Bodega Bay is about 75 minutes away from my place in Richmond CA. It is situated north of Tomales Bay and has a natural harbor that is well protected from ocean swells, making it ideal for SUP or beginner paddlers like myself. No one had organized any trip on Facebook for a while, then two weeks ago there was one going to Tomales Bay, and last week there was another one in Drakes Estero, both of which I had done in this paddling season, hence I passed on those opportunities. Then John from the SUP Facebook group organized this trip, and I jumped at the chance to join him and others on the water here for a couple of reasons. One, I had never been to this area before, and it is one of the trips recommended by Michael Jeneid in his book “Adventure Kayaking – Trips from the Russian River to Monterey”; and two, it is sufficiently far away and in a relatively remote place that I wouldn’t want to make the drive out here and paddle by myself. It is always fun to paddle with others when the chance allows it.
The entire drive from around Petaluma to Bodega Bay was mostly covered in the morning fog, with a short exception around Valley Ford, a small town some 8 miles away from Doran Park, when the fog lifted and the sun peeked out and brought forth its warmth. I arrived at Doran Regional Park at around 9:15am, paid the $7 entrance fee, and was at the parking lot by the Miwok Boat Launch soon after. A couple of other paddlers were already there, and even though I arrived earlier than most, I ended up being the last one on the water. My RED board and Shark II electric pump took some 30 minutes to inflate to the recommended 20 PSI, while others seemed to have taken only 15-20 minutes to get theirs ready. Maybe it’s due to my board being longer and bigger than most?
There must have been 10+ paddlers on this trip, with 3 kayakers and the rest being SUPers. I could only remember John, Darrell, Esther, Chris, and Lisa, with the other names escaping my memory for the time being. We were on the water at 10am sharp, and after a short photo op, everyone headed north along the eastern shoreline, doing a counter-clockwise loop of the harbor. The main channel of the harbor is well marked by the buoys, and the water along the shoreline is very shallow. Even though we were paddling near a high tide of 5 1/2 ft, in many places of the paddle I could see the bottom through the clear water. The layer of fog had yet to lift, and the sound of shorebirds could be heard here and there. Then suddenly there was a continuous, harmonious chirping of killdeers at my 5 o’clock, and apparently everyone also heard this and we all looked back, and a (large) flock of killdeers and gulls was flying toward us.
After the paddle was over, I was able to identify killdeers from their sound in the video via the wonderful Merlin app (bird identification app). I also saw gulls in the video as well, but am not sure if there were any other birds involved. I also don’t know what caused them to fly off like this, so may be a consultation with an ornithologist is in order here =D
Leaving the bird show behind us, we continued our paddle north toward the village of Bodega Bay. On approaching the waterfront businesses, we could hear “oink oink” from one end to another. These were not pigs that gave off the sound, but harbor seals =) The group stopped here near the Fishetarian Fish Market for 10+ minutes to seek out the seals and snapped pictures with them. When I looked over to my left, I saw Chris in his kayak looking out to a couple of pelicans. He commented that there must be a lot of fish in this area for so many seals to congregate around here. I think I’ll have to agree with him. After all, the Fishetarian Fish Market is just a stone throw from where we were, and one thing all fish markets do not lack is fish =P Lame jokes aside, about 20-30 feet beyond him were a couple of seals (or otters?) that would rise to the surface, then dove below and disappeared from view. I scanned the water around me and spotted a couple of seals closer to where I was, so I sat down on my board, opened my Pelican case, and took out my $20 Canon bridge camera (if you can’t tell by now, I’m very proud of this purchase =D). These are a couple of photos I managed to take in that area.
Just a bit beyond this area is the Tides Wharf business center, where there are a couple of gift shops, a restaurant, a wholesale seafood market, and a visitor center ready to welcome you to the neighborhood. Some four, five tourists were standing on the wharf next to the restaurant and said hello to us. One of them asked permission to take pictures of us, to which we readily assented =D. Then someone pointed out that there was a large sea lion taking its nap by the dock, so the tourists quickly abandoned us and flocked to the sea lion instead….
And since we haven’t had an immersive, 360-degree view in this blog post yet, I’ll include one here for your viewing pleasure =P
Oops! It seems like this post isn't published yet. Stay tuned for updates!From here, we went for another 1/2 mile of paddling along the eastern shore when everyone decided to cross over to the other side of the harbor to go back. I had always been near the back of the pod for most of this paddle, staying behind to take pictures whenever an opportunity came up. And just when everyone was already half way to the other side, I saw many pelicans perching on a wooden fence / post near Ginochio’s Kitchen, so I took my sweet time once more to photograph them. I sure hope John (our paddle organizer) didn’t panic when he realized one of us was no where to be seen =)
I looked back and saw our group had crossed to the other side and was getting further and further away from me. I tried to play catch up and turned my board around to chase after them. “Row, row, row your board… harder Nguyen, gotta paddle harder Nguyen….” And apparently the sea (Western) gulls heard my motivational song / speech so they joined in and did this.
When I looked for my SUP group once more, I could only see the very last one in the pod. Okay, no more dilly-dallying, I really gotta go this time. I dug my paddle into the water and pulled hard, and after another 15-20 minutes or so I was able to catch up to the last paddler in the pod. She was relatively new to SUP, and so had fallen behind everyone else but me. It turned out that when I almost caught up to her, John also turned back to check up on everyone, and he stayed back to show her some SUP strokes to help her with the paddle. I passed by them and continued on, stopping here and there to take in the scenery and wildlife around me. Just ahead of me was a large group of American White Pelicans gathering on a mudflat. Everyone else also stopped paddling to take pictures of them. Then suddenly they began to take flight; first there was one, then another, then yet another, and soon there were only about 8 to 10 pelicans left on the mudflat, out of 50+ pelicans originally. Then by the time I got close enough view them, they all had flown away….
Just before we got back to our launch spot, we ran into more mudflats with lots and lots of sea gulls occupying them. I was toward the back of the pod and Darrell was waaaaay in front of me when I saw gulls flying about everywhere. I reached into my Pelican case, took out my bridge camera, zoomed in all the way, and could only get a couple of barely usable shots. The photo above was the best of the bunch, although I would have loved to be closer to the action, so as to be able to grab a better photo for that moment.
Then we were back to the parking lot, having paddled 5+ miles for the day. It was very calm in the harbor, and I’d rate this paddle as super easy, and among the best paddles that I have done this year. The scenery and wildlife are excellent, and we had a fun group of SUPers for the trip as well. I highly recommend a paddle at Bodega Harbor if you want a relaxing and memorable trip on your board (or in your kayak =D).
