Exploring the Rogue '21

We've been getting on the river a bit more this year locally, which has been fun.  We need to get a raft... and doing the Wild and Scenic is high on the list...

Went back to back this weekend...

• Gold Hill down to Rogue River (should take out at VOTR as that last section is flat)
• Touvelle to Lyman's (it's chill down to Fisher's Ferry, from there there are 2 or 3 tricky rapids that are class II).  
• Gold Hill to VOTR with the boys (forgot the IK... whoops)
• 4th of July SUP with Jasper from Gold Hill to VOTR
• Dodge to Touvelle with Balesteris, Jasper, Fam
• Dodge to Touvelle with the Smiths and Jasper

Paddle with Kimbo

Had a fun paddle in Santa Rosa with Kimbo.  Lots of bird watching... very chill paddle.  

amazing ice cream!!!!

Fireworks paddle with Jeff & Julie

Turns out taking fireworks photos from a SUP at night, with a beer between your legs is tough... but well worth the effort.  Always a great excuse to get in the water.  The A's were playing the Giants and blasted off their miseries away in the form of fireworks!

Pano: Kimbo at Manzanita Lake during sunset.

Too bad this is pretty blurry.  It turns out getting a good pano, while SUP-ing in low light... is tough.  

Estuary paddling with Kai

Weekday shenanigans with Kai.  Taking advantage of everyday I'm not working... as it is about to end soon...

Kai loves exploring under the dock

The local crew team was out practicing.

Do you see the name of this boat?  "Kai"

dragon boat practice

Celebrating our 10 year anniversary in Marin!

Spent a wonderful kid-free weekend up in Marin with Kimbo for our 10th anniversary!  

We cruised up Fri afternoon, had lunch at Marin Sun Farms, got baked goods at Bovine Bakery, and Double 8 Buffalo milk ice cream.   Then we put in at Nick's Cove and spent a night on our own beach.  Tomales Bay was quite windy and getting across on the SUP was quite difficult.  

Sat, we packed up and had a pleasant paddle across the glassy water back to the car.  We loaded up, checked in to Mayacamas for lunch and went on a bike 

getting ready to get on the boats.  

The conditions... 

We ended up at Pelican North Beach.  

Woohoo we made it!

gathering firewood.  

All set up!

Nothing to do but watch the tide roll out...

And play with the night shot mode on my gopro

Nice Sunrise!

Cool halo around Hog Island

Lots of seals wished us "happy anniversary" on our way back.  

Loading GoodGirl back up.  The car didn't start, but one of the Blue Waters employees helped us out by banging the starter... and she started right up!

Brunch at the bakeries.  Talked a few bike tourists here who were headed down to Mexico.  

And lunch at Mayacamas!

Then we hopped on the tandem and cruised to Vincent Arroyo

Kimbo taking a shot of my selfie shot... we rode by some other randonneurs who were in the middle of their Fleche!

Picked up a few nice bottles here.  We need to become members again...

And after a steep climb, we made it back up to Mayacamas!

With this waiting... it's hard not to pedal fast...

Sunset drinks at the pool

The next morning I decided to go on a quick run and drove down to Oat Hill Mine Rd... which I've heard a lot of good things about from Mtn Bikers.  

It used to be an old road used by wagon trains... and there are plenty of fun single track options at the bottom.  Looked really fun.  I wanna go back with my bike soon.  

On our way back, we stopped at Russian River Brew Co for lunch... and some Plinys...

And more Plinys...

Special shout out to Chelsea who hooked us up with a night at Mayacamas!!!