Circumnavigating Angel Island, San Francisco Bay

10am - Pull into the parking lot at Horseshoe Cove. The view from the Cove is pretty great. This morning the Bay was covered in a thin layer of thick fog, up to the base of the GG Bridge. It cleared up as the day went on.

Thanks to its strategic location just inside the Golden Gate, Angel Island has quite a bit of history. It was the U.S. immigration station from 1910 to 1940 where hundreds of thousands of immigrants entered the country. In the 1950's and 60's it was a missile site. In 1954 the park was transferred to the California State Park system for everyone's enjoyment! Today you can camp, hike, bike, and do many other fun things on the island.

This was another BASK (Bay Area Sea Kayakers) paddle, and apparently this was one of the biggest groups they'd ever organized - I guess there were 52 boats at one point! It didn't feel so big because we broke up into pods of ~10 boats each, based on speed. 

My pod was pretty pumped to get to Angel Island speedily, so I really had to focus on sitting up straight and paddling like a true Greenlander to keep up! We paddled out of the cove and around the point and north along the coast, at which point we re-grouped and paddled straight across the 2-mile channel as a group. There was almost no wind, and the sun was shining - pretty spectacular conditions for the Bay. 

Everyone convened for lunch on Quarry Beach, which is on the east side of the island. We shared a potluck lunch with an obscene amount of delicious desserts. 

We continued our counter-clockwise circumnavigation of the island on the return trip. The tides had picked up some speed, and the wind was blowing (more typical for a Bay afternoon). These things made the trip back a bit more adventurous, but still nothing too intense. On the way back I met a couple other young paddlers, and we did some impromptu rolling practice when we got back to the harbor. 

Line of little sailboats being towed by a motor boat.

Date: Sunday, October 28, 2012

Time: 5 hours
Distance: ~11 miles

Drakes Estero, Point Reyes National Seashore

Estero: "small river," "marsh," or "estuary" in Spanish. I looked it up before agreeing to go on the trip. "Drakes" because it's the likely landing spot of Sir Francis Drake in 1579 during his circumnavigation of the world (thank you, wikipedia).

Drakes Bay Oyster Company

We departed from the Drakes Bay Oyster Company around 10am. The Oyster Company manages a pretty extensive network of wooden racks with oyster beds throughout the Estero - when the tide reached a certain water level, we kept scraping the bottoms of our boats on wooden poles just below the surface. There's a lot of controversy surrounding the company -- oyster collection disturbs seal pups, covers eelgrass beds, and leaves some plastic waste floating around the estuary.

On the way out towards the ocean we turned left into Home Bay, where we discovered a number of bat rays, leopard sharks, jellyfish, and harbor seals. It was my first time seeing a shark from my kayak. Apparently they're harmless to humans, which makes this slightly less exciting. They eat clams, shrimp, worms, and other non-human things. They're native to the west coast (from Mexico to Oregon), and can usually be found in pretty shallow water. Here's what they looked like from my viewpoint:

Leopard sharks - so pretty! Source

The lunch destination was "Limantour Spit," which is the narrow strip of beach that almost cuts the estero off from the greater Drakes Bay (a wide bay on the Pacific Ocean, just south of Point Reyes). The Spit was covered in white Pelicans:

Taking a lunch break on the sand bar at the mouth of the estero.

Big group of BASK paddlers at the launch site.

According to this writeup by the USGS, the unique shape of Point Reyes, which extends approximately 15 km out from the coast, often made it too difficult for ships to sail far enough west to get around the point. Ships often ended up shipwrecked and stranded in Drakes Bay.

Before the 120 meters of sea level rise that occurred over the last 18,000 years (woah), Drakes Estero was just a river valley, which is why it has such a unique shape. It's sometimes said that it looks like a hand, with Limantour Estero to the east as the thumb (see map below). Today the freshwater inflows from the minor creeks are very small compared to the tides and currents flushing the Estero twice-daily.

The sand barrier (Limantour Spit) that builds up in front of the Esteros is created because the prevailing sediment transport moves from south to north along the coast. Since most of the waves reaching California come from the Pacific Northwest, the waves bend around Point Reyes and end up reaching the beach from the south (kind of counter-intuitive), eroding the sandy cliffs from the south end of Drakes bay. The waves push the eroded sand up along Drakes Bay, where it ends up on the beach.

Phew, ok enough nerding out... 

Date: Sunday, October 7, 2012

Time: 4 hours
Distance: ~9 miles

Fighting the Tide at Elkhorn Slough, Monterey Bay

[blog post interrupted by random clippings from Marika's trip summary!]

In June. Marika, Julia, Whitney, and I decided to go for a paddle in Elkhorn Slough. This was shortly after I found out my company was applying to work on a restoration project for the slough. In 1947 a harbor was built at the mouth of the slough to provide a safe haven for boats coming in and out of the slough. Unfortunately, constructing a permanent structure like a harbor limits the slough's ability to naturally manage itself by opening, closing, and moving north to south, depending on factors like inflows and sediment supply. Since 1947 the slough has experienced massive erosion - even when we were there we could see big chunks of the marsh falling into the channel. Keeping the mouth of the slough wide open makes it so that the water moves in and out with the tide more quickly than it otherwise would. This makes sand and mud move back and forth more quickly. On the ocean side of the slough is a huge submarine canyon: 

Source: NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries

This canyon is like a big sink - much of the sediment that comes out of Elkhorn Slough falls into the canyon and doesn't come back. I found out recently that my company will be working on the restoration project (that I'll be helping to manage!), which will look at different options to try to fix this problem. Getting rid of the harbor isn't really an option, so the main focus will be on importing sediment from other sources (to be determined) and placing it upstream in the slough to try and counteract erosion. The project is just starting, so more info on that later! 

Guy-with-cool-moustache telling us the rules. He later showed us pictures of a baby otter that had jumped into his kayak... There were some very cute kayakers working at this shop... "Also, the cute kayak shop guy lent us his watch because we forgot ours. He was cute I remember that part." - Marika

Pickleweed! One of the main marsh plants native to California. It turns bright red in the fall, so it almost makes it feel like there are seasons here. I tried chewing on it... it tastes like grass, which was a huge relief considering my disagreements with pickles.

Some sea lions chilling out in the marsh. In the background are the cooling towers from the Moss Landing Power Plant, a natural gas-driven electricity generation plant. The plant takes cool water from the slough or ocean and uses it to cool the gas turbines. The warm water gets dumped back in the ocean.

Cormorants and sea lions hanging out on the mud flat.

Happy Julia! Here you can see how quickly the marsh edge is eroding. 

Seagull hanging out above the pickleweed. Everyone in CA hates seagulls because they're invasive, but they're still fun to take pictures of because they're not very scared of people... :)

The slough is full of jelly fish. We tried to pick them up with our paddles and toss them at each, but gravity is not their friend, so they ended up being 2D instead of 3D. It was a little gross, so we stopped. "We passed by a cow farm with manure sliding down a hill into the water...nasty smell." - Marika

While the slough is known for it's excellent sea kayaking, it's also known for intense winds and fast moving tides, that can combine in the afternoons to make for tricky returns to the harbor. The wind was pretty strong on this day, so it took us at least two times longer on the way back to the kayak shop.

Date: Saturday, June 30, 2012

Time: 2 hours
Distance: ~5 miles

Playing in the Surf Zone at Pillar Point, Half Moon Bay

Feeling somewhat intimidated by the Pacific Ocean, I signed up for a Surf Zone class by California Canoe and Kayak. It's a paddling shop with a number of locations in the Bay Area, including Oakland (about 5 mins from my house) and Half Moon Bay. 

I was one of three students in the class. According to the instructor, the surf was perfect for learning. The class was focused on handling your kayak in the surf zone: launching and landing safely, punching through breaking waves to get out past the surf zone, and side surfing to avoid getting flipped when the waves turn you sideways. I'd practiced most of these things on Lake Ontario and at Sea Kayak Georgia, but the waves on the west coast are different: the waves were more frequent and the beaches are steeper, making the waves break differently. AND I was severely out of practice, so it was a very useful class! 

We paddled out past the breakwater and around to the east where we practiced playing in the surf zone. I swallowed an enormous amount of salt water the first few times I rolled, which made for quite a nauseating afternoon. Once we were completely exhausted from paddling out through and into the surf, we paddled along the breakwater to some bigger waves breaking on the offshore reefs off Pillar Point. Just north of here is where Mavericks breaks. The huge waves only break here for certain long period swell, so of course we weren't attempting to paddle in 25 foot waves that often break here. It was still cool to be so close though... 

I didn't get any great pictures since I was trying to pay attention, but here's one of Pillar Point,  facing NW. You can sort of see the waves breaking in the distance. 

After class we relaxed at the kayaker-friendly yacht club and had a beer while de-briefing the day... Perfect weekend day! 

Date: Sunday, June 24, 2012
Time: 3 hour
Distance: negligible

Canoeing the Sudbury River

My little brother's high school graduation in June brought me back to Boston for a long weekend. As usual, my visit home provided my mother and stepfather the opportunity to ask boat-related questions and favors. Last time it was "can you help us buy canoe paddles?" This time it was "can you fix the canoe seats? My brothers and I spent an afternoon measuring and drilling holes in the new canoe seats, bringing the old green canoe back into service.

Moeke (= "mom" in Flemish) and I took the boat on it's maiden voyage, version 2,  down the Sudbury River near our house in Lincoln, MA. Here's a map:

To be honest, it's been so long since we did this short paddle that I can't remember much more. Oops. But here's my mother in her funny hat :)

Santa Barbara Harbor

A couple weeks ago my job brought me to Santa Barbara (~ 6 hours south of San Fran) to survey parts of Mission Creek and a beach lagoon. Naturally, I saw this as the perfect opportunity to have my gas mileage reimbursed and bring my kayak along, so I volunteered to drive. Wednesday was the first time I was able to get on the water since we worked a couple 13 hour days on Monday and Tuesday.

Not sure when I'll stop being amused by palm trees. They're just so tall and gangly looking!

Following advice from a local paddler, I started out at Ledbetter Beach, just upcoast of the Santa Barbara Harbor. I unloaded Big Purple and lugged it across the wide sandy beach to the high water line where I promptly seated myself and spent the next 20 minutes watching the intimidating waves crash uniformly on the beach. Not sure how to proceed, I made some wimpy phone calls to Dave/Morgan/Mike who told me to stop being a chicken and get in. 

Menacing waves at the breakwater.

While I didn't completely chicken-out, I ended up returning to the car and driving down-coast to the sheltered harbor, where I could avoid a solo surf launch. I scanned the boat names as I paddled down the aisles and realized that there are far fewer "joke" boat names here than in Upstate NY. Odd...

Sunset over Santa Barbara.

I paddled out into the ocean from the harbor and enjoyed bobbing up and down on the big swells, while avoiding the breakers. I landed on the little offshore sandbar (see map below) and watched the sun set over Santa Barbara for a while. It's such a cute little city. Apparently there are laws in place to ensure that it continues to feel like a little Spanish settlement with its red tiled roofs and missionary churches

(not) greeted by a seal on my way back to the dock

"A" Marks the launch spot in the harbor. The pier in the top left is Stearns Wharf.

I was a little bummed to have such a limited paddle in this beautiful SoCal city, but I'm sure I'll be back soon!

Date: Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Time: 1 hour
Distance: negligible

Solar eclipse, salt marsh, and a few sea lions.

May 20th 2012 was the date of the first solar eclipse since May 10th 1994, and what better way to enjoy it than to sun-gaze from a kayak on SF Bay? Doug (oceanographer and kayaker) and I left Oakland after picking up his boat at the Kayak Hotel, which is a glorified garage for communal boat storage by the Oakland Estuary. After a quick stop at a roadside fruit stand (yum! cherries!) we met up with Eddie (coastal engineer and kayaker) on the other side of the bay. The launch site was along Chesapeake Drive in Redwood City, close to the Stanford Boathouse. We parked in the shade of some trees (free parking! and launching!) and discovered that we were joined by some unusual birds making very loud squawking/groaning noises above. The sound was so ridiculous that I found myself giggling every time they started up. I would try to spell it if I could...

We set out with no ambitions other than to outlast the eclipse and test Doug's eclipse-viewing contraption. It was a breezy day so we stayed in the narrow channels that meander through the salt marsh. Power lines cross the south bay marshes in a number of places:

Eddie and the power lines.

We explored some side channels as we continued along the main channel, moving deeper into the marsh. A group of sea lions was sunning on the channel banks. When the eclipse finally started, Doug was  excited to discover that his contraption actually worked. We watched the little dark circle move across the sunspot passing through one page onto the other:

Doug using his snazzy eclipse viewer.

I like to take a more direct approach...  (proving that my camera would not explode). This clearly did not succeed at capturing the eclipse...

As we moved deeper into the marsh, the channel began to shallow and we played around in the mud now easily accessible. I gave Big Purple a nice facial (deck-cial?). Eddie's boat also got a secret facial (Shhhhh).

Amused by the amazingly smooth bay mud. Photo by Doug.

We pulled over to the edge of the channel to snack on fresh cherries and salty peanuts and periodically check out the eclipse. 20 minutes later we looked down to realize that we were now high and dry on the muddy bank. The tide had subsided significantly and the marsh was quickly emptying around us. We dragged our boats back into the shallow channel and quickly pushed our way out to the deeper areas. Not sure exactly how far we still had to venture to loop back to the dock, we decided to turn around and head back the way we came. As you can see in the map below, this was probably the right decision.

Upon arriving at the docks Eddie discovered the lovely mud facial on the back of his boat (now dried and solidly caked). After letting him wonder how he'd managed to make this mess I confessed and spend 5 minutes scrubbing it off. Cleaning off Bay Mud is like rinsing soap off with soft water.

Back at the parking lot we were greeted by the groaning birds, as well as my car, which they had turned into a Dalmatian in the 3 hours we were gone. No wonder these convenient parking spots were available! Time for a car wash.

Date: Sunday, May 20, 2012
Time: 2 hours
Distance: ~ 8 miles

Now that I'll be doing a lot of paddling in San Francisco Bay (and other large bodies of water), I think I'll start including a regional map in addition to the route map:

"A" marks the spot!

P.S. I'm pretty stoked about the new way blogger lets you view pictures in high-res when you click on them!

Introduction to BASK

B.A.S.K. is the Bay Area Sea Kayaking group, which apparently has over 400 members. I joined them shortly after Big Purple arrived to check out the group and meet some nearby paddlers. They conveniently had a new member paddle scheduled two days after my boat arrived on the Oakland estuary, which is only a 5 minute drive from my apartment.

We met up at the public launch site near Jack London Square. For the most part, Jack London Square tends to be completely dead, but on Sundays the farmer's market makes it a popular destination. It always makes me nervous to drive around the Square because a railroad runs along the center of the road. Apparently the maximum train speed is 15 mph, but when a train is coming all the side streets are blocked off, so you could theoretically get trapped on the road/railroad. Not cool.

Public launch at Jack London Square. Photo by Chris Amy.

The public launch also hosts the rental fleet owned by California Canoe and Kayak, which is a local paddling shop. I paddled here once in the fall, and they were able to rent me a plastic avocet (the same type as Big Purple), which was pretty exciting.

I arrived 5 minutes before the meeting time, which is apparently late for BASK-ers because everyone was already there! This was somewhat odd since I usually find myself having to drag people out of bed to go paddling with me. We launched promptly and paddled east, into the "estuary". It's certainly not the most scenic paddle, but we saw some interesting sites along the way. The route took us under 4 bridges, many of which opened to let boat traffic through:

Drawbridge #1

Drawbridge #2

Big barge from Portland. Photo by Chris Amy.

We stopped half way for lunch at the Tidewater Aquatic Center. The shear volume of snacks the BASK-ers brought to pass was quite astounding, and I will certainly bring more to contribute next time! Yum...

Chris took a bunch of other lovely photos, which can be found here.

Date: Sunday, May 6, 2012
Time: 3 hours ?
Distance: 7.8 miles

Refresher paddle on San Pablo Reservoir

Brief vent (Scroll down for a happier discussion):

California Parks like rules, fees, and regulations.

I sometimes think that moving here has made me more conservative (in the fiscal sense). I don't remember paying for park entry, parking, or launching during the summer I paddled on the 11 Finger Lakes. If we encountered someone who told us to pay, we could drive down the next dirt road and find a free spot to put-in. Also, night paddles are not illegal in NY. What I really wanted to do on Saturday was to have a peaceful sunset paddle on the reservoir, but I had to be off the water by 6:30pm (1.5 hours before sunset). 

I do understand why they have these (incredibly complicated) rules and fees. Virtually every freshwater lake within an hour drive is a source of drinking water for the Bay Area. It's important to protect these from any sort of contamination, so adding fees and inspections and prohibiting bodily contact keeps the number of visitors down and ensures that the water stays potable. 

There are just too many people here. 

The tab:

Parking pass: $6.50

Launch fee: $3.50

Boat inspection fee: $6 (I guess if they'd done this in NY we wouldn't have so many zebra mussels... I was able to talk my way out of this by insisting that my boat had not seen water in 8 months)

Total = $16 for a 2 hour paddle (and you can't even practice rolling!)

Happier discussion:

I like to keep my feet dry, so avoiding bodily contact was not really an issue. I spent two hours paddling out to the north end of the reservoir (where the dam is) and back. There were quite a few motor boats and fishermen/kids out enjoying the sunshine. 

The top of the earthen dam at the north end of San Pablo Reservoir

Easy Bay Municipal Utility District owns many of the reservoirs supplying water to the Bay Area. Reservoirs are often connected in series. San Pablo Creek was dammed with an earthen dam to create the reservoir, but it isn't the main contributor of water. The Briones Reservoir and the Pardee Reservoir (in the Sierras) both drain into the San Pablo Reservoir.

I guess they have Blue Herons on the west coast too :)

Fun wikipedia fact: In 2004 the Utility District reported that the dam was at risk of settling 35 feet if a serious earthquake were to hit, so they lowered the water levels and did some retrofitting projects (adding some concrete to the earth) which were completed in 2010. 

Too bad it wasn't lunch time!

From what I could tell (flooded picnic tables) the water levels seem to be back up, if not higher! Maybe this is a precaution since the snowpack is virtually non-existant this year.

Date: Saturday, May 5, 2012
Time: 2 hours 
Distance: ~ 6 miles

West Coast, meet Big Purple.

After 8 months of dry, solitary confinement in the garage in Penfield, NY, Big Purple finally joined me in California on Friday evening. She (is it a "she"? I'm not sure) was on the road for 5 weeks (jealous!).

I arrived at the beautiful Stanford Boathouse in Redwood City just before 8pm. The site was completely deserted and sun was setting over San Francisco Bay. I hopped out of my car and went through the familiar motions of clamping the saddles onto the roof-rack and threading the weathered blue straps through the cross-bars. It took me a bit longer to remember how to tie a bowline knot. Even after tying 16 bowline knots on each of 20 tarps at COE I still can't seem to remember it!

I spent the next 15 minutes sitting on the dock attempting to open my kayak lock by going through every possible permutation of 11-21-09 (or was it 23? 27?). The combo was programmed into my previous cell phone, which is now lying in the dirt somewhere in the hills behind Santa Cruz. No success... I guess I'll just have two locks attached to the cable! Maybe that will help intimidate kayak-robbers.

Around 8:15 I turned to see a truck pulling a huge trailer of boats along the winding wooded driveway. Albert, the driver, stepped out of the cab and helped me unload my boat. Her 16.5-foot length looked small amongst the rowing shells and outrigger canoes.

Albert helped me load Big Purple onto my car and left me to cinch down the straps while he delivered an antique rowing shell to another excited recipient.

It's possible that I grinned for the entire 40 minute drive home. There is something so comforting about driving down the highway with the nose of your kayak sticking out in front of you, the bowlines fluttering in the wind.

Pinnacles National Monument (a belated first post in California!)

Here we are again, with 8 months since my last post. To be honest, I have at least 5 posts started in my draft box with the best of intentions. I think it stems from my desire to document the details of everything. It's just too overwhelming once you've missed a couple months. Where do you start!? For now I'm letting myself skip the last 8 months. Maybe later I'll be motivated and fill in the (more-exciting-than-my-current-life) gaps, including some more Iceland posts, a few paddling posts, 6 weeks of unforgettable/hilarious/adventurous cross-country road trip posts, and 5 months of exploring my new state of residence (California!). Oh! How could I forget? My new job, which involves a lot of analyzing and a little bit of exploring beaches and rivers!

I'll start small, I guess. Pinnacles National Monument is pretty small (maybe that's why it's called a monument?). It's a national park about an hour southwest of Monterey Bay, in the town of Paicines (which, from what I can tell, consists of an intersection between two small county highways). The drive to the park was lovely! This is assessment likely has more to do with the fact that I was taking my new (used) car on a trip for the first time, the sun was out (68 degrees!), and it was a Sunday morning so the Bay Area traffic was somewhat tame.

Since all the Californians were in Tahoe pretending to ski in puddle of slush, the park was very peaceful. I only encountered a few hikers on my 8 mile loop.

The first part of the trail took me to the Bear Gulch Caves and Reservoir (Californian for murky puddle). The entrance to the cave had a daunting sign that read, "Caution: Flashlights Required." Since this was my first longish solo hike experience, I started having flashbacks of 127 Hours. I took a 3 minute water/digging-for-headlamp break before entering the CAVE. 2 minutes later I was back in bright daylight and feeling rather sheepish. The next few caves were similarly brief, but still fun to squeeze through. Apparently the caves are often closed due to wet conditions and for bat habitat, so I got lucky!

Bear Gulch Caves

At the end of the caves I arrived at a cute little reservoir. I didn't spend too much time there since it's apparently the place for romantic couples to hang out at 11am on a Sunday - awkward. Onwards!

Bear Gulch Reservoir

The next bit was pretty steep and dry. Here I'd like to pause and say that what I really miss about the east coast is the lush-ness of the woods. Even when you're in a forest in the middle of winter in California, it feels like the moisture is being sucked out of you.

This steep trail took me up to the "High Peaks," which are the spikes most commonly documented in photos taken at Pinnacles. These neat geologic formations are thought to be part of the Neenach Volcano, which was split by the San Andreas Fault. The Pacific tectonic plate moved up and took the Pinnacles with it. Since this particular type of rock is very erodible, it led to the visually appealing smooth rock outcroppings that remain today. (Here ends my attempt at knowing anything about geology)

The trail through this section is very narrow and steep (up long staircases cut into the boulders) - it was a lot of fun! Since there aren't really any trees you have a great view from pretty much any angle. I paused here for a delicious lunch featuring the amazing avocado (which is affordable year round!):

The High Peaks (left) in Pinnacles National Monument

On the way down I accidentally missed my turn for the Condor Gulch Trail and ended up adding a few extra miles, but I ended up seeing 3 condors circling above my head for the rest of my hike. Pinnacles is part of the California Condor Recovery Program. On my hike I saw one of the resident ornithologists monitoring the condor populations.

Here are a few more pictures from the hike down:

Manzanita trees have really stark red bark. They're evergreen and drought resistant! And very pretty...

A little bird with a blue back... not sure exactly what kind!

I'd really like to get back there and hike up to the Pinnacles in the evening or early morning, when the sun is at an angle that makes for interesting lighting - I think it would be a spectacular sight! Oh, one more thing I should mention. This park is an excellent place for outdoor rock climbing, so I need to make a point of meeting climbing gear-heads in the Bay Area to take me climbing... if you have any connections let me know! :)