The three Yakateers at the Scorpion Bay Marina Restaurant.. [photo by Norma]

Sonny, Norma, and Chuck.

At 9:20 a.m. on a beautiful Tuesday morning in mid-April, three Arizona Trailblazer kayakers, or as Norma calls us, the three yakateers, climb into our kayaks and push off from the lake shore adjacent to the Castle Creek Boat Ramp on the north end of Lake Pleasant. Under clear blue skies and a temperature of about 70 degrees we start paddling north toward Castle Creek Bay. Viewing the lake from the road on the drive in, it was obvious long before we actually reached the water that the lake level has come up quite a bit since our last kayaking trip here in January. Once on the water we estimate the lake level has risen between 15 and 20 feet over the past three months. Millions of gallons of water from both the Agua Fria River and the CAP Canal, delivering Colorado River water, have been pouring into the lake during this time and slowly filling it up.

Chuck is admiring Sonny’s sleek new eddyline Skylark kayak. The eddyline brand is the Corvette Stingray of kayaks. [photo by Norma]

Chuck and Norma paddle close to the shoreline. [photo by Sonny]

When at 100% capacity, Lake Pleasant covers over 10,000 surface acres, with 116 miles of shoreline. This compares to 15,560 surface acres and 128 miles of shoreline for Roosevelt Lake, Arizona’s largest lake. Some people mistakenly consider Lake Powell to be Arizona’s largest lake. But less than 10% of Lake Powell actually lies within Arizona, while the vast majority of the lake spills over into southern Utah. As we continue paddling, the winds remain calm, and the lake surface is relatively smooth for a lake notorious for windy conditions. Today’s forecast is calling for light winds of 2 to 9 mph for most of the day, but these wind forecasts are certainly not the most accurate. During some of our previous kayaking trips we’ve experienced wind speeds up to 25 mph, when the day’s forecast only called for winds of 10 to 12 mph.

This big guy certainly looks like he’s getting plenty to eat. [photo by Norma]

While this burro forages among the boulders for tasty greens. [photo by Norma]

In July 2017, a major monsoon storm rolled across Lake Pleasant, generating winds up to 50 mph and kicking up 8-foot waves that crashed over the Scorpion Bay Marina, destroying much of the dock area, sinking or badly damaging a number of large boats and cabin cruisers, and causing major damage to the marina restaurant and other buildings in the area. It took months of clean-up, repairs, and rebuilding to restore everything back to normal.

This beautiful setting lies along the shoreline about midway up Castle Creek Bay. [photo by Norma]

We pull in here for a rest and lunch break [photo by Sonny]

Chuck and Norma enjoy a snack break in the deep shade of a sprawling mesquite tree. [photo by Sonny]

This colorful Owl’s Clover is at peak bloom. [photo by Sonny]

As we continue paddling deeper into Castle Creek Bay, we start exploring several smaller branches of the bay and paddle as far as we can in each one until the water level becomes too shallow to continue on. We almost always see a few the lakes resident burros and hear them braying at one another on our Lake Pleasant hiking and kayaking trips, but something is certainly different about today. We’re seeing more burros than ever before, some in groups as large as 12 or more, and the braying is almost non-stop. Do they ever take a time out?

A herd of burros forages along the shoreline of Lake Pleasant. [photo by Sonny]

What a great place to live if you’re a burro. [photo by Sonny]

Sonny even witnesses a few of the males head-butting one another, going at it full-throttle just like bighorn sheep rams, something I’ve never seen before. With such noise and aggression all around us, as well as a great deal of testosterone presumably flowing throughout the male burro population (the jacks), while the female burros (the jennies), not quite ready for prime-time, seem to be running aimlessly trying to escape the amorous intensions of the males, we conclude this must be peak mating season for Lake Pleasant’s resident burros. Burro love is in the air!

Norma carefully glides past a bleached-white ghost forest of partially submerged trees. Note the black custom rudder on the back of her kayak. [photo by Sonny]

Meanwhile, Chuck and Sonny navigate another section of the ghost forest. [photo by Norma]

Lunch and rest break over, we climb aboard our kayaks once again and begin paddling southeast toward the main lake body. And it isn’t too long before a perfectly calm day once again quickly becomes a breezy to windy day, naturally blowing right in our direction. Why can’t these winds ever be to our backs, helping to push us along? Thankfully, though, there are no whitecaps on the water today. Maneuvering a bouncing kayak in strong winds, roiling unpredictable waves, and whitecaps can be risky business, forcing us to be extra vigilant to avoid capsizing.

We finally make our way through, well, almost anyway. [photo by Norma]

We slowly approach two foraging burros. [photo by Norma]

Looks like pretty slim pickings among all these rocks and boulders. [photo by Sonny]