Monday June 6, 2016 Jenner CA.
Off to kayak Jenner
I was off to kayak Jenner around noon today. On the way, I stopped at the Napa parts place in Monte Rio to see if the belt for the Ford Tractor came in or not. They were remodeling the store when I tried to order it and the computer was down, so the guy said he’d get it as soon as the computers were working again, but with the remodeling mess, he didn’t get it done. I told them to get it ordered and I’d be back in, in a couple days to pick it up and I continued on to Jenner.
Mouth is closed
I could tell right away the river’s mouth was still closed as the level of the river was up, about 7.5 feet at the gauge at the visitor center. 
They usually open the mouth with an excavator when the level hits nine feet.
I put my boat in the water and paddled across to Penny Island and into the little channel on the upper end of the island. With the water level high, it looked like this.
I sat there for a bit taking it easy and just watching things. I could see a harbor seal over on this redwood log, so eventually, I headed on over that way as I was headed up river and that’s the way I go.
A harbor seal and some cormorants checking me out.
Usually this harbor seal rests on logs up river at a place called Seal haven, but with the river level rising, those logs got flooded, so they come down and use this one.
I continued on up the river at my usual leisurely pace and stopped at this spot I call Muskrat nest beach.
After sitting there for a spell, I crossed over the river to the other side and paddled along looking for birds and critters along the water’s edge.
I paddled up on these mallard ducks sleeping in the grasses.
And these geese where taking it easy too.
I pulled into this spot in the grass and sat and watched. There were a bunch of geese out in the water in front of me.
From there I crossed back over to the other side of the river to the log where the seal was and now there were two of them.
Thinking berries
I was thinking some berries would be good to eat, so I pulled into this spot I don’t usually pull into to have a look. I found a few berries, but mostly it was too flooded because of the high water so I couldn’t go very far and soon gave it up with wet feet.
I crossed over to Penny Island as I was going to go ashore there and look for berries.
This great blue heron was on a tree limb there as I pulled into a spot to land.
I went by the old milk barn on the trail to find some berries on Penny Island.
I did find some of the little black berries and ate them.
I crossed over to the over side of the island and looked for more berries and found a few, then headed back to my boat and put it back in the water.
Couldn’t paddle onto the island
I decided to paddle on down the back channel of the island and see if I could paddle onto the end of it yet. If the water was high enough, I could.
So I paddled on over to have a look, but the water wasn’t quite high enough yet to get through the grasses. It looked like this. Later I’ll be able to paddle over the top of the grasses here and into the island a ways.
I figured there wasn’t much going on down at the mouth area, with it being closed, so decided to head on in for the day.
This bunch of geese saw me coming and slowly paddled out of my way as I crossed over to the boat ramp.
I loaded my boat and went on home for the day where a nap was in order after which I puttered around in the yard.
Picking blueberries
Just before dark I uncovered the blue berry patch and Dominique and I picked blueberries until it got too dark. Yum. Dominique is supposed to make me a little pie or something as she is a French Pastry Chef or something like that. :O)
That was pretty much my day for another nice one.
