Point Reyes Lighthouse lies ahead.
The far point of land that the bow of my kayak is pointing directly at
in the photo above is the first of my destinations, the Point
Reyes Lighthouse. I discovered it last year on my first trip
up to this area and decided that I had to to make plans to
paddle this area in the future. It's a beautiful area for hiking,
bicycling, kayaking and photography. If you get a chance you should
bring all your toys and definitely check it out.
Point Reyes Lighthouse
In the image above you'll notice that you can't see the beach
even though I am quite close to it and it was simply because I was
getting near the west facing shore where the wind was blowing pretty
hard and the swells were quite fun! It was no easy task getting this
terrible shot of the lighthouse as I was fumbling with a dry bag
and a camera that hated water so it was "point and shoot and
bag it"!
From here I rounded the corner and that's where you experience
the winds so common to this area. The year before I tried
launching off South Beach and couldn't even get my kayak
off my car! It had to be blowing 35 plus knots that day and
today only seemed to be a bit milder but I braved on. I
really wanted to land on Sir Francis Drake Beach for lunch
but I was working hard to make headway. And even though
I was 3 layers deep in dry tops, pants, farmer john's and the
kitchen sink it got a little cool so I decided not to put my
neck on the line and turned back to the south tip of the
peninsula. Once there I headed as close to shore as I
could and started exploring the caves, nooks, crannies
and wildlife I had seen on the way out.
That is one big boy!
From a distance I saw the entire top of this huge rock moving
and it wasn't until I got closer that I saw it was a clan
of California Sea Lions. Not wanting to spook them I
kept a bit of distance and took a few photos. And since it
was the end of pupping season I figured tensions were
running a bit high as that big boy you see there kept his
eye on me the whole time I was there. Needless to say I
stayed only long enough to snap a few photos and move on.
I don't imagine anyone would want to wrestle with him
but he was in full bloom and was absolutely beautiful!
My next stop was at this cool little cave I noticed on the
way to the lighthouse. I noticed some bright colors in it
and couldn't imagine what they could be so I stopped in
and had a look. At first I thought perhaps it was pirate
treasure and that I would suddenly become a rich and
famous explorer!
The cave.
The "treasure"!
Well, if you think buoys and floats from fishing boats are
treasure, brother, I know where you can find a ton of it!
I could call this place home.
Anyway I explored as much of the cave as there was
and when I turned around to leave I saw the little guy
in the photo below just bobbing around starring at me and
I immediately had one of those "MOM LOOK WHAT
FOLLOWED ME HOME CAN I KEEP HIM" moments!
Immediately I had to name him and couldn't think of
anything more appropriate than, of course, "Bob"! He
was so cute I just wanted to swim out there and hug him!
Of course sadly enough he didn't quite think the same of me
as when he saw me launching my kayak he was gone. Little
did I know I was going to meet his tribe around the next bend.
Meet my new friend "Bob"!
Seal Beach, California.
Okay, so it's hard to see just how many seals there are on this
small stretch of beach but believe me there wasn't much room
for too many more. And I apologize for the photo but in cases
like this where there are a lot of pups mixed with adults and you
scare them some of the pups could easily be maimed or killed in
the stampede off the beach and into the water! There are laws
governing this as well! And being the animal rescuer type that
I am I would never put a wild animal in danger. But a
curious thing happened.
In order to get this photo I parked in a kelp bed off shore,
snapped a few photos and was getting ready to leave when
about 20 feet in front of my kayak a little seal head popped
up. Hmm... As soon as I looked at him he popped back under
and popped back up to my left. While this was going on
I noticed some of the pups on the beach gradually slipping into
the water and soon there were about 30 little seal heads all
around me! As soon as I would make eye contact with one
it would pop back under water and pop back up somewhere
else. I was totally enthralled with this game and felt like
I was playing the aquatic version of Whack a Mole! It
was crazy fun! I could have stayed there for hours but
knew I was staying too long for their sake and decided it
was time to go so I slowly paddled away waving goodbye
to my new found friends at which point they all at once
disappeared! I wish you could have been there!
I explored other little caves here and there and played in
the wild water that was now forming due to the increasing
wind but decided it was time to head for home. I still had
about six miles to go to reach my launch point and it was
getting quite foggy, the wind was building and I had been on
the water for nearly 10 hours but the fun wasn't over yet.
I was paddling close to shore zig zagging my way through
the rocks and spotted a slot that when a wave came
through would lift my kayak just enough so I could slip
through taking a little short cut and having a little more fun.
So I lined myself up in the slot, waited for a wave and off
I went. That is until right there, literally a foot in front of
my kayak, a Sea Elephant popped up!!! Holy &^%$ I
never back paddled so hard in my life!!! It wasn't that I
was afraid of it rather I didn't want to hit! I couldn't live with
myself if I hurt it! And as soon as it appeared it disappeared.
I was stunned! I swear my eyes were bigger than its and the
size of its head was amazing!
So there I sat in this slot. I couldn't move until a
wave came through and was left wondering if this
thing wanted a piece of me! Turns out it didn't as
when the next wave pushed me through I carefully
and quietly paddle towards home and when I
turned a corner I looked to my left and there, inside
this cute little sandy bottomed cave, was the
Sea Elephant and some pups! It was so unbelievable!
I will never in my life forget that moment.
From here lay the stretch across the bay to home. I
was a bit tired so I settled in to a slow cadence and
reached the beach at 6:30. Once there I sat for sometime
and replayed the trip over and over paying no attention
to the fact that it was getting dark and cold for something
held me on that beach for the next hour. I just sat on the
back of my kayak starring out to the ocean and where
I had just come from feeling, as I told my wife on a earlier
trip up here, that of all the places I have been in my life
this place holds something supremely special for me. I
couldn't describe it on a million pages of text but there is
something here. It's places like these and especially the
Drakes Bay area that make me feel I am alive and truly
at home. In her reply my wife said that perhaps in
another life I lived up here. I can't tell you how
true that rings to me.
Drake's Bay
A friend of mine who I taught to kayak said of the above photo,
"This is what heaven must look like." I think she's right.
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