On a chilly and heavily overcast Tuesday morning in mid-January, four Arizona Trailblazers gather at the Castle Creek boat ramp on the northwest end of Lake Pleasant for a few hours of kayaking.

Most of us experienced some light rain along the Carefree Highway on the way to the lake this morning, and from the looks of this overcast sky it could start raining again at any moment. Today’s weather forecast predicted a 10 to 20% chance of light rain across parts of the Sonoran Desert. Normally that would mean no rain at all, but it appears that today just might be the exception. On the drive up I-17, we saw a partial rainbow emerging from the thick cloud cover. A stark omen of things to come?

We unload our kayaks and gear off to the side of the wide concrete boat ramp at Castle Creek and park our vehicles near the top of the ramp. Next, we prep for launch and take a quick selfie group photo for the record.

At 9:20 AM we push our kayaks into the water, climb aboard, and start paddling in the direction of the Castle Creek arm of the lake.

The upper north end of Lake Pleasant is by far the most interesting part of the lake for kayakers to explore. Several long bays, each with multiple fingers, including Castle Creek, Goose Bay, Coles Bay, and Humbug Bay, probe their blue waters deep into the North Lake Pleasant Conservation Area and provide many miles of kayaking adventure.

Today, our main goal will be to explore the Castle Creek arm of the lake, so we continue paddling in a northwest direction, as we move deeper into Castle Creek. We see blue patches of open sky from time to time, but within minutes those patches of blue are soon replaced by more cloud cover.

At one point we see a lone seagull, soaring high overhead. All of our desert lakes seem to have a small resident population of seagulls. These birds are obviously not native to the desert, but instead are likely descendants of sea birds from the west coast, caught up in strong westerly winds during powerful summer monsoon storms.

The sun tries its best to penetrate the heavy cloud cover, but the overcast sky continues to push back and completely obscure it. As we continue paddling up Castle Creek, a light mist hits us from time to time. By 11:00 we decide to make a lunch and rest stop along a rocky shoreline. There’s no problem finding a large boulder for seating here.

By 11:45 we load up and push off for the return trip back to the launch ramp. No sooner do we start paddling, when that 20% chance of rain decides to get serious and lets loose with a light to moderate, but steady, rain shower. Thankfully, we all have rain-gear and manage to stay relatively dry.

But about halfway back to the ramp we see a solid line of heavy rain in the distance, almost totally obscuring the mountains around the lake, and can only hope we don’t get caught up in that deluge. This ominous-looking scene gives us extra incentive and energy, pushing us into overdrive in an attempt to reach the boat ramp before the rainstorm.

Thankfully we manage to do just that, arriving back at the ramp by 1:20 PM, loading up our kayaks and gear, and hightailing it back to the Carefree Highway and home. Yet another great kayaking adventure on Lake Pleasant.