Grizzly waters kayaking in Suisun City: West Coast biggest marsh
For most people, the coffee-colored waters of the Suisun Marsh are just a body of water you pass by on the way to the Bay Area. To James Burge, the marsh is so much more. “Water for me and I believe a lot of people, after they experience it, is calming. It’s good for the soul, good for the mind, can destress and just kind of connect yourself with nature,” he said. Burge runs Grizzly Waters Kayaking out of Suisun City, an intimate and sometimes windy tour of the largest tidal estuary west of the Mississippi. “‘Suisun’ means ‘the west wind’ literally, so the Suisun Indians are people of the west winds,” Burge explained. Unlike a swamp, a marsh generally doesn’t have trees to break the wind. In the case of Suisun Marsh, tule reeds are the main respite from wind. “They’re native plants to the area and they were used for everything from shelters to baskets, to even duck decoys,” said Burge. The Suisun Marsh spans a little over 110,000 acres. The brackish water here is a mix of fresh water from the California delta colliding with the Pacific Ocean, attracting a diverse range of birds.