Russian River // September 7th, 2023

Guernewood Rd to Willow Creek Campground // 11 miles // 8 hrs

We put in about 1/2 mile south of Johnson's Beach in Guerneville. A pretty mellow ride down long stretches of silent winding river through Monte Rio and into Duncans Mills. With the slow moving water and fairly windy stretches of open water it took us about 5 hours to reach the Moscow Road Bridge where we hid our kayaks off to the side and went for dinner at the Blue Heron.

We headed back to our kayaks in the dark and scrambled down the steep hill under the bridge. With only our headlamps to guide us we headed towards the campsite.

A couple of hours after leaving Duncans Mills we barely found the campsite and quickly went to sleep. In the morning we were treated to a cozy blanket of fog and a serene river view. This would be the first of a series of trips on the Russian River with the goal of paddling all 110 miles.