Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, Monte Rio, CA.
Was going to kayak at Jenner today,……But.
I looked at the weather report for Jenner today, and it said it was going to be a little windy, but, I was going to Jenner anyway.
As I was heading down the road, I saw Ray’s truck heading out too with two yaks in the back. I followed him to Jenner. It was a little windy for Elaine, maybe, so we decided to go back to Monte Rio instead. The wind was a bit chilly at Jenner, so it seemed to be a good idea.
It was windy at Jenner, so we switched to Monte Rio to kayak.
We put in at the Monte Rio boat ramp and headed down stream toward Villa Grande. It was just a little breezy, but not too bad.
Steelhead fishing on the Russian River is on.
Right away, we ran into some steelhead fishermen on the river fishing out of their boats.
Below, you can see these guys fishing. I shot the bull with them for just a minute or so.
We continued on down past them, although Ray and Elaine took the other channel past them. We paddled, slowly down to the Villa Grande Hole and took it easy for awhile there, then moved down the river a little further and the wind was picking up, which was ok, but it was a bit cold.
Lots of these Stellar Blue Jays on the river this time of year.
At certain times of the year, the Stellar Blue Jays seem to congregate along the trees of the river and it’s that time of year. I tried to get a good shot of one of them, showing their top knot, but this one didn’t seem to have one.
A Stellar Blue Jay below.
The wind wasn’t too strong, but it was turning a little on the cool side, so we turned around and headed back up the river at a leisurely pace.
Turtles were sunning along the banks of the river.
The sun was out and there were some turtles taking advantage of it, basking in the sun.
Below, you can see one of them. If you look closely, you can see one of it’s platelets is up on it’s side. This seems to be how turtles shed there shells, the platelets shed individually.
Another turtle was close by, getting some sun, as you can see below.
As we continued on up the river, we ran into another turtle getting some sun as you can see below.
We tried the fast waters below the bridge and made it.
We were back to the boat ramp a little early, so we tried the faster water just above the boat ramp and made it up that, so we continued up the river a ways. Below you can see Ray and Elaine crossing paddles and headed up the river just below the Monte Rio bridge.
A guy came ripping down the river in his motor boat and passed us, just below the Monte Rio bridge.
Below, you can see Ray and Elaine in their yaks, with the motor boat headed down the river on the right.
Up the river until we got tired.
We paddled up the river about a half mile and Ray got tired, :O) so we turned around and drifted down the river to the boat ramp where we took the boats out of the water for the day.
Had a nice yak with Ray and Elaine.
Home to do some more work on the van.
I was home early for the day, it was getting cooler, so I cranked up the heating stove and fixed a couple more things on my van. I took off the leaky radiator overflow tank. It was leaking at a joint alright, maybe I used the wrong cement for it? I will make a new one using the right glue this time.
I also took off my fuel tank vent line that I had fabricated as I wanted to reduce the size of the vent to just a small little hole instead of the big one quarter inch one that was the pipe size I used. I took it off and mixed up some epoxy which I used to stop up the vent pipe, then drilled a small hole in the epoxy, about a sixteenth of an inch. If gas was to come out of the vent pipe now, it would be just a little, not a lot.
I also made a cardboard template for a mud guard for my under the van propane tank, which I will use to make said mud guard when I find a piece of the right stuff to make it out of, something like what a truck mud flap is made of. Something will turn up, maybe floating down the river, just have to keep my eyes open.
Another nice day.