Fun paddle 11 a.m. – 1:30 on a Saturday with Marin Canoe and Kayak MeetUp let by Ken N. New solar panels cover some of the parking area for the Petaluma public launch by the Sheraton, so I could park in the shade. Yay!

Ken had selected a day with a five foot tide change, so there was plenty of water in the river and it seemed cleaner than the last time I paddled it. We continued to paddle until we entered Lynch Creek.

That’s Greer on the left and Kim from Vacaville on the right. It was fun chatting with them on such a beautiful summer day. We had a wet winter and four inches of rain in May, so there were lots of snags and fallen trees in the creek. Greer deftly steered her boat past this snag, and ducked under a large tree that had tumbled down.

We paddled as far as we could go, then we turned around about 12:30, about the time the tide changed. Ken, in blue boat below, did a great job of planning.

I was happy to see the railroad bridge that signaled what we were getting close to the takeout. Great, fun paddle.

A passer-by took the above photo on the classic Pinnacle Gulch hike. At the start of the hike (photo below) we were joined by Linda Johnston who usually leads this classic hike (third from left, with husband Gerry, second from left).

We start this hike at the ShortTail Gulch trailhead and descend the wide steps to the beach which is filled with beautiful tidepools. Then we clamber over the rocks which extend from the cliffs into the sea so that we can reach Pinnacle Beach. This hike is technical, and a specialty of Linda Johnston’s, because it can only be accomplished when a sufficiently low tide coincides with the time of the hike.

The tidepools are at the bottom of the ShortTail Gulch steps. There are more fisherman on Pinnacle beach.

Carolyn on Wide Steps to ShortTail Beach

The tidepools are rich with mussels who are hungry filter-feeders. Don’t these guys look healthy?

Below, we have a larger starfish. They eat the purple sea urchins that have been devastating the kelp by chewing off the “holdfast” that anchors them to the sea floor. We are so glad to see the return of the starfish that seemed to have disappeared for a few years, recently.

Joe Tenn took lots of pictures, too. This shows the crusty mussels on the rock outcropping.