Moon Snails, Loons, Seals, Sea Stars, and Fish Heads: Tomales Bay Never Disappoints.

Starved of salt water and kayaks longer than 10 ft, Colorado Jeff flew to San Francisco for a weekend of bingeyaking (my second favorite verb, after sponyaking). The bingeyaking was certainly not spontaneous, as we spent two weeks planning our routes and finding ways to squeeze as many miles into one weekend as possible.

Friday evening logistical madness (read this in fast-forward):

(1) Nena picks up foam blocks at undisclosed location in Oakland.

(2) Nena picks up Jeff from train station.

(3) Nena and Jeff visit Doug to deliver unlucky (I had no idea) lava rock from Hawaii and pick up kayaking gear that Doug generously let Jeff borrow for the weekend. 

(4) Doug gives Nena and Jeff final clue in the pre-kayak-logistics-scavenger-hunt: address of missing sea kayak.

(5) Nena and Jeff drive across Oakland to sketchily retrieve Orange Crush at other undisclosed location.

(6) Nena and Jeff purchase fruits and veggies for the whole weekend. 

(7) Nena and Jeff have a quick dinner at purple-noodle-place (I can't remember the name) and soon return to the Glen House for a brief night's sleep.

(8) Nena wakes up and makes homemade hummus. (Or did that happen at night? it's a blur)

Jeff and I packing up the car in rainy Berkeley on Saturday morning.

Okay that's enough of the 3rd person. We had planned to paddle Estero Americano (i.e. Americano Creek) from Valley Ford Road to its confluence at Bodega Bay. Unfortunately, the weather forecast was looking pprreeettyyy miserable for Saturday, with heavy rains guaranteeing that the mouth of the creek would be open (flowing directly into the ocean instead of ponding behind the beach). The tides and creek current would both be against us on the 6-mile return trip, and we worried we might never return. We reassessed on Saturday morning and ended up a bit further south, on Tomales Bay. 

Nick's Cove. Photo taken from the launch dock. $5 Parking

We arrived at Nick's Cove around 11am on Saturday morning (a leisurely start, to let the rain pass by). While it wasn't raining, the sky was grey and we had the launch site completely to ourselves. Nick's Cove is a remote little tourist destination with a restaurant serving locally-caught fish and cottages right on the water. The whole places is owned by one person, but the boat launch is public.  I've paddled on Tomales a couple times, but always starting from points much further south, so I was excited to check out the north end of the Bay. We paid $5 for parking, launched from the well-kept dock, and headed north. We hugged the east shore and explored the little bays and inlets as we made our way towards the mouth of Tomales Bay. Along the way we found some treasures, like this massive, perfectly-severed fish head. 10 points for the person who can tell me what kind of fish this is!

Monster fish head on the beach. No eyeballs left.

As we rounded Tom's Point, we encountered some beautiful windswept sand dunes. We spent a while between Tom's Point and Sand Point to take pictures of dunes and loons and seals and tule elk (er... cows):

Fuzzy sand dune

Huge sand dunes near Lawson's Landing

A loon! We were surprised to see one in the salt water.

Seals glaring.

Jeff saying "Hi Seals! Happy you're not sharks!"

Nena saying "Hi Cows! Sad you're not Tule Elk!"

We finally peeled ourselves away from the mammals and birds and paddled up to Sand Point, which marks one of the narrowest parts of Tomales Bay. The tide was going out rapidly, and we found ourselves riding the tide towards the mouth of the Bay (and the Pacific Ocean). Ocean waves propagate into the Bay, and with the ebbing tide this made for some tumultuous conditions. The tide was trying to escape and the waves were trying to enter, leaving churning/confused standing waves. We were later informed that this is prime breeding ground for great white sharks. Jeff went and played in the waves while I swiftly crossed the bay and searched for a lunch spot.

Jeff playing in the standing waves at the mouth of Tomales Bay

We realized the tide was ebbing at the same speed we were paddling, so after ~20 minutes of a kayak treadmill workout we decided to pull over for lunch and wait for the current to slow. While snacking on hummus, pita, cucumber, tomatoes, carrots, and fruit, we watched fisherman zip back and forth in little motorboats, emptying traps filled with massive crabs and other critters. Eventually, we returned to the tide treadmill and made it to a wider part of the bay, where the currents slowed. Here we took a few minutes to star gaze:

Red star fish! We also saw sea urchins and anemones.

We stopped briefly to look at these marvelous white cliffs, which offer many caves for exploring during low tide.

Jeff in cave

We stopped at Hog Island (also described in this awesome trip) in the middle of the Bay. One side of the island was carpeted with sea lions, so we gave them some space and instead found some MASSIVE snails, also known as Moon Snails. These snails are predatory, attacking most other shelled mollusks, including fellow moon snails! They envelope their prey and then bore through the shell, sucking out the insides. If I had known this before, I probably would not have put it on Big Purple... This one glommed right onto my boat:

Moon snail!

When we returned to Nick's Cove, we walked to a little shack at the end of the wharf. Smoke curled out of the chimney from a wood stove inside. The shack was humble (I guess most are...), with one large wooden table and some nautical decorations. The phone on the wall is used to order take-out from the restaurant onshore. I'll be back!

Date: April 29, 2014
Time: ~4.5 hours?
Distance: 11 miles