Sunday February 1, 2015 Jenner CA.
I felt more myself this morning after a good nights sleep, so I headed on down to Jenner to kayak for the day.
River’s water level is up
As I approached Jenner, I could see the river’s water level was up, so I drove on down to the overlook above the river’s mouth to see what was up.
The river’s mouth was closed up with sand. I saw a couple locals I knew down there so had a nice talk with them. They said the mouth closed Friday while I was in San Francisco.
This shows where the river’s mouth was open, but is now closed with sand, looking out into the Pacific ocean.
Headed on up to Muskrat Nest Beach
I then headed to the boat ramp and put my boat in the water and headed on up the river to Muskrat nest beach where I had planned to go ashore for a bit, but when I got there the water was too high to find a place to get out of the boat without getting wet, so that didn’t work out.
Here’s one of the muskrat nests there, a big pile of sticks.
I headed back down the river, down the back channel of Penny Island where I saw this big bird up in a tree on the island. It looks like some kind of hawk.
Part of Penny Island is flooded
With the water level up, the lower end of Penny Island is flooded so I pulled in there to check it out. I went by this big redwood stump with the town of Jenner in the background and in the reflection of the water.
Headed to the river’s mouth area
I paddled into the island and sat for a bit, then headed across the open water to the mouth area.
I passed by this female merganser duck.
And some goldeneye ducks too.
I’m paddling along the shoreline headed to the mouth area in this picture, which is just up ahead.
Checked out the closed mouth
I paddled into the mouth channel to have a look. The sand by where all the birds are flying around is where the open mouth was, which is now closed with sand, at least a couple feet high.
I hang there for awhile. There were some harbor seals resting on the beach, keeping an eye on me. You can get an idea of how high the sand on the beach is closing the mouth.
Then I went over to have a look at the jetty
I found this little ditch someone had dug in the sand. If they’d dug it a little deeper the mouth would likely open, as this can cause the sand to saturate with water and start to flow when the ocean goes to low tide, which still might happen as the river water level rises some more. If someone would shovel it out just a little more, it would save about twenty thousand dollars, as I hear that’s about what it costs to dig out with machinery.
I beached my boat here and got out to have a look at the end of the jetty up close.
This was my view of the Pacific ocean as I got out of my boat looking north.
The jetty is slowly breaking up
I wanted to have a close up look at the jetty to see how much of it had been washed away recently. There was a little girl playing in the water. She was soaking wet and having a good time.The ocean water is about 51 degrees F., so it’s what I call, kids water as they are the only ones that will go into it at this temperature.
This is another shot of the end of the jetty.
Compare that to this photo taken this summer in August, 2014. That big slab of cement is gone. I think it may have been washed down the other day when the mouth closed as the ocean must have been real rough to push up enough sand to close the mouth.
I got back in my boat and headed on back to the boat ramp.
This gage shows the water level of the river at about 8.5 feet. They will have to open the mouth up soon as it will flood the visitor center soon if they don’t.
I checked the door of the visitor center to see if there was a notice to open the mouth tomorrow, but there was nothing posted yet. I’d guess they will likely open it on Tuesday, since it is at this level now and rising fast.
Septic tank problems
I went on home and was taking it easy when the phone rang. It was one of my brothers saying they were getting some sewerage smells in a family rental we have and would I go over and check it out? I got my shovel and headed on over there as it’s across the street.
I was digging to uncover the tank, when the renter came out. I told her to put some dye in the toilet tanks and wait to see if the dye went into the toilet and forgot about that and kept digging until my back had it. The top of the tank looked wet like something was wrong alright
I went on home and called my brother to tell him I had got that far and could he pull the tops off the tank to inspect it as my back was too sore to do it myself. Just as I hung up, the renter called and told me one of the toilets had passed the dye to the bowl.
The likely cause of the septic problem
That meant the toilet was leaking water for who know how long and how much, so I likely didn’t have to dig up the tank, but just needed to repair the leaky toilet, which I will check out tomorrow, so maybe all will be good. Leaky toilets will saturate the leach field and cause this kind of problem.
I came home and cleaned all the mud off my shoes and hit the couch for a much needed nap. :o)
Mostly another nice day.