Roger had recently discovered that the road to the parking lot behind Goat Rock had been re-opened by the park service. This means that a kayak can now be easily launched here protected behind Goat Rock from the prevailing northwest swell. I suggested to Roger that we should be able to get a few hours of paddling in after work and before the sunset. The only day of the week that we could both do this was Tuesday, so we arranged to meet at around 5:00 PM.
When I arrived I looked at the waves wrapping around Goat Rock and dumping on the beach. It was not as calm as I had hoped and I worried about the launch. I fiddled with my boat (installing a foam pad where my heels sit) and delayed getting ready to go. Roger arrived, looked at the waves, and confidently stated that the conditions were something we could easily handle. "After all, we're both in Coasters" he said.
When we were both ready and down by the water the waves seemed to calm down. We both launched into a mild set of waves and paddled off with no problems. First we paddled out to the arched rock south of Goat Rock and went through the arch. We paddled around the back of this rock and considered going through some narrow gaps where waves were breaking. But we turned north instead and paddled out to "Mile Rock". This rock is not really a mile offshore, but it unusually far from shore. From there we turned towards the rock garden on the north end of Jenner Beach. My favorite rock there is a rock I have named "Cathedral Rock" because it has multiple caves or arches running through it. We were able to go through the largest of these before continuing around the next point.
There is a large rock on this point with shallow water behind it. Maryly was once knocked out of her kayak by a wave breaking in this shallow water, so we jokingly refer to this as "Maryly's Rock of Doom". (She discovered that the water was so shallow that she could stand up, right her boat, and jump back in). With the tide high, we were able to turn behind this rock, surf into the shallow area, then turn and paddle out into the waves coming at us from the other side. Here we found ourselves in the first of what I call "The Jenner Coves". This is a series of beautiful little rocky coves north of Jenner Beach and continuing past Russian Gulch Beach.
But Roger was worried about the time, since we only had an hour until sunset. He was not worried that we would have trouble landing in the dark. No, he was worried that the rangers would lock the gate at sunset and trap us on the beach! Later we found out that the gate is never locked and we could have taken our time and watched the sunset from the water. Next time we will do that. But this time we dashed back past Goat Rock Beach, ducked behind Goat Rock, quickly landed on Blind Beach, and started packing up our gear and changing our clothes. I took time off in the middle of this to walk over to the northwest side of the parking lot and watch the sunset.