For Memorial Day weekend, we decided to join our friends at a house in Forestville (on the Russian River), with a stop to kayak with Burke's Canoe Trips. I had called Burke's one day earlier to make reservations for two kayaks: one two-seater for Inna and me, and one single-seater for Alex. We were told to arrive before 11:00, as it usually took 3-3.5 hours to complete the 10-mile downstream journey to Guerneville.
We woke early - at around 07:00 - and quickly dressed, and packed our Tesla Model Y. We had a lot of items to bring, including a folding bed (for Alex), suitcases, and groceries. Being in a hurry, Inna forgot a few items (but all turned out well, as nearby Sebastopol has a Whole Foods).
Driving from San Jose to Forestville was fairly easy, taking about two hours to complete the 122 miles. On arrival at Burke's, we parked our Tesla Model Y, and I put on my water socks. We signed our waiver forms, put on the life vests, and picked up our paddles. I paid $120 for the two-seater kayak rental and $60 for the single-seater kayak rental.
We kayaked for about 30 minutes and then pulled off on a nice riverbank for lunch. Inna had packed a few sandwiches (salmon, cucumber) and we enjoyed a relaxing lunch on the river.
We continued our paddling down the river, enjoying the scenery (it was mostly cloudy). There were many large groups of rafters tied together, who were just lazily floating down.
The paddling took 3 hours, but felt longer than expected.
After returning to Burke's, we changed out of our clothes and drove to Sebastopol for coffee and lunch. We first stopped at Sarmentine - Organic French Bakery. It was closing at 16:00, and we just made it there at 15:38. We purchased a couple of pastries to enjoy later with coffee. I felt that the apple chasson was below average (and wouldn't recommend it).
As we were hungry, we decided to eat pizza at the nearby Acre Pizza. We ordered the following items:
- Pizza: 1/2 Mushroom, 1/2 Pepperoni Pizza
- Salad
- 2 x Apple Cider
Kayaking Russian River Review
Highlights
- Beautiful scenery on the Russian River
- We saw a couple of very large Blue Herons
- After landing at Guerneville, we were quickly picked up by the bus (running every 30-minutes) and taken back to Burke's - a 10-minute drive)
Lowlights
- Russian River's current was very slow, so we needed to paddle most of the way.
- Inna almost lost her iPhone; she dropped it when leaving the kayak
Links
- Forestville
- Sebastopol
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