Ken Mansardt is a long-time member of BASK who's family owns a cabin on Austin Creek a few miles from my house. Ever since I learned this I have been curious to see this cabin. Ken co-teaches a kayak instructor development class with Outdoor Unlimited out of UCSF. The instructors and the people taking the class stay at Ken's cabin and do exercises in kayaks in the nearby Russian River. I have considered taking the class just so I could get to know Ken better and get to see his cabin.
So I was very interested when Ken called me up and asked if I wanted to paddle down Austin Creek with him from his cabin to the Russian River. Austin Creek is a very small creek and it dries up in the summer. But after a rainstorm the creek fills and has enough water to paddle. Ken and his dad were driving up from the bay area to do some cabin maintenance chores. Ken and I got in the water in front of the cabin and arranged to have Ken's dad pick us up two hours later in Jenner.
In a few places Austin Creek barely had enough water for us to scrape our boats over. There is an east and a west fork to the creek and when they combined together the water got deeper and we had less trouble with the shallows. There is a road on both sides of the creek (Austin Creek Road and Cazadero Highway) but the road was difficult to see most of the time. From the road it seems like the creek must be lined with cabins and houses. But from the water we rarely noticed the houses. On both sides of us the steep valley walls rose up covered with trees, mostly young redwoods. The total effect was enchanting, as if we were paddling down a pristine creek in the wilderness.
Eventually we made it down to the Quarry and then the old railroad bridge, both landmarks in my neighborhood. Ken looked at the time and discovered that we had used up most of our two hours, and we hadn't started down the seven miles of the Russian River to get to Jenner! His dad would have a long wait for us down there. So we jumped out of the creek under the railroad bridge and sat on the side of the road. When Ken's dad drove by we waved and yelled and got his attention so he turned around and picked us up without delay.
