Guerneville

This summer we have had giant forest fires burning to the northwest of us and the southwest of us.  On the rare occasion when the wind blows from the east the smoke will clear, but many days this summer our air quality has ranged from unhealthy to dangerous.  On those days we look at the map to find a place that is smoke free and head off on an adventure.  Several times in the past we have headed to the Russian River area to get out of the smoke, so that is where we headed again this year.

The smoke was so bad that driving west from Reno on I80 you couldn't even see the Sierra foothills just a few miles away.

It was a relief to get to Guernevill where the air was clear and the river was inviting.

Our first outing was taking a canoe trip on the Russian River.  We have done this several times.  This year the water was pretty low, but still deep enough for the canoes.

It was a perfect day for the trip.  Calvin spotted some ripe blackberries and had a little snack.

We also saw some river otters, who hid from the camera, and several herons.

The next day Calvin rode his bike along the Bohemian Highway from Guerneville to Occidental, where we connected and I met him at the Landpaths Grove of Old Trees, stand of old redwoods that was preserved from the loggers. We had a short ramble...being every so careful to avoid the poison oak.