We carpooled and arrived at 9 am, to find a number of PP’s saying the tide was way too low to launch, and that we should head for Millerton/Marconi launch. I said a little mud won’t hurt you, and walked a boat down onto the muddy beach to the left of the ramp. The trick to mud walking is to not put all of your weight on you feet. Meanwhile a couple of yahoo fisherman had got their boat stuck at the launch, and were railing about mud and low tides.
We got off, and heading across, meeting up at the starfish beds. The incoming tide was creating some goodly current, but some of us figured out that if you hug the shore you can avoid 90% of it. Suddenly a Osprey flew overhead with a large barred perch in its grasp.
A few avant-guard PPers paddled past the Eucalyptus grove beach, determined to reach the nice beach by the point. I have to admit that getting around the next point was almost not do-able, but we made it, but the stragglers just weren’t gonna follow us, so we had to turn back (and get a great ride back with about a 5 mph current).
One of the commercial guys, who was loading plastic kayaks onto a trailer, had an african grey, perched on the rim of one of the yaks. Cute little bugger, tame as a puppy. And yes, we saw an otter, and I got a picture of his head sticking out of the water. We watched him for awhile, till he popped out of the water and disappeared into the willows.
A great PP lunch, beautiful weather. Folks headed back in small groups; we went back by way of White Gulch.
Dick M.
