First day in. Take off at 6am to drive to Redding from Sausalito. I’m joined by Laura and Julien who come for the first 3 days in a tandem. Forecast is rain but it actually doesn’t matter. Put in at 1pm. Water seems to run quite fast. Estimated speed of the flow is 3-4 miles per hour so it’s going fast. We enjoy the beautiful scenery and take our time. Only 27 miles to do the first day. It’s acclimatation time. Love my kayak. Handles very well the few rapids that we encounter. We go without a map. No GPS until we reach 5 miles to the end. River is easy to read and we enjoy the moment. We find an island that is perfect: easy eddy to park, small rocks, rather flat surface. Cooking time, chatting with some cheese and rosé, can’t complain. We get some rain but really not that much. Tents are set and we are on top of the world.