Liquid Fusion Kayaking

Sea kayak rock gardening on the Mendocino Coast.

We just celebrated our Second Annual Old Rasputin Paddle and declared this to be an annual event for those of us who love North Coast Brewing Company’s Old Rasputin and sea kayaking out of Fort Bragg, California – the home of North Coast Brewing Company and Liquid Fusion Kayaking.

In 2008, we celebrated the conclusion of our paddle with Old Rasputin XI which is North Coast’s barrel aged version of Old Rasputin celebrating its 11th anniversary and only sold at the brewery in Fort Bragg. This year, we

Jeff Laxier of Liquid Fusion Kayaking

followed suite with the even smoother and more delicious Old Rasputin XII. YUM!!!

December 2010 – Fort Bragg, CA – Old Rasputin Paddle III – Never Say Die!!!

Old Rasputin Paddle 2009

Here’s our latest video creation Outdoor Adventures in Fort Bragg, California featuring some of our land and sea adventures in our home of Fort Bragg on the Mendocino Coast of California. Of course, we feature kayaking but also some of our other favorite activities on the coast and in the forest including abalone diving, mountain biking, and more.

A special thanks to Brent Reitz – master instructor of the Forward Stroke – for allowing us to use Single Care as our main song. If you have taken one of Brent’s Forward Stroke Clinics, you probably have immensely improved your forward stroke and probably heard him rock-out on the harmonica. Here’s a link to his group – Bad Habits.

We hope that you enjoy the video – we sure had fun making it.

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.

Hi, my name is Cate and I am a boletivore.
David Arora in his book Mushrooms Demystified defines boletivores as —- predators of boleteus edulis – King Bolete. The King Bolete (boleteus edulis) is considered to be one of the best edible species of wild mushroom. I love the size and shape of it. It is exciting to spy one growing out of the forest floor. Just one is enough for dinner unlike other mushrooms that require a bit more gathering.

After the first fall rains, I disappear into the forest of the Mendocino Coast in search of these delicious fungi which I enjoy dry-sauteeing, grilling, drying, and sharing with friends.

Even when paddling, I am scouting the banks of our rivers for wild mushrooms. The boletes are one of my favorites; however, I admire all forms of fungi and enjoy trying to identify them. Some are easy like this amanita muscaria (aka Alice in Wonderland Mushroom) and others are more challenging.

Boletivore, mushroom-head, crazy, . . . whatever . . .

Dolphin Isle on the Noyo River of Fort Bragg, California has become home to a male harlequin duck. We enjoy seeing him daily and admire his handsomeness but can’t help to think that he is a bit odd.Over the past 3 years, this harlequin has delighted and baffled us. Typically harlequin ducks like turbulent waters not flat water estuaries like the Noyo River. Harlequins typically are solitary birds or hang with just a few of their species. This harlequin is quite gregarious with other ducks. He flocks with the buffleheads in the winter and the mallards the rest of the year.

He doesn’t appear to have a mate. In previous years, we had hoped that he would convince a female to return to the Noyo with him. However, last year he only migrated for a short period of time, and this year he did not migrate. Here’s a photo of him this summer on the Noyo in eclipse plumage.

Odd or not, we enjoy his colorful presence on the Noyo River.

Felis catus noyo – subspecies of domestic cats specific to the Noyo Harbor of Fort Bragg, California. These cats generally have black and white or gray and white “tuxedo” markings and reside along Fort Bragg’s Noyo River. It is common to see them in the Noyo Harbor around the fisheries, but some appear to have migrated into the town of Fort Bragg and up the river. Several are regularly sighted in the vicinity of the river otters’ dens and shoreline tunnels. It is theorized that they have a symbiotic relationship with the river otters of the Noyo River.

Today, my friend Amy and I were kayaking up the Noyo River and discovered a Noyo Harbor Cat stranded on a log in the river. She was damp and shivering uncomfortably on the log. We figured that she must have lost her balance and fell down the steep bank.

The tide was rising and her log was soon to be submersed so we decided to attempt a rescue. We paddled next to her log and with the guidance of my paddle (I didn’t want to risk her putting holes in my drytop) coaxed her onto the deck of our kayak.

She cooperatively sat there while we paddled her to shore landing her on the bank (hopefully on the side with her home).

God speed kitty and be careful around steep river banks.

Fall weather is upon us in all of its beauty. Colorful evening skies, spectacular reflections on the water, falling leaves, warm sunny days, and the beginnings of winter migration are delighting us as well as our kayaking guests.

Jeff and I have been enjoying the leaves falling and lazily drifting in the Noyo River. Windy days have been gusting and blowing much of the Mendocino Coast, but we’ve been lazily enjoying warm, sunny afternoons on the Noyo River.

While we have been enjoying our meandering paddles of the Noyo River, we have been actively planning for 2010 and beyond. We will soon be unveiling our new tours, classes, and rental program . . . and other creations and events of funness.

Here we are in the home office of Liquid Fusion Kayaking.

As we are still planning, please let us know if you have any suggestions or requests.

Liquid Fusion Kayaking has gone to the dogs.

Bear and Aften the kayaking dogs of LFK have convinced us to host a Dog Paddle for all of their friends and to benefit the Mendocino Coast Dog Park. We will be hosting our first (hopefully to become annual) Noyo River Dog Paddle on October 11 from 1-3pm at Dolphin Isle Marina. We have special canine life jackets for paddling pooches and a special tour planned for them and their owners and friends. The Dolphin Isle Deli will have specials on hot dogs and other tasty treats for people and pups.


Hair Putter the canine ambassador for Mendocino County enjoyed his first kayak lesson with us last week and will be joining us for the Dog Paddle.

At least I rolled up.

This weekend the Bay Area Sea Kayakers were paddling in Mendocino, and I had the fortune to paddle with them and run the fabled “Disney” slot. Jeff has me practicing a protective tuck position on my landings to keep my paddling injury free. Unfortunately I haven’t quite got the balance of it yet and am capsizing on many of my landings. The upside of this is lots of eskimo roll practice.

Thanks for the video Peter and a special thanks to Jeff for all of his coaching and patience.