San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Delta’s ferries still free and functional
Where can you ride a car ferry in Northern California for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week? There are two answers, and they both take you to the same place: Ryer Island, a quiet 18square-mile island in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The ferries, the Real McCoy II and the J-Mack, are a little-known part of the California highway system operated by Caltrans, and the last of their kind. When Highway 84, heading toward Sacramento, hits the water at Cache Slough just north of Rio Vista, the Real McCoy II becomes the highway. The same is true for the J-Mack, which serves as part of Highway 220, a short, sleepy road running from Ryde on Grand Island to Ryer Island, where it intersects with Highway 84.
The Real McCoy started making the crossing from Rio Vista to Ryer Island in 1945. The ferry you ride today is actually the second of its name, the Real McCoy II. Its predecessor, the Real McCoy I, made the same crossing roughly 140 times a day until 2011, earning it a reputation as one of the most reliable pieces of equipment ever purchased by Caltrans.
Every 20 minutes starting at the top of the hour, the Real McCoy II loads up (an attendant will pack in about eight cars or whatever can fit), makes the short trip to Ryer Island, and returns with any cars waiting for it there.
The J-Mack is even less formal: show up at the edge of the water, and the boat will come and pick you up.
“Don’t be afraid to flash your lights or honk. You can even get out and wave, if you feel like it,” said Vince Jacala from Caltrans. The ferry operates day and night, and sometimes the operators won’t see you right away.
The J-Mack is the simplest of designs: a flat, open platform with a bit of a Huckleberry Finn flavor. The boat pulls itself across the slough on an underwater cable system; only a low yellow-and-black barrier stops you from rolling off into the water. The ride is so quick, and so surprisingly fun (if you’re not accustomed to tiny car ferries), that you might find yourself tempted to turn around and do it all over again. You wouldn’t be the first.
“People often ride the ferries just for the sake of riding them,” said Jacala.
During the week, the ferries are mostly used by Ryer Island residents, farmworkers and small trucks transporting goods. Delta locals will sometimes use the ferries as a workaround when the Rio Vista Bridge is raised for boat traffic or closed for repairs. On the weekends, day trippers, car clubs, bikers and groups of cyclists show up.
It’s no insult to say that Ryer Island itself is not a bustling destination. Beyond the Snug Harbor Resort, which offers camping and RV sites as well as rustic cabins right on the water along Steamboat Slough, the thing to do — really the only thing to do as a visitor — is explore the back roads, admiring the ingenuity of the levee builders and basking in the serenity.
The land the levees protect is planted with a patchwork of grapes, plums, corn, sorghum and safflower growing in the sea-level soils of the island. To the west, you can spot the start of the Sacramento River Deep Water Ship Channel, completed in 1963 to provide access for larger ships to the Port of Sacramento. Waterbirds ply the sloughs, and thousands of swallows crowd the telephone wires.
Once you’ve taken in the sights, you can leave via Highway 84 and the Miner’s Slough bridge at the far north of the island — but why would you do that when your car ferry is waiting?