Our customary parking spot at Doran Beach

We found the tide extremely low when we arrived at Doran County Park (south of Bodega Bay), where we always stop to collect ghost shrimp. Although there seemed to be a surprising number of people using the beach — across the road from where we park — we had the bay side completely to ourselves. I did notice, though, that as we were finishing up and getting ready to leave, a couple of folks walked into the bay with clam digging equipment.

Even the gulls were few and far between. We did have one fellow who landed to check out what we were doing; but he kept his distance and soon enough wandered off. Locating the shrimp in this low tide condition was a little tricky. We did manage to collect our limit of 50, but the Big Guy was getting a bit frustrated at first! He definitely works hard for his fishing bait, and I’m glad I can be of some assistance.

After passing through Jenner and going up and over Meyers Grade, we made a quick stop at the Fort Ross Store and said hello to this guy who was just hanging around.

We found a bit of construction work along the road and paused to wait our turn to pass through the one-lane traffic area. That gave me a chance to notice the wildflowers growing along the shoulder near the Ocean Cove Store. The shoulder is pretty narrow here and it’s not a great place to be a pedestrian at the best of times!