"Cheap Canoe" in the Coyote Creek

I have been busy rebuilding the bulkhead on the santana 21. This has been a slow process for me as it takes place on weekends and when I have a spare moment.

I have been watching the days go by and thinking about venturing down the creek a ways. It was a beautiful afternoon and it was a little late for "adventure", but what the hell? Of course, the added adventure quotient of navigating unknown territory with only a bike light in the dark kept me interested.

So, I launched from a different spot than previously and it was less ideal in terms of access to the creek, but was closer to home. It also allowed some pictures to be taken from the first bridge I was to go under.

Coyote creek flows very slowly through these San Jose neighborhoods. It is about 30 feet down to the water and the banks are steep. I have never seen so much garbage. I don't think I went more than a 1/2 mile in the hour or so that I was down there, but saw at least 12 soccer balls. I had to make my way through 3 snags where logs were stuck and causing jams. These were always preceded by about 25 yards of leaves and hundreds of bottles, styrofoam cups etc.

The thing is that it is a beautiful place. It is such a tragedy to see it as a garbage dump. I see street folks collecting bottles from recycling everyday. You could easily pull tons of the things out of the creek without even addressing what must be on the bottom, just what is floating.

Along with a couple of large turtles, I got to see opossums, and some duck type things. Next time I'll leave more time and head further down.