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.