Bay Water Trail-SJ Merc

Will do Stu.

The road to dumbarton pier is closed for much of the year, otherwise I'd develop launch spots there considering I'm only a couple miles down decoto from the bridge.  It is open during prime sturgeon-time though.

I'm heading down to scout the marina and related areas today at 3:00PM (I'm forced into a meeting tonight in San Jose so I'm nearby).

I'll post what I see, once I see it!

I'm definitely up for going again this winter.  It's also a nice paddle if you're into birds.  The slough itself is littered, but the amount of birds and the number of different species made this an enjoyable paddle.

The current was really not that bad when we were out there.  While we were on the anchor in the main waterway it seemed to get going, but we paddled around in it just fine.  The slough itself was slower water, but any moving water on a 5 mile paddle can seem bad.  Myself, I had an OX paddling up front so I just sat back and enjoyed the scenery.  Shhhh ... don't tell him.

-Allen

I spent about 30 minutes poking around the alviso slough in alviso and, other than the yacht club, I couldn't really see a place to launch.  That's clearly a private site, too.

Did you guys wade through reeds when you got all muddy?  Or did you find something I missed?

I wonder if I could paddle directly through the salt ponds?  I'd have to portage the boat maybe twice but I'd save about 3 miles of paddling.

I'm hoping that this new law means there is some better way developed.  It looks (on google earth) like there's possible access in freemont via mud slough... or maybe along guadalupe slough.  But right now it just looks sucky to launch in the reeds in alviso.

Next to the yacht club is the Blue Whale Sailing school.  The guy that owns it was super cool.  He is more of a pro-public access guru and let us launch there.

Access definitely sucks. There's literally nothing for us down here.