March 17-27 - California trip (#s 16-20

Monica and I spent two and a half weeks travelling down the California Coast from crescent City to Monterey this March break and I managed to get out paddling five times! I saw many places I would love to paddle more - next time!

click to enlarge - red dots show the locations paddled

March 17th - Big Lagoon (near Trinidad) (#16)

I went for a morning paddle around this lagoon which is the southernmost of three lagoons making up Humboldt Lagoons State park. It was neat to see the open ocean on the other side of the beach. At the north end of the lagoon there were quite a few seals and cormorants near the outflow. The lagoon is pretty shallow in many parts.

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13 km

March 19th - Mackerricher State Park (#17)

We really liked this State Park and I managed to find a protected place to launch amongst the rocks. There was a fair bit of swell in places and not too many landing options. I saw a few grey whales as well as seals.

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5 km

March 24th - Elkhorn Slough (#18)

We went to Elkhorn Slough on Brad's recommendation and were not disappointed. I have never seen so many sea otters up so close. In addition the seals and shorebirds were remarkably non-skittish. This was one of the most amazing paddles I have done from a wildlife point of view. We saw lots of sea otters and seals as well as: marbled godwit, willet, whimbrel, egrets, herons, avocets and more! I was kicking myself that I did not have a longer lens or binoculars with me!

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8 km

March 27th - Monterey's waterfront (#19)

I went for a morning paddle along the waterfront while Monica went for a nice bike ride. There were lots of sea lions and courting Brandt's cormorants on the seawall. Sea otteras and seals were scattered throughout the kelp beds and it was neat to see the area we had walked a couple of days earlier from the sea.

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8 km

March 27th - Elhorn Slough (#20)

Our first visit to Elkhorn Slough was so amazing that we had to go back - this time we brought cameras with longer lenses as well as binoculars. The wildlife was just as amazing as before and we had another great paddle and got lots of photographs... Timing the paddle around low tide seems to be good.

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6 km

40 km total for the five paddles, YTD 181 km