Kayaking Tomales Bay Day 1

Often, when I tell a bay area local that I like to kayak the person I am talking to will say "oh have you been to Tomales bay, it's such a nice place to paddle and you can camp on the beach" even when said person has never been to Tomales Bay he or she will sing its virtues. So Thanksgiving week the Kayak Guy and I planned a camping trip to Tomales Bay. We've done enough camping trips now that we're very thorough at planning everything out. A long list of equipment and supplies needed for each meal is written down in a blue notebook named the "Book of Knowledge" so we don't forget anything. The Sunday before Thanksgiving we laid out all our camping and kayaking gear on my living room floor, ready to pack it into dry bags. The kayaks had been loaded onto KG's car earlier that day. We got ready to check off our list of equipment and discovered the book of knowledge was missing. The thought of losing all the meticulously made records of prior travels was more distressing than losing the plans made for this trip. We searched high and low at my house and his house, then as a last resort made a trip to Safeway and there in the lost and found box lying amongst abandoned bric a brac of other shoppers lay the book of knowledge. We were so happy to have found it we did not even stop to be annoyed that Safeway hadn't bothered to call the number hand written in large silver letters on the front of the book to say the store had found it. Back at home we easily packed everything into a dozen dry bags for the morning's trip and loaded them into the car. The last prep task was to chop all the vegetables we would need for the trip and pack three food bags for breakfast, lunch dinner that should remain in the fridge until we left in the morning.

Monday morning KG and I arose bright and early to drive up to the Point Reyes visitor center to pick up a camping permit. The park ranger filled out our permit, gave us his spiel about not burning down the park and sent us on our way. From the Bear Valley visitor center we drove up highway one to Marshall. At the Hog Island oyster farm we made a quick stop to pick up two dozen oysters for dinner. Just north of Marshall we pulled into a small parking lot at Nick's Cove where one can leave a car overnight for $10. We unloaded the kayaks, stuffed all the firewood, drybags, and other equipment into the hatches, tied a few remaining things to the decks of the kayaks and changed into our kayaking clothes. The KG commented thoughtfully that we had too much room left in the kayaks, we're forgetting something. I responded that we were only on a three day trip, there wasn't that much stuff. No, he persisted, and finally asked where's all the food that was in the fridge last night. Still in the fridge I said. We looked around the area of Highway One where we were but there was no where to buy groceries so we decided to just get on with the trip, we had some food and were surely not going to starve, camping so close to civilization.

We launched the very heavy kayaks from the concrete boat launch at Nick's cove at just around noon on Monday. I had never paddled a loaded kayak before and could immediately feel the extra weight as I paddled. We paddled straight across Tomales Bay and south along the Point Reyes coast to our camping spot, Tomales Beach in less than an hour. We passed many loons, grebes, buffleheads, other birds, seals and sea lines as we paddled. A small flock of quail greeted us at Tomales Beach. We set out tent on a flat spot of sand, and unloaded everything from the kayaks onto a tarp in hopes of keeping sand from getting in every nook and cranny. In the afternoon I went for a short paddle while KG finished unsuccessfully. The shoreline along that part of Point Reyes is made up of steep cliffs leading down into the water with sandy beaches hidden sporadically along the coves. Shortly the wind came up and I returned to our camp site. We made an early dinner of oysters over the fire, along with a few sweet potatoes roasted in the coals. It got cold quickly as the sun went down so we climbed into the tent for a good night's sleep around eight o'clock. Even though the lights along the Marin shore, and occasional truck passing on highway one reminded us we were close to home, the millions of stars in the night sky made it feel like we were out in the middle of nowhere.

Kayaking Tomales Bay Day 2; Kayaking Tomales Bay Day 3

Click here for the flickr photo set