Whitehouse Pool is a (very) small park in the Point Reyes National Seashore that can be used to launch your kayak or SUP to the Giacomini Wetlands at the southern end of Tomales Bay. It has a very large parking lot, a couple of mobile bathrooms (e.g. porta potty), and one picnic table. For me, I took care of my bathroom business at the Bear Valley Visitor Center about 2 miles away prior to my arrival here, as they have flush toilet and running water over there. There is one trail that crosses near the picnic table, running alongside the bank of the Lagunitas Creek. This trip is best taken at 3+ foot tide, and if you’re on a SUP, I’d highly recommend a shorter fin (e.g. a river fin) when the tide level is on the lower side. Oh, and the launch is a bit steep to access, especially when the tide is low, so do be careful when you launch and come back!
Shortly before I launched, a man in a Tesla arrived and parked near my car. Ours were the only two there at the time, so we exchanged greetings while I carried my board to the bank of the creek. I asked him how far he was going to paddle (he had an inflatable kayak), to which he replied he was going to the delta and back (about 4 miles round trip). He told me the wind usually picks up in the afternoon, but it should aid in our paddle coming back from the bay later in the day. Once I have my Pelican box attached to my board, I put it out in the creek, said goodbye to him, and began to paddle away.
Oops! It seems like this post isn't published yet. Stay tuned for updates!It was a foggy morning, the town of Point Reyes Station was probably still asleep, and most likely the wildlife in the area as well. After my trip to Bodega Harbor last weekend, this paddle was definitely low on the wildlife count when compared to that other one. I could hear occasional birds chirping and see some flying about, but there was nothing that would stay relatively still for me to use my camera on. The sky was cloudy, and from time to time it would drizzle, then stop, then began to drizzle again. Perhaps the weather was a big reason why all the wildlife stayed longer in their bed and not come out to join me in my paddle for this day….
After the first half or so mile where the creek runs close to Sir Francis Drake Blvd and where I was able to see from my board the many cars going to and fro, the remaining of the paddle out to the delta and Tomales Bay was very lonely with no human beings in sight. Not that this was a bad thing, for if you wanted to have the entire space to yourself, this particular trip just might do the job for you. Perhaps this is why I also prefer paddling over hiking, where the latter activity just tends to get a bit overcrowded at the more popular spots in the SF Bay Area. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Mission Peak in Fremont, or Rancho San Antonio in Cupertino on a weekend, but the number of people traversing those trails just make me feel like I was at a shopping mall instead of being on a hike in the woods….
Then after paddling for around 2 miles, I got to the delta where Lagunitas Creek meets Tomales Bay. Last time that I was here in this area, I spotted a couple of leopard sharks in the water, but I did not see anything this time around. There was not even a fish in the water anywhere on this paddle…. My original plan was to paddle to Millerton Point, then cross over the bay to the other side and visit the Point Reyes shipwreck. But when I was about half way to Alan Sieroty Beach, I decided to cut short the trip and directly head toward the shipwreck instead, which would allow me more time to explore Lagunitas Creek beyond my Whitehouse Pool launch site on my way back.
According to some sources I ran across on the internet, the Point Reyes fishing boat was wrecked some 100+ years ago. It ran into a sandbar, and its original owners towed it to this current location to work on it as a restoration project. Well, the project didn’t get anywhere, and it instead is sitting here today as a destination for SUPers like me to visit =) On another note, this is supposedly a very popular site for photography, as I saw a couple doing a photoshoot while I was here. When the wildlife decided to stay in their house and not come out, you should definitely come here instead for a guaranteed photo-op.
The wind was picking up ever slightly when I left the shipwreck to head back to Lagunitas Creek. When I got back near the delta, I saw two kayakers in single kayaks heading toward me into Tomales Bay. I waved hello to them and continued on my way. Paddling now in the Giacomini Wetlands, I was able to see great egrets hunting for food here and there. As soon as I got past the wetlands and was in the main channel, I ran into a hiker with her dog at the end of the Tomales Bay trail. The dog wanted to dive into the water, and she kept saying “no, no” to it, trying to dissuade it from doing so by waving her hands from one side to the other. Then she looked up and saw me, and we both laughed =) The great egret standing in the marsh 30 feet from us was probably confused, being puzzled at why these human beings were laughing aloud all of a sudden.
After I got back to the launch point at Whitehouse Pool park, I decided to press on a bit upstream and explored the creek. It was less than a mile of paddling when I saw a kayaker submerged in water, and two other kayakers were looking on with no sign of panic. When I asked whether they were practicing self-rescue, the young lady confirmed my suspicion, then she said she saw me paddling out to the bay earlier in the day, for she could recognize me from my (very bright and colorful) paddling clothes. I stayed to chat with them for another minute or so, then turned around to begin my paddle back. I’m pretty sure the kayaker in the water was very thankful that I finally left and let the session continued on. I think one hour of coaching is around $100 more or less, so any second of the tutorial was definitely very valuable =D By the way, and this is going to be free advertisement for them, but do contact Blue Waters Kayaking if you’re in the area and want a guided trip, or would like to participate in these kayaking / SUP classes. I’ve run into them twice (once here, and another one during my earlier paddle in Drakes Estero), and they seemed to be very nice people.
Then I ran into two families of river otters =D
From afar I could see two big circles of bubbles on the surface of the creek water. Upon getting closer, I saw the first family of 4 otters bumbling their way upstream toward the Hwy 1. bridge (it was flooding tide at the time). They were evidently having a grand time together without caring a whit for the world. Then a second family of 3-4 otters followed some 100 ft behind the first. I managed to take a few photos of them, but most came out blurry, with the above two the only ones in focus among them all. After the trip was over, I also sat down and changed the settings on my camera to that of continuous autofocus, instead of single autofocus like I had always have it, so hopefully my success rate will be higher going forward.
I got back to Whitehouse Pool park at 3pm. The sun was still hidden away under the cloudy sky, and a slight drizzle was again in the work. Just after I finished uninflating my RED board, a brush rabbit appeared and started munching at some nuts / acorns on the ground. Then when I had put everything in the trunk of my Solara, I saw this:
Yup, that was a large flock of some 15-20 California quails gathering near the wooden bridge by the picnic table. So even though I started out the day seeing little wildlife, it seemed that by the end of my paddle they had finally decided to leave their warm beds and came out to bid goodbye to me. Not too shabby of an ending to my day at all =D
