Monday December 30, 2013 Jenner CA.
And trying to get an appointment with my doctor
When I got up this morning my back was still causing me much trouble. I had sent an email to my doctor at the VA last night, but no reply this morning, so I put in a call to VA. Naturally, the phones were very busy so I put my name in and waited for a call back. I got a call back from a staff nurse after two hours, who listened to my details and said I should go to emergency, but I declined as I wanted to work with my doctor with this. She said she’d put all I told her in the details to my doctor. At that point, I about had it, so decided to go to Jenner to kayak and just deal with the pain and hope for the best as far as the doctor thing.
So, I got off my cold pack and headed for Jenner. The water level was high which indicated the river’s mouth is still closed. I didn’t look, but Ray, who I caught up with later, said the level was just under seven feet at the visitor center, so they will likely take it out in the next couple days, likely after the new year.
As I put my boat in the water, I noticed Ray’s truck was in the parking lot. I headed across the river to Penny island and into the little channel on the east end. I didn’t see Ray, but I saw Ken in his motor boat up the river, so I went up and talked with him for a bit.
Eventually Ray came up the back channel of Penny Island so Ken left in his motor boat and I joined Ray.
We paddled up just beyond Eagle’s landing taking our time enjoying the nice day and then turned around and went on back to Penny Island.
Ray went on in for the day and I went on down towards the river’s mouth to check out what was happening.
As I passed the west end of Penny Island, I noticed the water was high enough to paddle into the west end of the island, which I decided to do when I came back from the mouth area.
I noticed John who lives down there over by his house so I talked with him for a bit.
This is the view of the river mouth area from John’s house as I was talking with him.
From there, I paddled over to where the river’s mouth was supposed to be and sure enough it was closed up tight with sand.
There were some seals in the water swimming around me.
Some seals in the water and some seals on the sandy beach.
There was also one big ol sea lion swimming around the seals and me barking very load, so load it was annoying.
The annoying sea lion swimming around me.
A sea lion is a big animal so I kept an eye on this one, I wasn’t too sure about it. A sea lion could do a guy in a kayak a lot of damage if it got too close and this one seemed to be getting closer than I liked.
That sea lion made so much noise barking, I didn’t stay long and left to go back to Penny island.
This is my view as I left the river mouth area and headed back over to Penny Island.
And this is my view up the river as I headed over to Penny Island.
I paddled into the west end of Penny Island and this is the view from there.
From the middle of the island, looking over to the town of Jenner, this is what it looked like. I couldn’t get too far into the island as the water wasn’t that high yet.
I hung out there for a bit, then headed on in for the day.
This is the view as I headed in to pull my boat out for the day.
Nice first day back on the water at Jenner.
When I got home, I checked my email for something from my doctor, but nothing, maybe tomorrow?