the most terrifying part of my Labor Day trip was that I booked my room for the wrong night, lucky they had one room left but with a broken air con, but who needs that in nor cal right?
we actually came to the Russian River at the wrong timing, before our trip I got a phone call from Russian River Adventure office telling me that there was a dog passed away last Saturday, and they are suspecting it's caused by the blue green algae breakout.
that was the only known dog death to from the toxic blue-green algae on the Russian River this year, however, they were highly discouraging people from bringing their dogs on river trips at this time
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I've read some reports form Sonoma County Department of Health about the algae, and also Russian Riverkeeper posts , 3 dozen dog owners over weekend that go to RR at least once a week and none reported problems, I also looked through Pet Poison Helpline.
Basically this won't effect adults, mostly it's about kids and dogs, because it's not easy to ask them not eating mats or drinking water from the river.
I was fully aware, thought this through and finally decided still bringing Actaeas on my own risk
because I know how to control my dog
Russian River Adventures offers canoe rentals, this company is super dog friendly, they also designed SOAR inflatable canoes, claim they are stable enough that even the biggest dogs can't tip them over.
dogs can only join their full day trips depart from Healdsburg, take-out is 8.5 miles down river, dogs are free to swim all along the way! but sadly due to the toxic algae I could only keep Actaeas in the canoe, maybe we will swim next time... please don't look at me like that! stop it!
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dogs are $10 each, adults are $60 per person. we bumped into people's canoe few times when we took off, after that we basically were all alone, rarely meet anyone on our way down.
I brought sandwich and treats for us to enjoy, i never let him get off, Actaeas' wet feet were cause by dripping water from paddles.
we saw some other dogs that day too!
people who with experience they told me the water level this year is the lowest they have ever seen, we beached once.
hey you! get down here and help me pull this canoe!
this this supposed to do by 2 person, I have one dog who definitely helped a lot
Russian River is so peaceful, sometimes I can only hear myself paddling but nothing, once we passed a
rope swing, wish I could stop and play a bit but I didn't.
we also spotted amazing birds and enjoyed wildlife together
see us in this video filmed by my iphone6, gopro and DSLR
it's not easy to handle everything all by myself on a canoe, when I was trying to take photos, it started to spin and went full speed straight into those spiderwebbed treas, I filmed all the videos by putting my iphone between my knees or having my DSLR sitting on my laps, the most tricky part was the gopro, I was actually carrying it by my mouth no kidding...
I film it with different devices because I did not want to miss any moment of this trip, it's way beyond my words can possibly explain how pretty this place is, and I did not want to risk, what if I only film it by one devise and videos turned out like a total disaster? I don't need another reason to cry myself to sleep.
never the last, this is a year after the accident, you may or may not remember, Actaeas got ran over by a car on Aug 31 2014 during our Labor day trip, we got kindness helps and wishes from so many different people, I am really grateful I still have him here with me, jumping and wagging like a normal pup, if you are reading this article, I want to thank you again for caring and thinking about us.
Actaeas got back home in one piece this year
I will keep you happy and safe, always, as I promised.
