A River Cruise, Caswell State Park to Mossdale

Tim Andrews and I just finished a two day, 26 mile sea kayak river trip on the Stanislaus and San Joaquin Rivers. The upper 12 mile section was done yesterday and the lower 14 mile section was done about a week ago. We were accompanied by Patty Andrews, Charlene Grandfield, Rob Grandfield on the upper section and David Lunn on the lower section. I had driven near these rivers for years and decided that the time had come to explore them.

The key to this trip is river access points. Caswell State Park near Ripon offers a nice launch beach onto the Stanislaus River. There is an $8 fee for day use (parking). A nice campground is also available for $30 per night. At the other end of our trip, Mossdale Landing Community Park offers day parking for a small fee. Since it is over 25 river miles between the two, we needed an access point somewhere in the middle. Our solution was to park on the West side of the Airport Blvd. bridge near the mid-point of the trip. This is not a designated parking spot but it has worked out fine the two times we have used it.

Both sections of the trip had a small amount of current, with the San Joaquin River a little faster and wider. We saw a reasonable amount of wildlife on the trip with more birds on the lower section (probably because it was foggy when we did the upper section). The upper section had a lot of evidence of recent beaver activity but we never actually had any sightings, probably because they are mostly nocturnal.

If you would like to get a feel for the trip, I have posted a three minute video at http://vimeo.com/19116057

  

A River Cruise, Caswell State Park to Mossdale from Kim Grandfield on Vimeo.

This trip was a nice adventure and fairly close to home. If anyone would like to do the trip and needs any more info feel free to contact me at the store.

Kim Grandfield