I wanted to take a friend of mine, Valsala, out on a kayak trip. I had hopes of taking her out on the ocean one day but thought that a calm river trip would be wiser to start out with. I had paddled a short distance up the Gualala River once before but had never explored it very far. We would see how far we could get upstream in the middle of summer.
Just downstream from the Highway One bridge, on the Mendocino side, there is a gravel beach with a dirt road leading to it. There is a kayak outfitter who hangs out there and rents kayaks to people. They seemed friendly and waved at us even though we brought our own kayaks.
I put Valsala in my large Necky Narpa without a spray skirt. Even though I find this to be a long slow-to-turn boat she found it to be fun, saying that it glides through the water effortlessly compared to a canoe! I was in my Coaster with a spray skirt. Once you start wearing safety equipment, the habit is hard to break. I managed to resist wearing a helmet and wore a paddling hat instead.
We paddled under the bridge and soon passed the Gualala Regional Park where I had camped once before. The beaches upstream from here were full of families having a sunny day on the river. But as we paddled farther upstream the crowds thinned out an eventually we had a bend in the river to ourselves. To get that far we had to get out and pull the kayaks through two mild “rapids” and eventually gave up getting any farther upstream.
We sat on a log to eat our picnic lunch and then headed back. I found a good use for my spray skirt by practicing my roll when the water was deep enough. My hat, however kept falling off when I did this. By the time we made it back to the car the afternoon wind was blowing up the river but we had no trouble paddling against it.