On a beautiful day in late September, a paddle in Dungeness Bay – first up the Dungeness River, where a Coho salmon jumped 3 times all the way out of the water, right in front of my boat (but not into it); several herons, like squawking pterodactyls annoyed with our interruption, flushed up out of the trees; a chittering kingfisher swooped back and forth; and several eagles, each having claimed a pole for a perch, silently watched us paddle by. The air smelled a mix of saltwater, seaweed, and dead fish — pink salmon, having completed their life mission, floated back out to sea. Where there are salmon, there are noisy seagulls — thousands burst into the sky and circled overhead. I dared not look up.
The reflections on the water shifted in mesmerizing patterns as we made our way out to the lighthouse, the water flat-calm, only occasionally interupted by a curious seal – and the sky shifted from as blue as the water, to where up might be confused with down – to decorated with puffy white clouds – a dramatic change from our usual haze.
A perfect way to say farewell to September.
Couldn’t ask for a more beautiful day to kayak Dungeness Bay!