Paddling the Napa River

Yesterday Julie, Karen, and I put in at the Cutting Wharf boat launch on the Napa river, just south of town.

Julie and Karen paddle through a side arm

We are finding less resistance to pumping the boards up and going out. It takes 15 minutes or so to have the boards ready for lunch (and some exertion) but so far it has always been worth it.

Low tide was 30 minutes or so after we started our paddle, allowing us to paddle downstream with the river current and tide while (hopefully) riding the incoming tide back up to the put-in. Winds override current in this case, and a solid 8-12 mph headwind as we worked our way south and west made the initial paddle challenging. We diverted on one of the side arms into the estuarial tidal flats and enjoyed some quieter water.

Yours truly coming out from the Brazos bridge

Our landmark to reach was the Brazos railroad bridge, a very spectacular lift bridge. We paddled through the lift area and back around through the pilings on the side. It was a gentle current and wind assisted paddle back up the northwest shoreline, with cool houses and lots of black-crowned night herons along the way. We paddled through the marina and returned to the takeout, completing a 2 hour round-trip.

Cleaning the boards after our adventure

The water in the river is brackish (Karen and I tasted it!) so we were compelled to do a thorough rinse after returning to Jacob and Kaitlin’s. I’ve got some repair work to do on Julie’s board as some of the decking is peeling off.