South Fork Eel - 5/31/21 - non-fishing trip

Capped off a super busy weekend with an outstanding trip down the South Fork with wonderful clients.  Tedski is a newish member here at NCKA, and anyone who's watching has noticed that this ex-Coastie has really great input on everything from regs to WX to all things fishing as well.  I was super stoked to set up a trip for he and his wife to see my favorite river section and some amazing spots along the route. 

Ted and Ellen came up from The City to enjoy some fully vaccinated Humboldt recreation this Memorial Day Weekend.  Both of my guests have some history along the Eel - Ted does motorcycle touring and has gotten to know many of our backroads and scenic features, and Ellen fell in love with the Avenue when she did a 10K at one of the marathon events some years back.  When we talked about the trip last week I let them know that flows aren't ideal and we'd have some work to do, and they were still all in and eager to check out the river that they'd only ever seen from the bank and along the road.  David joined us for the seven miler down through the Oldgrowth Corridor, and we were fortunate to have such nice weather in the high 80's with only light breezes.

This season is shaping up pretty rough with flows lower than we've seen at this time of year for a long time (ever...), but the river retains its vitality.  Important lessons for me in the past few weeks include this:  the river run is amazing at many different flows, and I shouldn't get it in my head that what I see as less than ideal conditions doesn't necessarily negate the fact that my guests can easily have a lifetime experience traversing this wild and extremely beautiful waterway along one of the most magnificent forests on Earth.

There is no hyperbole in my expression - just genuine emotion, and that is always one of the goals of the trip.  Thanks, Ted and Ellen, for a great day!   

...

WOW!!!! 

Oh man I love that river.  I have a pile of cousins in SoHum and my wife grew up there, I need to get up there this summer.  It's been a few years.  Thanks for the great photos, makes me want to call State Parks right now for a camp site in Richardson Grove.

The Eel River looks amazing.
 I'm sure it's cold water is refreshing, especially in the recent heat wave. As always, thanks for posting!

Thanks again, Eric!

For the rest of ya...

This trip was for my wife, Ellen's birthday.  The Redwoods are her favorite place on earth and we visit the Avenue of the Giants a few times a year.  Usually, it's a day trip from the house we rent in Albion.  For her birthday, we decided to stay at the Benbow Inn and be nearer the Avenue so she could get more time in the trees.  A bit after that idea came to be, I saw Eric's post about a previous trip through the Old Growth groves on the South Fork of the Eel River and thought, "we gotta do that for her birthday."  This year, her birthday fell on Memorial Day, so I was concerned Eric might not want to work holidays or already be booked, but I guess my tendencies to plan thoroughly in advance were worth something this time.  Eric had an opening and we penciled it in.  We knew it would be iffy due to flows given our lack of rain this year.  We discussed pricing based on the gear we'd supply and the gear Eric would supply and his pricing was easily agreeable.

Fast forward to the week before the trip and Eric reaches out to make sure everyone's still good to go and gave us the thumbs up of the trip!  Flows were good enough to get it done if you were wiling to do some walking over the riffles.  Air temps and water temps were forecasted to be high enough that I was going to be wearing more sun protection clothing than immersion gear.  Some base layers and board shorts were gonna do the trick.  Ellen was getting excited knowing the trip was a go.  She's a super chill, spend time in the woods and take in the smells and sounds type, so a chill paddle through Redwoods with some walking and swimming breaks is right up her alley.  When we arrived at Benbow and got checked in and settled, I called Eric and we nailed down meeting spot & time, what to bring, what to expect.  Eric even followed up with a text summarizing everything we'd just said. 

We got to the launch and after some chit chat and meeting David, Eric briefed everyone on the expectations, cautions, plans, etc.  We shuttled some vehicles to our take out point, Eric got his truck parked and we were on the water.  It was a fantastic day -- slight breeze, temps in the 90s, clear skies.  We made a few stops along the way to either swim or hike up some creeks to get into the Redwoods and view some flora and fauna.  We had to walk about 3 or 4 riffles, but I kind of enjoyed the break from sitting.  It had novelty as someone who only ever kayaks on ocean waters.  Ellen was enthralled... she had never seen the Avenue of the Giants trees at such a slow speed!!  She was just taking it all in contently.  She's usually quite the shutterbug, but she only took 3 or 4 photos the entire paddle because she didn't want to waste a moment of taking the trees in.

Traffic on the river was super light and the section of the river that Eric chose had only a few heavily populated banks the entire day.  The trip felt secluded, even on Memorial Day.  At take out, we all soaked up some rays to dry off while reviewing the trip over a few beers.  We got Eric back to his truck and David hung out with the boats at take out.  We parted ways with Eric and Ellen was just smiles the entire ride back to Benbow.  She said that paddle had made the entire trip and it was only day 2 of 4... quite the experience.  She was super thankful for Eric's time.  She enjoyed his conservation mindset, his respect for the land and desire to adopt and embrace the ways the Native Americans respected the land.  She sees the world in a similar way as Eric, so she felt honored to learn from him.  It was a long day in the sun and that usually exhausts her, but she was energized.  It was pretty damn cool to see and she was stoked for her birthday paddle.

Best yet... she now wants a kayak of her own.

Oh hell yeah!  This made my day.   

Had a great time with you guys.  Hopefully we can do a Cove day this summer too.