RIVERS AND SLOUGHS AND ISLANDS

RYER ISLAND FERRY CROSSES CACHE SLOUGH

My recently acquired map of the delta shows more than 20 islands and nearly as many "tracts."  How these tracts differ from islands is not clear since both appear to be areas of land surrounded by water.  The reason for so many areas surrounded by water is the large number of rivers and sloughs that cross and recross each other on their way to the sea.  A slough is an alternate channel of a river.  How anyone can tell which is a slough and which is a river is a mystery to me as yet.  

It is easy to get lost on the delta. Logic suggests that if you are driving next to what appears to be a river, and you drive across a bridge to the other side and continue driving in the same direction and later cross back on another bridge, that you should be on the same side of the same river that you started out on.  Usually, in my experience, that doesn't work out too well. Most of the time I end up somewhere else entirely than wherever it was I was trying to go.  And this is with land vehicles.  I suspect that there are boaters who have disappeared entirely, leaving nary a trace.

Bridges are not the only possibility for getting from island to island.  If you leave Rio Vista and drive north on the road along the Sacramento River, in a couple of miles you will come to an abrupt turn after which the road ends at the Ryer Island Ferry dock.  The ferry runs 24 hours a day on the days that it runs (not predictable).

According to the ferryman I spoke with, he makes about 80 crossings in a 12 hour shift.  If you take the ferry across, you find that the road, which is Highway 84, continues north on Ryer Island.  Oh, and if you thought the ferry had taken you across the Sacramento River, you were wrong.  It crosses Cache Slough.  On the other side of Ryer Island is Steamboat Slough.  I have no idea what happened to the Sacramento River.

AMBER COOLS OFF IN THE INLET NEXT TO THE FERRY DOCK