Elkhorn Slough
Slough Review
I’ve been here many times but it was my first time launching from Moss Landing. The facilities were nice (it had a flush bathroom), but it cost $12.42 to park.
The bathrooms were clean and well-stocked.
There were two boat launches. One was built for smaller crafts (single dock) while the other was built for smaller and larger boats. I put in the kayak on the former and took out the kayak on the latter.
The water around the Moss Landing harbor was much cleaner than the boat launch at Kirby Park.
Because the kayak rental place is based out of Moss Landing, dozens of kayaks were in the water (with a few powered pontoon boats). But because the slough was so wide, I didn’t feel like there were too many people present.
What I Learned
I saw so much more wildlife than I have ever seen when launching from Kirby Park. While I’ll almost always choose the free option, I totally wouldn’t fault anyone for launching from Moss Landing.
I’m not sure if it was the location or just a bad day, but the winds really picked up on the way back to the harbor. Given that the wind was blowing in from the west, the paddle back was not easy. Still, I made better time on the way back as I was worried about the girls who were cold and hungry.
I was pretty confident that the girls would fit in the two-person kayak since they’re not adult-sized yet. Kaylee took the front seat and Annabelle sat in front of her and while it was snug, they were mostly comfortable for the ride.
Anna’s rear end did get fatigued at the end, however, so next time, I promised her that we would pack a sit pad to make the ride a bit more comfortable for her.
Kaylee gets seasick easily, and even though the waves were not the calmest, she did not get seasick at all. She actually asked me the day after if we could go kayaking again!
The girls brought their phones and their binoculars. Both worked extremely well to keep them from being bored and I hope to remember to bring them in the future.
Friends
We met up with friends as it was Sarah’s birthday. Because of that, we kayaked with Sarah, Marina, Nick, Louie, Willem, Nikki, and others. I don’t think I have ever kayaked in such a large group and it was really fun! We naturally formed smaller groups that seemed to change members all the time, which meant that I got to carry on conversations with just about everyone I knew. And even with so many people, the girls and I still got quiet time to just appreciate all the otters, seals, and birds that we saw.
What Happened?
3.7 miles, 2 hrs 13 mins, 5-10 mph W (wind)
Sarah organized a birthday get-together and I arrived with the girls about 20 minutes late as we took longer than expected to get ready (and there was traffic). Thankfully, everyone else was running late, so we were the fourth to get in the water, out of a group of 10. We were glad we weren’t holding up the show. The girls did a great job of helping with the inflation of the kayak and carrying it to the pier, which I appreciated a lot.
The weather was just about perfect as it was overcast when we arrived, but the sun revealed itself about 20 minutes into the ride. With the sun, the otters seemed to be just about everywhere, and I believe I saw about 20-30 otters in total. There were also numerous amounts of seals, with a few swimming, and the majority sunning on various beaches. In terms of birds, we saw hundreds on the shoreline and even more flying in the air. I was glad that there was no one with ornithophobia—the fear of birds.
When we got about two miles in, we decided to turn around. Since the first quarter mile, Sarah had been towing Christine (whose rudder issues made her kayak keep turning in a circle), and we knew that it would be more tiring on the way back. On top of that, the winds were picking up and people were getting hungry.
My girls had been doing fantastic the whole morning, but they were both getting cold with the winds picking up, so I ended up just paddling back to the harbor as fast as I could, which meant leaving the group behind and passing a bunch of kayaks behind.
When I arrived, the girls beelined it for the car to warm up while I carried the kayak and other things back to the car. I quickly cleaned up and we drove to a fast food joint to get some grub in quickly before hurrying back to the apartment to clean up and get ready for our second activity for the day.
