A leisurely kayaking adventure awaited a pair of visiting part time paddlers this Tuesday in Sacramento. The city-maintained Discovery Park situated alongside the banks of the American and Sacramento Rivers, has two launch sites and offers as many miles of paddling that one would care to do. We put in across the bridge from the main launch site. Since the river is approximately 30 feet below its high point, we carried the boats down to a sandy beach about 100 yards from the parking lot. We began paddling upriver on the American. The vibrant orange and reddish hues from the leaves still abundant on the scrubby overgrowth clinging to the levees offered visual stimulation and the peace and quiet on the river was refreshing. We were passed by exactly one power boat. I suppose this would not be the case in July--a good reason to paddle this area out of season.

We were curious about exploring from the water the marina on the Sacramento River that we'd seen the previous day while doing our Sac city bike ride, so turned the boats down river and headed toward the end of the American and the muddier but wider Sacramento. About 100 feet before the intersection of the two rivers, Richard commented that something jumped out of the water to our right. I looked and sure enough--there it was. A harbor seal! We have paddled the Elkhorn Slough before and know that harbor seals swim quite a way up the slough from the ocean, but this guy made a really big wrong turn. It was most definitely a harbor seal as it made three or four breaks in the water doing that artful seal/surface/dive move that they do enabling us to clearly see it. Do seals commonly travel this far from the ocean?

After we made the turn upriver on the Sacramento, we never saw the seal again or any other river residents for that matter. We paddled to the aforementioned marina gawking at sleek and expensive power boats lining the slips with the usual catchy names like "Bail Out", "Un-Wine-der" and my favorite from a houseboat "Nauta Yachta". At the end of the marina was a restaurant built atop a barge, and in need of a pit stop, we docked and went upstairs to the Virgin Sturgeon. While we did not have lunch, others around us were having some very tasty looking fare delivered to their tables, and after looking at the menu, the prices seemed more than reasonable. Richard had a Virgin Sturgeon Pale Ale and I ordered a bloody Mary but it certainly wasn't virginal! Mental note: this is a good place to go back to!

Resuming our paddle, we headed downstream on the Sacramento to the Old Town Sacramento area. There is a docking area available here but since we'd spent time the two days prior in the area, we decided to head back upstream to our launch area. The Spirit of Sacramento, a paddle wheeled river boat replica that plies the waters taking tourists on river trips, had just left for an upriver sailing. As we paddled behind the sparsely peopled paddlewheeler, we watched as a two tiered road and rail bridge pivoted at a 90 degree angle to allow for the tall paddle wheeler to pass. Once cleared, the bridge rotated back into place and car, bike and train travel resumed. Back at Discovery Park, as we loaded our boats and gear, we reflected on what a great paddle it had been and how the recreational resources available in the Captiol City allowed for another delightful day of discovery.

    Richard and Barbara Tieskoetter