Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, Jenner, CA.
Another day kayaking Jenner.
I left my house just before noon today. On the way down, driving along the river, I noticed how flat and smooth the water was on the river. So flat, it was all a mirror, or a big reflection, all the way down to Jenner, then it changed to just a bit breezy. But not too bad, and there was a little mist fog in the air too.
Was the mouth of the river closed?
I used the boat ramp to launch and noticed the water was a bit higher than last time, the river’s mouth may be closed from the sand? I’ll have to check that out later.
Paddled up the river.
Crossed over the river to Penny Island and headed up the river about a half mile, taking it easy and stopping along the way. Not a lot happening today as far as birds and critters, but the scenery was still great.
Some cormorants were sitting on Paddy’s rock across the river from me, as you can see below.
Going for a hike on Penny Island.
After a while I started heading down the river, back to Penny Island where I planned to do a little hiking on the island today. I put ashore on the north side and entered the jungle of brush and berry bushes.
Below you can see where I landed on Penny Island with my kayak, looking back to the visitor’s center at Jenner.
Now, Penny Island is real brushy, with some real old trails that are mostly overgrown. Some deer use them and they know where they are better than I do, but I persisted and made it to the center of the island.
Below, you can see what one of the trails looks like, looking toward the center of Penny Island.
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Not many people try to walk around on Penny Island as it’s almost impossible, because of all the brush. Most visit the east end of it where there is an old milking barn, where the homestead used to be, as it’s more open.
Below, is what it looked like when I made it to the center of Penny island, looking east, up river.
Pushing my way through the brush.
I spent a couple hours on Penny Island, pushing my way through the brush and enjoying the challenge of trying to get around there. I could hear the ocean crashing on the sandy shore line, not too far away. I knew the ocean was real rough, just from the sound and that sound was drawing me to go check it out.
Headed to the river’s mouth.
From there, I got back in my boat and headed down toward the river’s mouth.
The river had gone flat.
The breeze had calmed while I was on Penny Island, and the river had gone mostly flat, which is always nice. :O)
Below, is a shot of the river, from just inside the rivers mouth, looking back up the river.
The river’s mouth was open, but it had changed.
The river’s mouth has moved a bit more north again. It does that because of the higher high tides and a real rough ocean that pushes the sand back into the beach, blocking the mouth channel with sand, causing the river to reopen where the sand is the least. This action has also caused the river to rise a bit, because the sand bottom of the river’s channel to the ocean has filled some with sand and created a sorta natural dam under the water that keeps the river at a higher level. When this happens, the sand dam lets more ocean salt water in over it at high tide, than it lets back out at low tide. The salt water is heavier than the rivers fresh water so is deeper than the fresh water, so get’s blocked by the sand dam in the bottom of the river.
Below, is a picture looking out to the Pacific ocean though the river’s mouth. Note the real rough seas out there.
I spent about an hour at the mouth of the river and it was getting late, the sun was on it’s way down as I started my paddle back to the take out at the visitor’s center.
Lot’s of reflections on the river.
Below is a picture looking across the river toward the west, or ocean, which is just on the other side of the sand beach you see, that looks like a hill in the pic.
It was getting late.
It was almost five thirty pm when I approached the take out area at the visitor’s center, which you can see below.
I got the boat out of the water and back on my car top and took one more photo from the top of the boat ramp at the visitor’s center, looking west toward the ocean, see below.
Kayaking later in the day is nice.
Sometimes I like to go kayaking a little later in the day, so I can make it until it’s almost dark down there, just to see things in a different light. Usually, the winds die down and the river goes flat at this time, so it’s a nice time to be on the water.
Had a great day.
