Right before my birthday me and Stacie set out to kayak the San Joaquin River. The summers in the Central Valley could be hot and brutal so we "set a sail" early in the morning....

Loaded kayaks in the river by Firebough bridge and set out down the river to explore....

Stacie was quick with her new Venus 11...she was zigzagging the river back and forth while I was floating like a log in my Tarpon 140....

It took Stacie more than 2 weeks to talk me in to this "Kayaking San Joaquin" business was expecting more like a canal and stuff...but this...this was a total surprise for me...! I was enjoying every moment...

We encountered several small islands ...full of wildlife....

Around the island I caught up with Stacie...she was just floating with a current and enjoying the day...

Once again the birds were everywhere...! Hawks, Owls, Ducks, Blue and White Herons and tons of other birds I did not recognized....

After couple of hours floating down the river we stopped for a little brake....to stretch our legs and confirm the position. Stacie had a GPS so we were pretty sure about our location, but it never hurts to double check....

Around 11 am the sun started beating on us...and we decided to get out as soon we find accessible river bank. That was easier to say than to do it. Finally after like 40 minutes I spotted the bank that look promising...

We dragged our kayaks up the bank, trough the tick brush to this dirt road next to the irrigation canal. Stacie contacted our pick up vehicle and confirmed rally point ...several hundred yards up the canal by the orchard that could be seen in the distance.

We got to go that way and cross the canal....she sed...!

So we loaded our kayaks in the water again, this time it's the irrigation canal and set out upstream to our pick up point...the sun was beating on us hard at this point...

The most difficult part of this journey was to get in and out of the kayaks without getting wet. In this picture I demonstrate proper kayak mounting procedure....

By the time we reached our pick up point Larry came to pick us up. It was a great day on San Joaquin River.