Alviso / Guadalupe Slough

Launched the new canoe "Turpitude" on this day.

I have several posts waiting to be written and the days are already fouled in the nest of my recall. Regardless, I'll go in a vague order. The X-mas break was less than sunny, rather it was grey and cold. I had taken a little bit of time to build a second pirogue. This one based on the "Nice Canoe" plans. It is a little larger than the "Cheap Canoe" and is capable of carrying two adults. I messed about with different ways of putting this together and had a couple of minor catastrophes. Nothing that ended the project, but I learned a good bit that I didn't learn previously. It is true that you learn more by failing rather than suceeding.

I built this one because I want to go out with some of my boatless friends.

After several bike rides out the Guadalupe Creek Trail I had determined a couple of possible places to put the boat in the water. There is an area along Gold Street that is designated a "Public Shore" which means the public has rights to access the water at that point. There are a couple of docks along this stretch as well. One is marked private and belongs to the "Blue Whale sailing School" and is generally locked. The other has no signs other than a city notice stating that a public dock will be built at some point. Apparently this dock belongs to the 'South Bay Yacht Club" and looks to be used primarily by Shrimp fisherman and duck hunters. The reeds have grown up to such an extent the old slips are mud and vegetation bound.

The door to the dock was tied open when we showed up on a grey morning. Since this was the path of least resistance, we used the dock to put in. Otherwise, the Gold St. bridge or the local shore provide reasonable access (though could be muddy depending on the tide).

Once in the water we headed south going up stream the current. It is a little surreal as you are in this weird little pocket of nature in the middle of a majorly urban environment. We went pretty far up the creek with the tide. The we caught the slack to an outgoing tide, it made for a decent enough ride. We had to break through several small snags and even picked up a lost duck decoy, which made an interesting gift for a little person.

When we got back to the dock it was apparent that the folks there didn't really want us to land there. Turns out this beaten old dock is owned by the yacht club. Even though the entire area is marked public water access the docks are not. Regardless, the "harbor master" kept his cool as we were obviously already unloading on the dock and had no intention of pushing off again and I did as well. I could tell he was dancing around with a low key anger and I actually enjoyed his obvious frustration. It must really suck to be part of such a run down area that has such a cool history and try to save it for a few duck hunters and shrimpers. After all it is such a missed opportunity, the area has a weird beauty, access to the water and I'm certain more people would take advantage of it if either encouraged or allowed.