- Kathleen Scavone
- Posted On
The Living Landscape: Kayaking on Clear Lake
“I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore … I hear it in the deep heart's core.” – William Butler Yeats
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Limnologists tell us that our county's namesake, Clear Lake, is thought to be around a half a million years old – one of the oldest lakes in North America.
Since the 1960s its waters have been getting clearer. This has allowed sunlight to pierce its surface deep into the waters, which then allows rooted plants to grow and thrive, reaching the top of Clear Lake's relatively shallow waters. This can make recreation on the lake difficult in some areas.
Clear Lake's vast 44,000 acres of surface waters sits complacent among the parched yellow hills. With a ribbon-like smoothness a kayak can glide silently over its ancient surface.
From Clear Lake State Park, which requires a nominal day-use fee, you can launch your kayak from the boat ramp. If you head west you will meet up with Cole Creek, then Kelsey Creek.
Kelsey Creek is an important tributary of the Big Valley watershed. One of Lake County's native fish species, the Clear Lake hitch, once ran thick in these creeks. They can be seen during their spawning runs each year in March and April.
In times past the hitch were so prolific that the creek was congested with millions of fish. They are a species of particular concern today, as their population is dwindling. In fact, the State Fish and Game Commission recently granted “threatened” status to Clear Lake hitch under the California Endangered Species Act.
Now paddle east to Cole Creek's mouth and keep heading east toward Mount Konocti. This geological formation is a dormant multi-peaked volcano.
Hugging the shore, you need to watch for algae mats and rocks which are more visible during drought conditions.
You are entering Clear Lake State Park's swim beach, then on to Dorn Bay. This is a great place for wildlife and bird-watching. Here you will observe bubbling volcanic gases rising to the surface of Clear Lake from the carbonated water at the bottom of the lake.
As you keep paddling you come to Soda Bay, where even more volcanic bubbling action occurs. The two small islands you will soon see in Soda Bay are where the historic Soda Bath Springs were utilized in the early 1900s.
Back then, the Soda Bay Resort had a walkway from the resort on the mainland to the soda baths. The resort and the walkway were destroyed by fire in 1940.
It was quite fashionable for the health conscious to “take the waters” here at Soda Bath Springs in the early 1900s. There were many, many hot spring resorts in Lake County back then, such as Seigler Springs and Howard Hot Springs.
Then, there was a bath house erected around the lake's springs for bathing in the healing waters. Now, there are signs warning of the dangers of breathing in too much of the released gases, and the bath house's cement walls are all that remain of the structure.
In the old days, some bathers became asphyxiated due to a buildup of carbon dioxide and an oxygen shortage. The Bureau of Land Management now oversees this area.
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is an educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.