Boatpost_005 - Hog Island Quest

It's been bugging me for a while that I can hike 20+ miles in a day no problem, but after a year I can still only paddle for like 3-6 miles. It also limits the trips I can do and the amount of stuff I can check out per trip.

There's a 12-15 mile trip I want to do on the Petaluma River, launching downtown and paddling 12-15 miles to another launch where the river empties into the San Pablo Bay. On this route there's nowhere to land past the first few miles - it's all marshland. I want to make sure I can comfortably do that distance so I don't have a miserable time.

I'd also love to do another packrafting trip (hiking to a launch point that's not accessible by road, and traveling down a body of water, camping along the way). A little extra stamina would definitely come in handy.

I decided to go back to Tomales Bay because it is The Best Place. I have been wanting to make the 15 mile or so round trip from my launch in Inverness to Hog Island, located across the bay from its namesake oyster company.

The island is tiny, and doesn't look like much. Just a bit of land with some scraggly trees. But it exists, and therefore it must be boated to. I also just wanted to see if I could do that distance.

Anyway, I woke up at like 5 am, took a bus to a bus to a bus, 3.5 hour trip, you know the deal. It was a good transit day - made all my transfers no problem, and got a lot of my favorite bus drivers. Two of them asked about my kayak, the first guy was excited to guess what it was. I am surprised he got it right, a driver the other day guessed that I was going surfing, and I overheard someone guess scuba diving to their friend once.

I don't know if someone taped a "Ask Me About My Kayak" sign to my back or what, but after half a year or so of getting asked only the occasional question, I had no less than 5 people ask me about it that day. Including some fellow kayakers: a couple of older gentlemen. One of the guys was unpacking their kayak, and clearly sent the other guy on a recon mission to ask about mine.

I don't know why I have a compulsion to tell everyone who asks that they too can purchase almost-a-real-boat for $2-300 on Amazon. This information will change a life one of these days. Guy #2 said "you might just make a sale!" and I could hear him relaying the info to his friend as I paddled away.

It was a gorgeous, overcast morning in Inverness. West Marin is beautiful in all conditions, but I love it most on days like this. I walked the mile or so along the two-lane highway that runs through town, and set up my boat at Chicken Ranch Beach.

The water was glass, and it was so quiet that I could hear birds and people talking on both sides of the mile-wide bay. Aside from another kayak here and there, I had the whole place to myself. It's normally pretty windy here, and I usually stick relatively close to shore. But with it being this calm and empty, I paddled straight up the middle, which was fun.

I stopped at Heart's Desire Beach/Tomales Bay State Park a few miles up to rest for a minute and fill up my water. It's the only place with drinking water on the bay, and I kind of enjoy the routine of making that pit stop before continuing on my journey.

After I finished up, I continued paddling north, making surprisingly quick progress. I checked the map at one point, thinking I was about to come up on Laird's Landing, and realized I'd passed it a while ago. I'm used to the winds picking up around 10 am and continuing until sundown, but that day it remained calm until early afternoon.

The waves did pick up quite a bit by the time I got within half a mile or so of the islands - the Big Scary Line itself is only another mile and a half from the islands. I wasn't even sure if I was making any forward progress or basically just paddling in place. It wasn't quite at my threshold for bailing but I noticed some whitecaps here and there, and kept an eye on the shore.

There's an unnerving quality to the waves as you get closer to open water - you have the usual smaller surface waves caused by wind, and a layer of larger roller coaster-like waves under the surface. (Would this be the ocean swell? I am still learning all my wave terminology). This is part of why you need a much longer kayak to explore the ocean and even the SF Bay. My kayak is a dainty 7', and I usually see 11' or 12' as the lower end cutoff for sea kayaks.

As a side note: I'd really love to take a sea kayaking class one day, and maybe eventually own one. I'm always secretly a little excited when I end up in choppy water; maneuvering over the waves requires a lot of focus and quick action in a way that I really enjoy. I'd love to be able to do so more often and safely.

A federation of birds and pinnipeds

As I paddled up to the islands, I was greeted with an absolute cacophony of birds. Geese honking, seagulls seagulling, the occasional scream of a shorebird. The few scrubby trees were full of birds. The small beach was covered in birds. Birds buzzed around the island like electrons. Complete bird anarchy.

I also spotted several seals silently spotting me, hanging out upright in the water with their heads popping out, in their usual fashion. It is seal pupping season right now, and these islands are a popular haul-out location. Landing is permitted on the western side of Hog Island (the smaller Duck Island is always off limits), but I decided to stay in the water and give the seals their space. I plan on kayak camping here again this fall, and will definitely come back and explore the island then.

The sounds coming from this island were unreal

Turn up the volume to hear some incredible grunting and screaming

Various bird shouting

Goose soliloquy

Please Enjoy The Following Blurry Photos Of Seals

The weather cleared up a bit, and I just sat in my boat off the shore of the islands observing the chaos for a while before heading back. I stopped at Tomales Beach to rest my jelly arms and eat the PB&J I'd been dreaming about for the past couple of hours. I stretched out on the warm sand and enjoyed the calm.

One of my favorite things about Tomales Bay and its dozens of beaches is that you can almost always find one with no one else on it. There's something really fun about hanging out on your own private beach, accessible only by boat.

I would've happily gone to sleep right there, but I eventually packed up and made my way back to Inverness. I stopped again at Heart's Desire Beach to rest my arms a bit, and eventually made it back to Inverness. The wind and tide were working in my favor on the way back, which I was grateful for as I was starting to get cramps in my back muscles from paddling for so long.

I made it to Chicken Ranch Beach, packed up my stuff, and caught my first bus home. BTW, trying to remove sand from a bunch of items that have been in sand all day, while standing in sand, surrounded by sand, is peak physical comedy.

I love this place with all my heart and as always, am already planning my next trip.