The Water Was Up and Dirty When I Put My Boat In At Monte Rio

Friday November 30, 2018 Monte Rio CA.

Looking for fishermen at Monte Rio

I thought I’d go down to Monte Rio kayaking today and see if there were any steelhead fishermen fishing in their boats in the slot.

But when I got to the Monte Rio parking lot I didn’t see any boat trailers and I soon found out why.

River’s up and dirty

When I went to the boat ramp I could see the river was up five or six feet and a bit on the dirty side. I didn’t expect the river to be that high.

I put my boat in the water and headed down river. It was looking like a nice day. The weather guys said it was going to be a little windy at Jenner today so it was another reason to kayak in Monte Rio.

I drifted on by this old great blue heron resting in the sun.

Not much wind

This was almost to the Villa Grande pool down as far as you can see.

When I got to the Villa Grande Pool I was thinking it would be a nice day to drift down to Jenner but I’d need someone to pick me up so that was out.

Here’s looking down past the Villa Grande Pool which was as far as I paddled today before turning around and going back up the river.

Maybe the mouth is closed

The water was fairly high but with very little current so I was thinking the river’s mouth might be closed, but as I started paddling back up the river I noticed the current was more. Maybe the mouth just opened up and it was draining the water out.

This was my view as I started back up the river just leaving the Villa Grande area.

I spied a number of these little grebe fishing in the weeds on the river’s edge.

What’s that dog chasing

In one place I heard and saw a dog chase something down the steps to a boat dock along the way. It chased something up into the trees.I saw a striped tail like a coon’s, but the animal was light tanned like a bobcat so I paddled into the trees to see what it was. It turned out to be a big house cat.

The view of the Monte Rio bridge as I made  it back up to Monte Rio.

Headed down to Jenner

I was thinking I should drive down to Jenner’s overlook and maybe put my boat in the water down there if it was as nice as Monte Rio so I drove on down to the overlook to have a look.

Mouth just opened

It looked like the river’s mouth had opened not long ago as it hadn’t washed it wide yet.

I could see a bunch of harbor seals resting on the sand.

A little closer look at the harbor seals. You can see the harbor seal tracks leading from the ocean across the sand.

I gave it one last look.

Too windy to boat

I drove over to the boat ramp and had a look and the wind was blowing so I made the right decision to kayak Monte Rio today and I didn’t put in at Jenner but went on home instead.

Putting sides on the grow panels

After a nap and a cup of coffee I rounded up my tools and used the hog nose clips to fasten the wire to the sides of the grow panel.

That didn’t take long once I had all the tools I couldn’t find yesterday.

Watching chickens

I let the chickens out in the yard to graze around four and sat around and watched them.

Here’s Carmelo the rooster.

Just before dark the chickens went to their roost and I went in the house and cranked up the wood stove.

That was my day.