I have been considering getting another kayak for some time. My brother Paul and I discovered in November that we really needed two of them to go abalone diving together. If I had a second one, I might also be able to talk some of my other friends to go kayaking with me. (Well, those that have wetsuits). I also wanted to get a kayak that had more storage space for camping equipment. I considered getting a "real" sit- inside kayak and learning to do the Eskimo roll, but realized that I'm sold on the sit-on-top kayak. With a sit-on-top, I can land and take off from rougher beaches, climb out and back into my kayak out at sea when I want to, and dive or snorkel from it. So when the local dealer in Santa Rosa (Wind Toys -- windtoys@napanet.net) had a sale, I bought another Ocean Kayak designed by the same guy who did my little one. But this time, I bought their top-of-the-line touring kayak, the Scupper Pro model, with storage hatches in the front and back. (I mean fore and aft -- I must remember those silly nautical terms). It sat on the top of my bus for almost a week before I had a chance to try it in the water. Paul had to work this weekend, so I met him at work in San Rafael and we went to the nearby McInnis Park to launch from the canoe dock in Gallinas Creek. Paul works nearby, and according to the maps I had, we could paddle around the creek to an island that was less than a mile from his office.
The sky was partially overcast, it was cold and a little windy, and we would be paddling in ocean kayaks that have scuppering holes that let an inch of water into the seats. A pair of swimming trunks might have been appropriate in slightly warmer weather, but we put on our wetsuit farmer johns. I insisted on flotation vests, and loaned Paul a hat to keep the sun off his face. With all this and sunglasses on, Paul said he felt like he was going on an expedition into the Australian Outback. We sat down in the kayaks off the side of the dock and started down the north fork of the creek against the rising tide. I expected the tide to rise the entire trip, so we would not be in danger of getting stranded in the mud anywhere.
The last time I went down this creek I was heading out into San Pablo Bay and Rat Rock off shore from China Camp State Park. On that trip I was disappointed that I did not see very many birds in all this marshy park land. This trip back up the south fork was a little better. We saw a few snowy egrets, two great blue herons, and a marsh hawk hovering over a levee looking for mice in the marsh grass. We watched a few western grebes dive into the murky water in front of us, to come back up behind us later. Also a zillion blackbirds and gulls of course, not to mention a few turkey vultures hovering in the distance. One life form I had not expected to see on the water was arachnids. I've seen "oarsman" insects diving in the water, and "water striders" skimming the surface. But this trip we saw a bunch of spiders running on the surface of the water. They were no larger than house spiders, but they moved very fast on the water. I watched with mild alarm as two of them dashed out of the reeds and disappeared under the side of my kayak. I leaned over to see what they were doing, and they were gone already. I suggested to Paul that they were climbing up my back. Later Paul pointed out one that was running across the water faster than we were paddling. I slowed down to watch it approach, and it dashed in front of my bow and off into the reeds. Later I saw one of these spiders hitching a ride on the tip of the stern of Paul's kayak.
The John F. McInnis County Park and the China Camp State Park were featured in a recent issue of Sunset Magazine, and they mentioned some details that are not on my maps. They told me the name of an island in a loop of the south fork of the Gallinas Creek, Santa Margarita Island, which is described as an oak covered island in the middle of the city. Well, it's not much of a city out there near the park: One side of the creek is lined with old poorly maintained beach shacks with docks leading to poorly maintained boats (with a few exceptions). The other side of the creek is lined with large new subdivision homes (some still under construction) that don't have docks or boats or even access to the water on the other side of a chain link fence. As we paddled around the island, we discovered that it is not really much of an island: A bridge that is not mentioned on any map or article connects it to the mainland! It's a cement bridge that looks like it used to be a county road, but is now closed to cars but open to foot traffic for walkers and joggers.
We paddled under the bridge and on up the creek, trying to find how close we could get to the Marin Civic center, which has a little lake at the head of the creek. We found a fork in the creek that is not on the map either and took the right hand channel which was wider and cleaner looking. This took us around the Civic Center parking lot, under the walkway to the Embassy Suites Hotel, and past all the big glass office buildings of Inc. We paddled right past the Marin Veterans Memorial Theater and exhibition hall, past the bronze statues of veterans of World War One, and right up to the frontage road along Highway 101. Here we came to a large rectangular, 4 meter wide by two meter tall, culvert under the road. The water looked reasonably clean here, even though Paul had been complaining about paddling through sewage and industrial sludge. My new kayak is a little too long to turn around in this culvert, so I backed in a little way. Paul, in my cute little 3 meter kayak, had no worries about being able to turn around, so he passed me and took the lead. I backed in the whole way, which didn't block my vision much since the tunnel turned half way through and was very dark. I suggested getting the flashlight out of my emergency kit, but Paul made it around the corner and saw light at the end of the tunnel. When we got there, we found ourselves nosing out on the far side of highway 101. There was a half-meter step in the floor of the culvert and water was running over it. We could not proceed.
We turned back and paddled back to Santa Margarita Island. We went down the opposite side this time, and found a little ditch to nose the kayaks into and climb out. We walked over the jogging trail that circles the island and hiked up the side of the hill. This island seems to be an hill of rock in an otherwise flat marshy plane. It's around 300 meters across and probably under 100 meters tall, but substantial! We climbed part way up to sit on a log where we could see the kayaks, but an army of ants boiled out of the log and chased us away. So we climbed up to the top of the island and found the trail that runs over the top of the island. We stopped on the side of this trail and sat on rocks (without ants) to eat a picnic lunch. Then we followed the trail down and around back to the kayaks and headed back to the dock. The entire trip ended up being around 10 kilometers, quite a distance for a beginner like Paul who's forearms got tired from all the paddling.