We’d been carrying our kayaks around in the back of our camper van for three days and still hadn’t managed to put them in the water. My wife Edie and I were on a camping trip to Caswell Memorial State Park, located on the Stanislaus River outside of the town of Ripon. With the campground right on the river, it seemed like the ideal place to do some paddling.
Dangerous currents
Just prior to this trip, I had read a tragic story about two children, ages 2 and 4, who were recently swept away and drowned by a fast moving creek in the San Bernardino mountains in Southern California. The mother had desperately tried to save them both, but was unable to do so. Fast moving rivers and creeks flowing from melting snow in the mountains are a high risk factor for drowning at this time every year.
Upon arriving at Caswell, we asked the park ranger about putting our boats in the water and she recommended against it due to high current flow. She mentioned that just a couple of days before, a 17-year-old was declared missing and presumed drowned at McConnell State Recreation Area, just to the south. In that incident, the teen was on a kayak and was not wearing a life jacket.
Considering these warnings, we took our kayaks out of the van and put them on the picnic table in our campsite for storage. After the incident that happened when we stored them on the grass on our last camping trip, we learned our lesson and don’t store them on the ground anymore. Though apparently off limits for swimming and kayaking, the river was beautiful, and we had a commanding view of it from our campsite, where we enjoyed the sight of birds and river otters during the day, and a chorus of frogs by night.
Terra firma
With staying on dry land the safer option, we set off to explore the network of trails at Caswell. While not extensive, the park does feature a good network of nature trails that take the hiker deep into the endangered riparian ecosystem that once characterized much of the Central Valley of California. Located along the banks of a river, a riparian zone is vital for wildlife, and here at Caswell the hiker can experience what the Central Valley once was like before the extensive development of towns, farms, and roads. Along these trails, we saw very few other hikers, but instead saw plenty of birds, including large raptors nursing young chicks high up in the trees.
Seeking out safer waters
Having carried our kayaks all the way here, though, it didn’t seem right to completely give up on getting them in the water. Searching online, I found a place in nearby Modesto called Tuolumne River Regional Park, a large urban park along a seven-mile stretch of the Tuolumne River between the cities of Ceres and Modesto. I even read something about a new boat ramp onsite, something that would make getting in and out of the water easier.
Having already spent a full day hiking at Caswell and sort of exhausting the hiking options there, we headed off to Modesto on our second full day in the area. We had our kayaks with us, and were determined to get them wet, one way or another. After about 30 minutes on the road, however, my Google directions led us to a bridge over the Tuolumne River, where there was no park in sight. Continuing to search roads along the river, we eventually came to an entrance gate, but it was for the Modesto Wastewater Treatment Plant. More searching led to no better luck, so we sought out another park that seemed to be along the river—Legion Park.
More driving and more wrong turns finally led to the closed gates of Legion Park, an apparently abandoned place that looked like it hadn’t been maintained in years. Dry weeds poked up through cracks in the parking lot, and as we stopped in front of the gate and contemplated our next move, I started to wonder if kayaking just wasn’t meant to be on this trip. It seemed that our attempts at kayaking were being frustrated at every turn.
Thrifting
While Modesto was not very well-equipped in the parks department, one area where it did excel was in the thrift store sector. Edie and I are old hands at thrift stores, and love seeking out treasures that can be odd, unusual, practical, or just a plain great deal. At least 15 of these stores popped up on our search list, with many of them concentrated along a single road in town, Route 108 (McHenry Avenue). With names like Priceless Treasures, Incredible Finds, Good Samaritan, Mo Stuff Thrift, Community Hope Chest, Goodwill, and Salvation Army, we had plenty of ground to cover. On this outing we picked up a number of practical items at great prices, and even stopped at a garage sale where I found a large, wooden cutting board I’ve been needing. The lesson is, when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.
One more chance
Getting back to our campsite at Caswell in the late afternoon, we noticed a couple of people swimming by in the river behind our campsite. Then a couple floated by, riding a log downstream. Finally, two kayaks passed by. They all were moving pretty fast in the current, but seemed to be having a good time. “That’s it, we’re going in!” I declared. Although it would be difficult or impossible to paddle upstream back to the starting point at our campsite, we could just enjoy the one-way ride down to the public beach about a mile downstream. There, we could take our boats out and then spend 25 minutes walking back along the campground road to get the van to transport them back.
So, after a number of false starts and carrying our kayaks around for three days, we finally were in the water. It felt good to be moving with the current, and paddling around obstacles such as logs and bends in the river. After about 20 minutes, we reached the beach area, where a large sign on shore warned boaters, “Attention: This is the last take out for boats at Caswell Memorial State Park.” If one were to let the current take them beyond this point, it might be difficult to get back, and you might end up much further downstream, eventually winding up in the bigger San Joaquin river. However, I noticed on the map that there was a sort of “oxbow lake” coming up just past the beach. According to Wikipedia, “An oxbow lake is a U-shaped lake or pool that forms when a wide meander of a river is cut off, creating a free-standing body of water.” In this case, it looked like one end of the oxbow lake was open, meaning we might be able to kayak into its quiet waters, and then still be able to fight the current back to the put-out point on the beach.
Leaving the fast-moving Stanislaus River and entering the still waters of the oxbow lake was a study in contrasts. In the main river, we were constantly moving and looking out for obstacles, whereas in this offshoot, the waters were calm, and there was no current at all. We soon crossed a threshold where the surface of the water was covered with a thick layer of water fern, making paddling a little slower, and yet fascinating. It was almost like we were on a solid surface, but we were still floating. It was truly a special experience to be in this unique environment off the main river. While we had enjoyed the downstream paddle and the excursion further down into the peaceful oxbow lake, the question now was, how easy will it be to get back?
It turns out that paddling upstream on a fast-moving river is much harder than gliding downstream. Who knew? We ended up having to fight very hard against the strong current to make it back to a put-out point further up the river from the beach, to a point closer to our campsite. It was the hardest upstream paddling we’d done in a long time, and at times it reminded me of the challenging kayaking we did in Alaska in 1993, and our more recent paddles in Drakes Estero, on the rugged Pacific coast of Point Reyes National Seashore. There were moments when, despite our vigorous paddling, it seemed we weren’t moving at all as the mighty Stanislaus River pushed against our progress, but eventually, with sore arms and shoulders, we managed to reach shore at the group campsite, only a 15-minute walk from our own campsite. We had managed to spend an enjoyable late afternoon on the river, and still managed to safely paddle back to a convenient exit point. It was worth bringing the kayaks with us for this one great experience on the river.
Letting go of expectations
The thing I love about a road trip is that I never know exactly how it’s going to work out—and that’s the beauty of it. A trip is an opportunity to set off with plans in place, but with an openness to changing them based on conditions on the ground. On this trip, we enjoyed exploring the history museum in downtown Ripon, found an old tank-house structure (19th century covered water tower) near Main Street, walked the trails of Caswell Park, got lost in Modesto trying to find waterfront parks, went to more thrift stores than I ever imagined, enjoyed the presence of numerous sweet feral cats at the campground, and did less kayaking than I’d planned. None of these things were exactly what I was expecting, but in the end were a far richer experience than I had imagined. In life, sometimes you glide downstream, and sometimes you fight to get upstream, but in the end, you find that the journey was all worth it, and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
If you go
Caswell Memorial State Park is 72 miles to the east of Alameda, in the Central Valley south of Manteca. It’s one of those close-to-home destinations where it really feels like you’ve gotten away, yet you don’t have to endure a very long drive. The park offers nature trails, a campground (with hot showers), picnic areas, and a beach area for swimming in a protected cove. Popular activities include hiking, birdwatching, fishing, boating (small, non-motorized craft like tubes and kayaks only), and swimming. There is no camp store, but the town of Ripon is only five miles away.
For more information on Caswell Memorial State Park, visit the park website. For campground reservations, visit the Reserve California website.
Contributing writer Steve Gorman has been a resident of Alameda since 2000, when he fell in love with the history and architecture of this unique town. Contact him via [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Steve-Gorman.
