A Camping We Will Go-Canoeing

                                              

    Are these two cousins or siblings????

This past weekend we went camping at Hendy Woods State Park in Mendocino County.  This is my favorite campground--the sites are huge and fairly private.  There are redwoods and the Navarro River to play in.  Mendocino is just a 45 minute drive away.  There are also MANY wineries/tasting rooms in the area and a brewery that I plan to take advantage of on future trips. 

For this camping trip we went with Brian's older brother, Kevin, his wife, Jen, and their two boys, James and Erik.  Kiersta had so much fun playing with her cousins.  They seem to really like her too and don't seem to mind the fact that she is a girl or that she is only 4 years old.  Jen even told me that Erik (pictured above) said, "Kiersta has a great imagination, not a good one, a GREAT one."

On our first full day, we drove to the Big River in Medocino to Catch-a-Canoe to go canoeing. We rented a big ol' outrigger canoe that we could all fit in.  We canoed for 2 hours and covered about 5 miles total.  The Big River is a tidal river and if you time things right, you can paddle with the tide in both directions which means you don't have to do a lot of work.  Unfortunately for us, a boat wasn't available when we first got there, so we went to Russian Gulch for lunch and letterboxing (found two of the three I was looking for).

It was so foggy at Russian Gulch that we could barely see this island just a few hundred feet from where we were eating. 

 The Russian Gulch Bridge is beyond the island but we were unable to see it at all.  The fog was eerie but strangely beautiful.  Catch-a-Canoe called us when our boat was available (a policy they had just started 2 days prior) and we had 20 minutes to hustle back to the docks.  By the time we got our boat, the tide had shifted.  Luckily we had four strong adults to paddle.  

Even though we were only 5 minutes away from Russian Gulch, there was no fog on Big River.  The water was choppy due to the windy conditions, but there was no fog.  We saw crabs swimming in the river, which was pretty cool.  I highly recommend going to Catch-a-Canoe.  My parents used to take me and my brother there when we were kids.  It's exciting to now take my daughter to the same location and to see that things haven't changed at all.

This is the fearless crew of the Outrigger Canoe!  Jen, Erik, Kevin, Kiersta, Brian, and Me.