Saturday January 25, 2014 Jenner CA.
Playing with the bulldozer
Now that my sore back isn’t too bad, I needed to go up and start the bulldozer, mostly to charge up the battery. There were also a few dead, downed Tan Oak trees laying across the roads that needed to be cleared off, so I got my stuff together and aired the tires in the little four wheeler and headed on up there. I brought some transmission oil up too, as it was a little low last time I used it.
I got up a little earlier this morning to get this done so I could go kayaking this afternoon.
Here’s the bulldozer and my quad runner, as I’m just starting to put the transmission oil in it.
One of the dead Tan oak trees across the road that I cleared off the road.
Playing with the kayak
I worked on that until noon and shut her down and came back down the hill. A little something to eat and off I went to Jenner to kayak for the rest of the day. Quite a few kayakers around today.
The wind was up a bit, maybe fifteen or twenty miles and hour, but not too bad. The sun was out with just a little haze in the air from moisture.
I paddled on over to Penny Island and into the east end channel out of the wind. I stayed around this area for quite a while deciding which way to go today.
This is the little east end island channel I stayed in for quite awhile.
It seems the wind was picking up a little more as I was sitting there. I decided to go on down to the west end of Penny Island and go onto the flooded island there which I knew would be out of the wind a bit.
I’m headed down the north side of Penny Island in this picture. Note the wind is up just a little, but not too bad.
I passed this Great Blue Heron sunning in a spot mostly out of the wind.
Now that the water is over seven feet, it’s really easy to kayak into Penny Island on the west end.
I stayed behind this big redwood log for a bit as it blocked the wind.
After awhile I moved further into the island and took this picture looking back down to the river’s mouth area.
I went all the way back into the island as far as I could go. These mallard ducks where taking it easy back there. I gave them some space and they didn’t fly away.
Eventually, I headed down towards the river’s mouth. On the way, someone came up behind me. It was Ken, who I know. His boat way out classes mine. He takes that out into the ocean. He’s dressed for it and has the right type of boat for that action and mostly knows what he is doing. Remember, I stay in the river, as I don’t have all that stuff.
We shot the bull all the way down to the end of the river.
Ken left me there and went on back up the river. The ocean is just too rough to go out in, in a kayak.
This is my view at the end of the river, looking back towards where the river’s mouth should be, past that big rock with the people on it.
I started back a bit, when I heard someone holler, Bob, from up on the overlook. Someone recognized me, but they were too far away for me to recognize them. Oh well.
I worked my way back to the visitor center to take my boat out for the day.
The water level gauge reads just under 7.5 feet at the visitor center.
I think they will take the mouth out on Tuesday as they have to post that they are going to take it out a day ahead of time, unless someone comes down Sunday and posts that, which I doubt, then it would be opened on Monday. I never really can be sure what they are going to do as the rules may change as they go?
The gauge shows the river came up a bit more than the days before. The ocean is real rough and it apparently came over the sand a good deal during the high, high tide last night. Likely enough for some more big fish to come into the river to spawn?
My last picture of the day as I approached the take out area.
Keeping my cool at the boat ramp
As I approached the launch ramp there was a guy and a gal there with their car parked at the top of the ramp. I stayed out in the water waiting for them to depart, but they were washing there feet and dressing and not getting their boat on the car, like they owned the place.
I finally got tired of waiting and put my boat on the ramp. I went up and interrupted them shooting the bull with someone and asked them to please move the car to the side so I could get my car to my boat and get on with it. I did my best to stay nice and thanked them as I went over to get my car.
These days with my sore back I’m driving as close to the water as I can and sliding the boat on the car and not lifting it up like I used to do.
My day was productive and fun too.