Mendocino CATCH A CANOE & BICYCLES TOO Travel Review — Peaceful Paddling Experience with Wildlife Views

Rain falls softly on the water around you, lightly coating your safety jacket and exposed knuckles as you push your paddle through the surface of the river. With each steady pump, your canoe glides away from the dock and further upstream, past dark green layers of mist-shrouded redwood forest and floating, ghostly white storm-felled trees. 

Geese honk and gather in the distance; you pass a lone cormorant taking flight from an embedded log. Thirty yards away, a pair of harbor seals float on their backs, noses and tails turned skyward; another set upstream swims toward the riverbank, weaving sleek S-curves through the water’s surface.

You are surrounded by a variety of sounds, movement, and signs of life — but there is also an immense sense of quiet. The river is calm, and your canoe, flanked on both sides by wooden outriggers, floats steadily on the surface of the water, allowing you to give your full attention to the wildlife that surrounds you. Once you get around the first bend (about a third mile upriver), there are no roads, buildings, or other humans in sight: It’s just you, your canoe partner — a brave swimmer or two — and the rhythmic splash of your paddle.

Catch a Canoe & Bicycles Too Offers Intimate Wildlife Experience on Mendocino’s Big River

Catch a Canoe & Bicycles Too rents out gear for a number of outdoor activities around Mendocino — available at their shed on the grounds of the Stanford Inn are a variety of two- to eight-person redwood canoes in addition to bicycles, kayaks, and paddleboard gear. 

But you’ll see much of it on display before you enter the shop. After driving down the narrow path to their location, which opens up to a small parking area and cul-de-sac view of the river, you’ll pass colorful rows of stacked kayaks to your left and a dozen or so canoes in the water below, bobbing gently from their tethered spots on the dock.

After checking in at the shop, a Catch a Canoe employee outfits you with safety jackets and paddles and guides you across the low, T-shaped wooden dock, where your boat awaits. You’ll get a brief rowing lesson and a few directives (return the boat within three hours; do not pass the bridge), the dock wobbling slightly underfoot. You step off the edge and take your seat on the slat of wood across the top of the canoe, wondering, perhaps… how will you not fall off?

But the boat is steady as land. The shop attendant grabs the right-side outrigger float and pushes you off the dock — and now you and your partner are alone on the water, free to explore the wide expanse of Big River.

There is a foot-operated rudder system that provides some of the steering power, but you’ll use your paddle in tandem with your partner (or group) to move the boat up the river. It’s lightly exerting, but if you need a break you can set down your paddle and just float at a standstill (this writer recommends it, so you can fully pause to take in the view — or a few photos, which you might feel especially compelled to do when passing floating, nose-upturned seals).

Once your phone is safely stashed away, you may relish the opportunity to be away from technology, civilization, and the pull of your life on land — immersed for this brief moment in the diverse ecosystem, stunning views, and gentle flow of Big River. 

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

For more information and booking details, visit Catch a Canoe’s website.

Photos by the author, unless otherwise noted

Nominate this for The Picture This Post BEST OF 2023???
Click Readers' Choice!

Check out the 2022 Winners!