Today I had an opportunity to enjoy some more of California's scenery south of San Francisco. My colleague Dan from work invited me to meet him down between Santa Cruz and Monterey (that's about a 2 hr drive) for kayaking excursion. Despite the early 7 a.m. wakeup this morning (or maybe because of it), I had a relaxing drive listening to A.M. radio through the normally congested Bay Area suburban / industrial areas between Oakland and San Jose, followed by a scenic and windy drive south on Hwy 17 from San Jose to Santa Cruz. The last part of the drive was along Highway 1, which further south and further north of Santa Cruz becomes a very scenic coastal road, but in that area is more or less hillly and barren. Arriving at the appointed hour (we had agreed on 10 a.m.), I found the rental facility and saw kayakers already taking their morning instructions from the "harbor master" (the guy who was renting out the boats). Figuring I was late, as usual, I hurried inside, only to be told I was the first in the group to show up - at 9.58! This is my kind of crowd.
Anyways, we got going soon enough, and because it was foggy, as usual, you had the feeling it was still early in the morning, even though it was rapidly approaching noon. For an explanation of coastal fog in norther California go
here.
Below are some pictures of us getting going in the morning.
Learning the Basics: Land Kayaking 101
Dan and Collin following by the rest of the hordeAn agreeable sight was looking east into "Elkhorn Slough" (the name of the estuary that runs in about 5 miles from Moss Landing harbor). It looked very peaceful and calm. Reminded me of Wolf Lake in Wisconsin.
I soon started seeing some of the wildlife they told us about at the rental place: in this case, some pelicans perching on logs.
If you click on the picture you will see the sea lions looking very lazy.
A sea otter having a snack. In the morning I could actually hear the guy chewing away on a clam or mussel of some sort.At the end of the day, we were nice and tired. Since I decided to "go the extra mile" and not turn around like some others did after about 1 1/2 hrs on the water, I ended up paddling a longer distance that I thought I would - I guess it was about 7 miles. I admit I had the advantage of a fast boat and no kid that required "pushing" on the boat. I had a sunburn ... on my ankles - the one place I forgot to apply sunscreen.
To sum it up, a tiring but eventful day - and now I'm ready for bed!
