crossed over the windy water. It was a bit windy, but still warm enough and nice out. The wind makes the water a bit wavier which I’ve also learned to enjoy.
I paddled into the little channel on the upper end of the island and came out here to cross over to the boat ramp across the river.
Thoughts of engines
I went on home for a nap and then just puttered around the yard for the rest of the day thinking thoughts of engine parts. :O)
Nice day.