Estero Americano

A happily obscure feature of western sonoma county/ marin county: in fact providing a border between the two. I'd crossed the small bridge outside of Valley Ford dozens of times times on the way to Dillon Beach; wondering about the occasional kayaker. This simple crossing spans a 15' muddy ditch that belies the truth.... after a number of sinuous turns you are clearly in tidal waters; the banks studded with clams. Ultimately it opens up to a quite respectable 500' of fresh seawater in an emerald basin, but you are still quite a ways from the ocean.

Western sonoma county and its coast tend to be cool and windy to a fault. On many days when places like Tomales Bay would be out of the question this trip is comparatively warm and peaceful. Where you felt the wind, the next turn would take you out of its current. Ducks, egrets and swifts were plentiful; and most gratifyingly, dozens of pond turtles line the upper banks. We took off late, and never got more than a third of the way to the end; but it was progressively wonderful as it opened up.

A few years ago there was talk that it might provide an outlet to the sea for Sonoma Counties excess wastewater. I believe that this spectre was laid to rest when the Rube Goldbergian Geyserville pipeline project was realized: long may it prosper! True, pumping wastewater deep into the earth into the caverns depleted by feeding geothermal steam turbines has renedered that whole area a bit shaky; but the thought of ruining this gem is pretty hideous. This is like a number of our modern issues: we could conserve, but we'd rather splurge and hope some engineering cleverness will make it right. Mean while, citizens might make the effort to 'open' this up to visitation; as obscurity keeps it vulnerable. The land trust has acquire some sort of interest in a piece of land on the northern shore of the Estero near the sea; but I believe this is still off limits. Hence the need to "paddle to the sea". It's actually a charming way to approach the big water parts; and your trip back is wind assisted.

Posted on April 8, 2011 09:32 PM by icosahedron