We pass Colusa, an approximate halfway point at noon today. Forecast says 101 today. Below Colusa the river changes completely. We are now contained within two symmetrical levees of cobble. Instantly the birds are gone, presumably because the fish don’t live here either. No habitat. The good news for us is there is still current. The better news is light and variable wind. we make 38 miles today. Hurrah! Tom and I take turn on the oars. We camp east of Arbuckle and The Sutter Buttes are now upstream of us. We continue down the center of California at the pace of a brisk walk.


​Our friends Rudy and Kenly left us today. We will miss the company and passion for spotting bird life.

​My dory has been unnamed for 15 years as I tried out various combinations of places I cared about. Buenaventura, good fortune, finally made its way to the bow.

In 1828 Jedediah Smith entered this region on a trapping and mapping expedition. He was following a major river that he called the Rio Buenaventura, a river that he expected would cross the Sierra Nevada to the Great salt lake and providing a transportation link to the east coast. He knew it existed because it was on the map.

Of course, this was the Sacramento. Smith found plenty of beaver, shot at any Grizzlies they saw, which usually didn’t work out well, and scared the daylights out of some Native Americans. But no mythical river highway.

The winds have been kind. 25 miles today. We will try to go longer tomorrow.

Otter today. Many eagles, heron, and pelicans.

At dusk, two young deer, male and female waded into the river on the far bank and proceeded to swim across the river right in front of our boats. They made it. Guessing the grass is very green over here.

We passed the symbolic 100 mile mark today. A nice accomplishment but we are halfway through the trip time wise and only a third of the miles. Meeting and filming cool people can be time consuming.

Saw some great projects today near Chico. Removing levees, returning orchard to native riparian and allowing the river to act more like a river. Thanks to River Partners, The Nature Conservancy and the Sacramento River Wildlife Refuge.

Highlights: Lunch at the legendary river hot spot Scotty’s Landing and seeing Pelicans with a breeding knob. Yeah, that’s a thing according to our ornithologist Kenly.
Thermometer says 101 but in our shady glens it is perfect.
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    Five days ago Mt. Lassen was downriver. Today it is upriver, a distant snow cone on the far horizon. Beginning to sink in on a visceral level that we are floating on a hefty chunk of California. 150 years ago this was the freeway. The best way to the north was on a paddle-wheeler, and this corridor was teeming with travelers. Now it’s basically the fishermen and us. And no one seems to venture from their section of the river. To the folks in Vina, Redding seems a continent away.
We passed another of the main arteries for irrigation today, the Colusa-Glenn canal. Unlike most wilderness rivers, our flow gets smaller each day, as water is diverted for agriculture. 
Our dory friends Rudi and Kenly joined the trip today. Great to have them. Kenly identified 26 species of birds today, including an osprey every mile. As the sun set, a team of fat otters scampered across our bar and into the river. The noisy beavers are back.​

It is a rich country, from the profusion of agriculture, walnuts, almonds, pear, olive, peach, apple. Even on the back end of four years of drought, water explodes from submersible pumps exploding fountains of clear fresh water, down  canals and on to acres and acres of orchard. When the first Europeans visited here, a mere 200 years ago, they described an eden like setting, and of marsh and the stalky tule, and home of all sorts of game, from the still familiar deer and panther, but was inhabited by grizzly bear, elk and wolves. Salmon thick as bees. ​
Now we go to sleep each night and wake up each morning to a cacophony of wildlife noise. The corridor next to the river is a nearly impenetrable band of vine, berry and thistle. We have the illusion of a wilderness, but if you listen hard you can hear the whine of an irrigation pump from the orchard next door, or the sound of someone driving to work.
Met "Otter" from Gerber, CA. Lives 4 miles from the river, but still his favorite vacation, to grab his canoe, tent and stove for an overnight escape. The first 'camper' we have seen thus far.

A drones-eye view of the last couple days. Shared camp with some noisy beaver last night. In Bald Eagle territory. Tehama Colusa Canal Agency yesterday. Met Aaron Hall, who basically creates a “Tuolumne sized” river each day with a bank of pumps. We have 840 cfs less today. The mechanics of moving water to users and keeping fish happy is a complex business.
Shout out to our new friends at the tehama visitor center in Red Bluff.