Sunday December 1, 2013 Jenner CA.
Is it really winter?
As I approached Jenner today, the sun was out, no fog and there was very little wind, mostly on the warm side. I could see the river’s mouth was still closed up as the water level was high, around six feet at the gauge at the visitor center.
Quite a few kayakers down here today, as I pushed though to the launch ramp with my car. I admit, I’m a little aggressive at the launch ramp and all I want to do is get my boat in the water. I don’t have much patience for people that are fiddling with their boats and blocking things up. And since I’m down here most days, I feel I shouldn’t have to wait around all day for the folks that have to do that. I’m also getting older and it’s getting harder to lug the boat from the car to the water, so I like to drive as close to the water as I can get, which I’m sure irritates some people. I just give them a big smile and do my thing. Most people are smart enough to keep their mouths shut, which is good because they would get it from me if they didn’t. :O)
So I put the boat in the water and parked the car and headed across the river to Penny Island and on up the south side of the river to Otter’s Log and up to Eagle’s landing and then over to Paddy’s rock. I sat around for awhile at all of those places, just enjoying the day. Once in awhile someone would paddle by and say hi, as I’m getting to know quite a few people in the Jenner area.
I passed these two seals taking it easy on an old redwood log. These are a couple of the resident ones that don’t get alarmed too easily as one passes them.
Over by Paddy’s rock, I pulled up along the shoreline at the spot below. I noticed a couple of turkey vultures way up there on the right on the dry grass, which I had to check out.
These are the two turkey vultures I checked out. They were eating some small thing in the grass, but I couldn’t see what it was.
From here I worked my way over to Otter’s log where I sat around for about an hour, napping a bit.
After I was all rested up, I headed on down the river, taking the back channel of Penny Island and stopped at the slot near the west end. I backed into this slot and rested some more.
This is the slot where I spent some time today. 
Eventually, I paddled over to the west end of Penny Island to check out the water that is starting to spread over the island as the water level rises. Not high enough yet to paddle back in there yet.
This is my view looking into Penny island that the water is spreading over.
I found another little side channel that I was able to paddle a little ways into shown below.
After checking out that spot, I headed back up the north side of Penny Island. There were lots of mud hens in the water today eating the submerged weeds that grow under the water in the summer time.
This picture shows just a few of the many mud hens that are in the area right now.
Instead of heading in for the day, I headed back over to the little channel at the east end of Penny Island and sat around for a bit.
This is the view as I entered the channel at the east end of Penny Island.
It’s usually calm in the channel as the trees block any wind, although there wasn’t much wind today. The tree reflections are sometimes hard to look at. They can mess up your eyes.
Looking out from the spot I was sitting at, up river.
By this time, I was getting a bit on the hungry side, so I checked the ramp for anybody in the way and there wasn’t so I pulled my boat out and was home around four PM today.
This is the empty launch ramp at the Jenner Visitor center as I pulled out today.
That was it for a nice day kayaking Jenner.
