Liquid Fusion Kayaking

The To-Do list is HUGE at the moment as we get ready for Fort Bragg and Mendocino’s summer visitors. But after spending a rainy Monday in the office, we had to get out and paddle.

Of course an inch or more of rain in Mendocino County often means WHITEWATER!!! So we packed up our whitewater kayaks and headed to the Eel River for what would probably be our last run on the Eel until next winter.

In winter in Mendocino County, the ground is usually very saturated with water. When we get a couple of inches of rain, a lot of it runs-off quickly into our local rivers. However, after having a couple of dry weeks in the spring, the vegetation and ground are thirsty and soak up spring rain showers. This results in less flow in the river than we would anticipate in the winter.

When we got to the put-in, the water level was very low – just runnable. It was fun to see the river at this level. The flow was slow so there was plenty of time to make moves as long as you weren’t trying to dig your paddle into rocks. There wasn’t quite enough water in the eddies to get a good purchase with a paddle to use the eddy to feed onto a surf wave. The guys definitely tried resulting in lots of clunking sounds of paddles on rocks, but they were successful and caught a few good waves.

I sat back and took photos and video of their antics as I enjoyed the greenery of spring and the intermittent showers. It was very exciting to see a wood duck with her brood of 11 ducklings (unfortunately I had technical issues with my camera and missed the shot).

A couple of the rapids were really boney at low water and others were really fun. My favorite was the trailer rapid which at normal flows is fast and furious with a couple of nasty hydraulics to avoid. At low water, the characteristic jumble of split rocks at the bottom was visible but was otherwise a completely different rapid. Where the nasty hydraulics usually churn were giant eddies. Instead of taking the freeway line past these monsters, we could zig-zag and eddy-hop along as we negotiated the elevation drop.

Maybe we will get another good spring rain for some more local whitewater boating, but if not we won’t be kicking ourselves for missing the last run on the Eel of the year.

Our Mountains to the Sea Paddle went too quickly and we weren’t ready to head home yet. A detour on the way back to Fort Bragg to visit some good friends in Round Valley and the Middle Fork of the Eel River beckoned us.

The Middle Fork of the Eel River has been a whitewater kayaking destination of ours since last spring. Our friends had told us about it and I was curious about it after reading The River Stops Here – a fascinating tale of water history and politics.

Located in northeastern Mendocino County, the Middle Fork is the largest tributary of the Eel River. It drains the Yollo Bolly Mountains of Mendocino National Forest. This huge drainage flows mightily after rain storms but also flows a good bit of the spring due to snow melt.

Typically paddlers will do the 32 mile Middle Fork of the Eel River as an overnight trip. The first 24 miles is rated class II. The last 8 miles has rapids that range from class III to V depending upon the flow. With a fast current of 3500 cfs and the option to pull-out at mile 26, we decided to do the run in a day.

The evening before our run, our friend offered to show us the river from the air in his Cessna. What a treat!!!

From the air, he pointed out highlights and landmarks of the river as well as insight into the wildlife that we might see.

Our day paddling the Middle Fork was spectacular. Lots of snow melt water kept us moving along in the flat stretches and made for some boiling eddylines. The rocky gorge was one of our favorite sections with fun wave trains.

The scenery was gorgeous with all the wildflowers and greenery of spring and intriguing with a few unexpected sights like this wrapped canoe.

We got to see lots of wildlife including several bears, a mamma bear and her 2 cubs, a coyote, wild pigs, wild horses, black-tailed deer, kestrels, and hawks. We couldn’t believe how big some of the deer were. Of course, I enjoyed the common mergansers swimming in the class II rapids and was really excited to see a double-crested cormorant swimming and diving in a rapid.

It was a long day on the water. One of the highlights of the paddle was the Class IV rapid that we encountered before taking out. The rapid is called Skinny Chutes and was anything but skinny at this flow. It looked very different from the photos that we saw on CA Creeks.

It was a challenging rapid with moves to make and hazards to avoid. We scouted it and enjoyed running it (read my account of it on my woman on water blog). The trip took us exactly the 6 hours that we had estimated. Just as we were pulling off our paddling clothes and enjoying a TOB, our friend’s mom arrived to pick us up.

Another GREAT day on the Eel River.

Last weekend, we journeyed off the Mendocino Coast with our sea kayaks and greenland paddles and headed to Trinidad, California for the Traditional Arctic Kayak Symposium (TAKS). Beautiful weather, calm wind and ocean conditions, and an eclectic gathering of sea kayakers interested in traditional kayaking made for a fun weekend.

The ocean was very calm and allowed for mellow paddling around and between the rocks of Trinidad Bay.

We fit 9 kayaks in this particular slot. Bob in his beautiful stitch and glue wooden kayak was very happy to have my plastic Avocet as a buffer between his boat and the rocks.

A pair of harlequin ducks added to the color of the weekend.

John Peterson of Shaman Kayaks organized the event. His kayaks are truely works of art. It was fun to see several of them on the water this weekend.

Greenland skill demonstrations included rolling and bracing. Jeff and I thought that the resting brace position looked great for an on water nap.

Wolfgang Brinck paddles over in an Aleutian Kayak sporting an Aleutian hat. Wolfgang is the author of The Aleutian Kayak and teaches skin on frame kayak building in the San Franscisco Bay area.

Despite the roll or drown motto of paddlers dedicated to greenland paddling techniques, Dan and Andrew demonstrate a rescue and recovery of a swamped boat.

Our friend John Henry observes the lunch break from the deck of Jeff’s kayak before going back into his drybag.

We paddled around Trinidad Head – home of the Smack Wall. We paused for a couple of rides on the refractive waves that come off of the Smack Wall. Here’s a link to Ralph Johnson’s video of Tony’s wild ride on the Smack Wall.

Cheri Perry and Turner of Kayak Ways and Jeff of Liquid Fusion Kayaking held a surf zone training and practice session at college beach. Here is Marcella of the local kayak club Explore North Coast catching a wave.

Admiring the handmade kayaks and listening to presentations on the history of kayaking and kayak designs provided much food for thought over the weekend. Here is a photo of Andrew paddling a baidarka into the surf zone. Much debate ensued over the weekend of the unique bow design of the Aleutian kayaks. Any ideas?

I left my skin on frame kayak at home. It would have been fun to have in the surf zone and rock garden and definitely would have been an object of curiosity and critique as it is not a long pointy greenland kayak.

Fly Agaric Mushrooms on the Mendocino Coast

Guess we should change our voicemail and sign outside of our shop from we are on the water to we are in the forest. Fall and winter is one of our favorite times of the year for hiking and mountain biking in the forests of Mendocino County. We have lots of great singletrack trails for mountain biking and lots of colorful and choice edible mushrooms in the forest.

Ride thru Tree

We are still paddling and enjoying the colorful migratory ducks that are visiting us for the winter on the Noyo. On Saturday in addition to the mallards, harlequin duck, green-winged teals, and 40+ buffleheads; we enjoyed watching a colorful wood duck drake.

Bufflehead drakes on the Noyo River

Our mushroom paddles were a lot of fun. We started the paddles with a short lesson on the basics of mushroom identification followed by looking at and identifying the wild mushrooms growing along the Noyo. Finding a King Bolete growing along the river was very exciting. (especially for a boletivore like me – no I didn’t pick it).

Finding a King Bolete on a Noyo River Mushroom Paddle

We just finished our first session of Intro to Kayaking at Fort Bragg’s new aquatic and recreation facility – the CV Starr Community Center. It is beautiful!!! We are enjoying drop in kayak night on Mondays for eskimo roll practice and kayak fun and games until January 11 when our new Intro to Kayaking Class begins.

Eskimo Rolling in the pool of CV Starr Aquatic Center in Fort Bragg, CA

Hmmm . . . wood ducks on the Noyo? I bet we write more on this subject in the future. Stay tuned.