Wednesday June 31, 2016 Jenner CA.
Jenner was going to be real nice today
It looked like it was going to be a nice day down at Jenner today so off I went. Ray said he’d be there and I found him on the boat ramp ready to go.
We crossed over the river watching the fog coming in over our heads, so we sat by the island for awhile during which time the fog went back out into the ocean and it looked like this, looking up the river from Penny island.
Lots of mallard ducks today
So eventually we headed up river going by these mallard ducks feeding away.
And these ones too. There were quite a few mallard ducks on the river today, maybe they like all the moss that got exposed when the water went down when they opened the mouth the other day.
We passed by these ones too as we headed up along the shoreline taking our time and stopping here and there.
We passed by these cormorants. Ray suggested they remind him a lot of bats and I agreed.
Hiking up to the old Indian rock
We paddled up to the muskrat nest area and sat for awhile, then headed back down the river and stopped at the Indian Rock Trailhead and put ashore. We secured our boats with bow ropes to make sure they would be there when we returned. We took off straight up the hill as that’s where the old game trail goes. You either follow a game trail here or you don’t go and the place is full of poison oak that one cannot avoid, so be warned if you have any ideas of hiking around the Jenner area.
Here’s Ray coming up behind me on the game trail, about half way up the hill. Things are nice and lush for sure.
We made it up to the Indian Rock where there is always a nice view and for some reason it always just seems relaxing on top of the rock.
Here’s looking down river towards Jenner from the top of the rock where we sat and enjoyed the day.
A seagull visits
While we were sitting there this seagull flew in and surprised us by landing. Obviously it was hoping for a handout and soon flew off. This is looking up the river from the rock, over Ray’s head.
Who the heck can Ray be talking to
Eventually we headed on down the hill taking another trail, when I saw Ray start to talk to someone down the trail which is real odd as almost no one knows about this trail or how to access it and follow it.
It turned out to be his brother John who does know how to follow this trail as I showed him awhile back and yes, we all do not catch poison oak or we wouldn’t be up here.
We all sat around and shot the bull n this spot before heading down the hill to our boats.
John on the left and Ray on the right on the old Indian game trail.
Couldn’t find a better trail
On the way down we looked for a better way near the bottom as that part is real steep and when wet real slippery, so we tried another trail and found it to be just as bad as the other trail, but we made it back to our boats.
We all got back in the water and I followed along behind going along here.
The wind had come up a bit earlier in the day but had died now nicely while we were up on the rock.
I’m passing by otter’s log here and headed down stream with the town of Jenner down as far as you can see.
Cool here
By the way, did I mention it is nice and cool here while it’s nice and hot just a few miles inland from here. Nice. Don’t tell anyone.
We passed by more mallard ducks in the water feeding.
I was going to go through these logs but as I looked I could see more and more mallard ducks resting there, so I went around them and they didn’t fly off. There’s some more on the water in the background too.
From here we slowly made it over to the boat ramp and took our boats out of the water and went on home for the day.
Needed a nap
After that hike, I needed a nap before I was going to go out and work on the van problem, but after a nap I still had trouble getting it going working on the van so I did little things like look for the van’s vin which turned out to be hard to find, but persistence paid off and I found it finally inside the drivers door frame in the front bottom. That took longer than I thought it would and for awhile I thought I wasn’t going to find it as it wasn’t where it was supposed to be.
The fourth cylinder has a problem
I finally got around to crawling under the van and inspecting the engine some more. I still couldn’t see anything wrong under there, so I turned the crank until the fourth cylinder from the front was top dead center and the crank stopped and jammed at this position. I did that because that cylinder had the spark plug that the gap got closed on which indicated that something had to hit it to close it which should not happen.
Broken valve instead of a broken rod
That tells me that there’s likely a piece of broken valve loose in that cylinder that the piston is hitting when it comes to the top. That means I may get by with just a head repair or a new head, but I’m thinking it’s time to replace this engine as long as I’m into it this far as far as taking it apart and needing to fix this engine anyway.
Pricing a new engine
I put in a parts request to the local Chevy dealer to get an idea what a long block will cost as I would just as soon go with a real new engine, sorta like getting anew RV. Things need to be as reliable as possible considering I like to drive around the deserts a lot where there aren’t too many people around.
Fortunate indeed
I considered it very fortunate it broke here instead of after I took off on my next trip as it’s much easier for me to take care of. On a trip I would have to take it to a shop and let them get me back on the road likely staying someplace beside my van while they worked on it. But whatever, it’s all just part of the adventure.
Nice day.
