I felt that my double Kevlar canoe has not been getting enough exercise and offered to paddle Valsala around the Russian River. She refused and insisted on doing a fair share of the paddling. We launched from the Willow Creek put-in and paddled upstream around the corner and past the Willow Creek Campground. Before we went very far I turned us around and verified that we could make progress against the wind that was already starting up on the river.
Upstream from the campground is an area that I like to refer to as "osprey Alley". I'm apparently not the only one who likes to observe ospreys here as we passed another kayaker going back down who stopped to talk about them with us. The ospreys have good taste in locations and the nests were in trees that were around a few corners and out of most of the wind. The air was still and we could hear the haunting cries of ospreys echoing across the river from the steep wild south bank. Several of the nests are close to the water and we got to watch the birds fly around and land in these.
After paddling far enough upstream to see the start of the houses on Freezeout Road we turned back. I was concerned about the possibility of the wind being stronger but the two of us were easily able to paddle against it easily and get back to the car.