At times I lost the channel and paddled in water only a foot deep. My map showed corkscrew channels close to the canal, but the map did not seem to match the territory. From the open lagoon it turned into channels lined with green marsh grass. Birds walked in the shallows around me. I could see a notch in the berm ahead but kept having to turn away from it to stay in the channel. But eventually I made it into the Guerrero Negro Canal. This cuts from down-town out through the berm and into the lagoon. My timing was poor, I had planed to get here late in the day with the rising tide but I was early and the tide was falling. How much water could come down this canal? I feared it would be the sewer for the city but there was a LOT of water rushing out. So much that I had to get out and pull the kayak past one old rusted out cofferdam. Where is this water coming from? It turns out that Guerrero Negro has some large marshlands on the west side of the town that are bird sanctuaries. These fill then drain out through the canal twice a day with the tides.
As I approached the end of the canal I saw two guys puttering about with a jet ski in the water there. They started loading it onto a huge boat trailer. Large enough to haul a panga. I pulled my kayak out of the water farther up at the very end of the canal next to the street. But I kept thinking about that large boat trailer. I had carried a set of kayak wheels packed in my boat this whole trip and had not used them yet. The plan was to roll the boat the last 3 kilometers to the hotel where my truck was stored. When the jet ski guys drove by a few minutes later I flagged them down and begged them to carry my kayak to el hotel. They helped me load the kayak on the trailer and took me to my hotel, it was on their way. In bad Spanish I tried to tell the driver that I had paddled 400 kilometers by kayak and that he had made my day by taking me the last 3 kilometers of that trip.
I checked into my room, arranged to charge the battery on my truck (I had left the dome light on for two weeks) took a shower, walked to a restaurant for a fish dinner and a margarita (or two). The trip was a success! Now I have to do the dangerous part: Driving home on I5.
In fact, I was inches from an accident on I5 two days later. As I approached the Hwy 152 offramp to get from I5 to Hwy 101, I pulled up behind a slow truck. I debated trying to pass it, but decided to relax and wait behind the truck. Just as I started to pull into the off-ramp, the truck suddenly slammed on the breaks and swerved in front of me! I thought the stupid driver had just realized that he wanted to turn off here. But then a mini-van stuck it's nose out IN FRONT OF THE TRUCK! It turns out it was the minivan driver who wanted the exit and suddenly swerved in front of the truck to cause all this chaos. The truck slammed into the minivan, shoved it off the road and into the dirt in the cloverleaf. The minivan bounced sideways ahead of the truck and they both slid to a stop upright. I pulled over on the offramp and waited a minute. The truck driver and the minivan driver both got out, waved OK at each other and walked around their vehicles. When they got together and started talking, I figured they didn't need me, and I drove off.