Our last week at Lake Pleasant

 

The temperatures in the valley are continuing to rise, and the hibernating critters are starting to make themselves known (haven’t seen any rattlesnakes yet, but I did see a Gila Monster on the road today!) . . . so it’s time for us to move on!

 

Our hosting commitment ended on March 31st, and although we considered staying a little longer to take care of some business, we ultimately decided to move up to Nevada for a few weeks to take advantage of more economical flights from Las Vegas to Michigan.

Since we’ve been here for the last 4-1/2 months (really – 4 and a half!?!), Nicolas had a whole list of “checks” to complete on the rig before we moved, plus he wanted to wash the car, the truck, and the dog!  He’s been working on his “to do” list for the last couple of weeks, and finished everything up this weekend.  I’m not sure what we’re going to do when he isn’t with us . . .

Yesterday and today we did a bunch of laundry, stocked up on groceries, and packed up the garage.  We have one less thing to pack up, though . . . last week, Tom sold his motorcycle!

He found that he wasn’t riding it as much as he thought he would, so he decided to go ahead and unload it now, rather than waiting until we got back to Michigan in the fall (NOT the ideal time to sell a motorcycle in Michigan!).  So now we have lots of room in the garage, and that will make shorter stops (when we don’t fully unpack the garage) easier for Nicolas to use his room.

But it wasn’t all work and no play this past week . . . a couple of the maintenance guys had some buoys to move around on the lake, so we tagged along with them. 

 

We drove to the north end of the park, where we met them at the boathouse. 

Along the way, we saw this guy on the side of the road.

 

As Kyle and Jeremy moved buoys around to mark low water areas, Kyle also pointed out interesting features around the lake.

He’s been working at the lake for over 10 years, and he’s hiked almost every mile of the shoreline so he’s really familiar with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw several birds around the lake,

including great blue herons on Blue Heron Island.

 

 

The Agua Fria inlet to the lake has been closed all winter for bald eagle nesting, but was getting ready to be opened up again this week.  Since we were on official business, we were allowed to enter the closed area.  We didn’t have enough time to go all the way to the current nest, but Kyle was able to show us the “old” nest.

Kyle wasn’t sure why this one was abandoned, but it hasn’t been used for several years.  There are two pairs of eagles that call Lake Pleasant home, but only one couple is mature enough to have eggs.  Unfortunately, this year’s nesting was unsuccessful and there are no new baby eagles on Lake Pleasant.  Kyle told us that if the eggs had hatched, we would have been able to participate in banding the new eagles, and maybe even hold one of them . . . that would have been really cool!

Besides our boat ride, we also went back to Cave Creek this weekend.  The town was having their Fiesta Days Rodeo, so we went to check it out.  There wasn’t too much going on in town – just a few arts and crafts tents, and a motorcycle rally (Tom was having withdrawals!!).

We did wander through an interesting shop,

and saw some fun stuff.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was some nice patio furniture,

 

and then some that would be more of a conversation piece! 

Then there was Pluto . . .

and some cool metal flowers hanging on the walls.

 

Cave Creek is an interesting, artsy kind of town, with lots of choices for dinner.  We ended up at the original El Encanto Mexican Cantina, since we haven’t had mexican at all since we’ve been here . . . it was very good.  They have several other locations around Phoenix, and we’ve heard that they are all good.

 

 

 

 

 

We took a drive by the rodeo grounds,

but there wasn’t anything going on there in the afternoon.  We decided not to stick around for the rodeo, but instead got shakes at Big Earl’s and went back to the campground for the evening.

Tomorrow we’ll be moving on, as will another host, Peter, who is moving down the road to the shooting range for the summer . . . . so tonight the 2 remaining hosts planned a pizza dinner as a farewell party for all of us.    

 

 

It was a great way to end the season with our new friends, and hopefully we’ll cross paths with them again sometime, somewhere!

Quieter Days at the Lake

After 2 solid weeks of the campground being filled to capacity with spring break campers, it was really nice to get back to normal this past week.  Even Tom commented that he preferred the peace & quiet of the campground when there are just a handful of campers around . . . and he usually likes people!

 

We enjoyed some downtime this week – played some cornhole, made a new batch of fire starters,

and had a few campfires in the evenings.

 

 

Casey enjoyed the quieter campground, too . . . without all the razors running around!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a few days near 90 degrees this week . . . we even had to break down and turn on the A/C . . . and Nicolas found a better spot to take Casey swimming!

All we need is a nice stick, and she’ll jump in the water all day long!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nicolas was throwing the stick pretty far, and she kept jumping right in and swimming out to get it . . . nothing tired her out!

She just kept waiting for the stick to be thrown back into the water!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After her swim, she dried off in the sun and Nicolas brushed her out really well . . . and she looks like she just came home from the spa!

 

The end of March is drawing near, and it’s almost time for us to move on.  After 4-1/2 months in one place, we’re all getting a little bit of “hitch itch” and we’re ready to see some more new territory!

We had a few more beautiful desert sunsets this week . . .

 

including one day when there was a thick film of dust in the air!

 

 

Dam Good Run, Walk, Hike

On Saturday, Lake Pleasant Regional Park hosted the Dam Good Run, Walk, Hike.  Participants could choose from 3 routes – 2 miles, 4 miles, or 8 miles.

The 4 and 8 mile routes took the runners/walkers across the Waddell Dam.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the only time that the dam is open to pedestrian traffic, and in order to gain access to the dam, the park has to provide volunteers to man several checkpoints along the dam.

That’s where we came in!  Several of the camp hosts volunteered our Saturday morning to help out with the Dam Run – either on the dam, or at several other checkpoints along each of the routes.

Saturday morning was warm and sunny as we gathered at the Visitor Center and received our assignments.  Louis and Mary, along with Tom, Bryce and I were assigned to the dam.  Bryce had the very important job of telling the 4 mile runners that they had reached the turn around point at the far side of the dam, and Tom’s job was to make sure that the runners who continued on past Bryce were aware that they were on the 8 mile route. 

Louis, Mary and I were assigned to designated spots along the dam, and our job was just to make sure that nobody ventured off the designated path.

With our assignments clear, we headed down the hill to the dam.

 

The cones we carried had informational trivia attached to them . . . for the reading enjoyment of the participants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The “Dam Team”, ready for work!

Nicolas, along with Ron, was assigned to the location where the 8 mile runners leave the road and pick up the trail for the tail end of their route.  He was going to be responsible for directing traffic as the runners crossed the road.

After getting his instructions from Terry, he headed back towards the campground.  It was going to be awhile before he had to do anything!

While we waited for the first runners to reach us, I took some pictures from my vantage point on the dam.

A quiet morning on the lake

The Waddell Canal

 

These structures pump the water into and out of the lake, to and from the canal.

This canal is part of the Central Arizona Canal System, which brings water from the Colorado River at Lake Havasu, into central Arizona where it is stored in Lake Pleasant.  Water is brought into the lake through most of the fall, winter and spring, and then in the summer the water travels from Lake Pleasant, back through the canal system, to Phoenix and the surrounding communities, and down to Tuscon, supplying water during the hot, dry months.

Our maintenance compound, laundry facility, and 2 volunteer sites are located next to the canal south of the dam.

 

Around 9:15, we saw our first runners coming down the hill from the Visitor Center, heading toward us on the dam.

We continued to see folks for about the next 20 minutes or so, and most of them were just walking, enjoying the view from the dam.

There wasn’t a huge turnout, and other than the first few runners, most were casual runners and walkers, just out enjoying the beautiful morning.  I took lots of pictures for people, and several stopped to chat for awhile.

 

When they passed me, they continued on across the dam.  The 4 mile runners turned around when they reached Bryce and reversed their route, but the 8 mile runners took a trail through the desert below the dam, past out maintenance compound, and back up the access road to the campground where Nicolas directed them back to the Start/Finish Line at the 10 lane boat ramp.

Volunteer Frank marked the end of the pack, and he completed the entire 8 mile route, making sure that nobody got lost along the way.  Once he exited the dam, the gate where Tom was stationed was closed and locked. and we followed the 4 mile walkers as they came back across the dam.

Once everybody was off the dam, the gate at our end was closed and locked also, and we made our way back up to the Visitor Center.

We were done for the day and could go back to the RV for lunch, but Nicolas had to wait for all the 8 mile runners to return before he was done. 

We didn’t do much else for the rest of the day, except relax, but I do have a few nice sunset photos to share with you.