Elkhorn Slough Paddle

Drive a little bit south of Santa Cruz, CA to Moss Landing and take any of the turns to the right just before you cross Elkhorn Slough to several kayak rental places. If you pass the power plant towers, you've gone too far.

We rented closed deck kayaks and headed out around 11 am on a Furlough Friday. This is very popular and I imagine in the height of summer the crowd might be a little too enthusiastic.

The tide was with against us on the way in, but the wind was with us. I think the tide was stronger because when I stopped paddling I almost immediately came to a full stop.

We saw plenty of sea lions, pelicans, water birds and otters. Sea lions were basking on the shore in various places and on a boat dock. Otters were basking in the water near the launch point, in a pod in the estuary about a mile from the launch point, and just swimming around doing otter stuff. On surfaced quite close and began grooming it's back flippers, rolling and rolling and rolling and then shaking it's head dry. The otters seemed to dry off more quickly in the water while the sea lions stayed wet and glossy. We made it a bit past Rubis Creek and Andy went along ahead to Kirby Park. I explored Rubis Creek but didn't manage to make it back to the main channel. Although there looked to be a clear channel, it was confusing to navigate and I did not want to get stuck in the mud.

I made it back about 15 minutes after Andy and both of us were muddy (getting out was definitely muddy) and our arms were like spaghetti. I told Andy our shoulder would really hurt later.

I'd like to definitely do this trip again, perhaps with the tide coming in to see if we can make it further and explore more of the marshy areas.

Of course we were hungry as we'd only had a coffee and 1/2 of a small breakfast burrito but we were also pretty dirty. Andy's jeans were wet from the knees down and my hair looked a bit like I'd jammed a hat over it, sweated, then frizzed the ends with seawater. We stopped at Haute Enchilada which had a vibrant and charming exterior and it had outdoor seating. The food was good, the mole very tolerable and the decor excellent. I highly recommend the place.

Two hike weekend

On Sunday drove up to the Carson Pass area to take a short stroll to the top of Hawkins Peak. From the maps, it looks like you can take a forest service road to within a few hundred feet of the summit at just over 10,000 feet. I wasn't in much of a mood for a hike and I'd been wanting to try this since last summer.

Unfortunately the road up was blocked by a gate. Although this shortens the distance quite a bit, I still wasn't prepared to hike at that altitude.

We drove down to the lake and parked and then hiked part of the trail to Grover Hot Springs state park.

On previous trips I'd hiked along a well marked trail that followed the exit creek to a riparian meadow. At this point the trail disappears and I've just walked through the meadow. At the far end of the meadow you eventually find the well marked trail again.

I was determined to follow the trail back so that's what I did. As it turns out, the trail stays under the trees and avoids the meadow. It edges between a small ridge and another meadow and then crosses a small granite ridge to the boat ramp of the lake. From the lake, there is no trail marking so one would have no idea this was the actual trail head.

Still, it was a pleasant hike around the lake, through the meadow, off trail up a small ridge, back to the trail and then back to the lake.