Emerald Cove Stand Up Paddle Trip / Leaving Las Vegas!

As the weekend approached, it was time to start putting together our next adventure. I have a long list of paddling, cycling, and backpacking adventures that can be fit into a weekend, within a few hours of where we live in Arizona. I knew that there was a chance that I was going to have a window of a day or two off at the end of the week in addition to the weekend, and wanted to be prepared.

As luck would have it, I was able to confirm that I was going to have a four day weekend! Score! Bianca and I mulled over our options and she came up with what turned out to be the perfect idea.

We'd head out of town on Thursday, after her work day, and spend the night in the hamlet of Kingman, AZ. We'd get an early start on Friday morning and point the car toward Willow Beach Marina and Campground, which is in the Black Canyon section of the Colorado River. This area is a part of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Arizona, and less than an hour from Kingman.

After a day of paddling the Colorado and exploring Emerald Cove, we'd head to Las Vegas for some more paddling and fun. We'd plan on staying at the Westin Resort in Lake Las Vegas and paddle that Lake on Saturday. On Sunday we'd paddle a portion of Lake Mead, before heading home Sunday afternoon. 

The last few hours before getting on the road always seem to drag on like Christmas Eve when you're a kid. Soon enough the car was packed and we were on our way. We pulled in to the Springhill Suites in Kingman around 10:30. I quickly scouted out the area where the breakfast buffet was to be served the next morning. 

To my horror, we were informed that the buffet was closed due to Covid. Well, crud. Not ideal!! I felt like Clark Griswold in the original Vacation movie, who pulls into Wally World, after a tortuous drive across the country, only to discover that the park was closed for repairs. Things would get worse. The next morning, I did see that they had a coffee bar, but they had the effrontery to only offer powdered creamer!! Seriously, Springhill Suites, you've got to up your game.... 

Maybe we should have stayed here instead? We ended up leaving town before we got our kicks, sadly. We got on the road by 7:30 and after a brief stop to grab some mud and a few breakfast sandwiches we were on our way.

In seemingly no time, we were approaching the entrance to Willow Beach. We made a brief stop at the "Scenic Overlook" and took a few pics. I couldn't wait to get on the water.

We pulled in to the entrance station and renewed our annual "America the Beautiful" pass which for $80 grants the holder free entry into many National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, and National Forest Service sites. Just on this trip alone we made up $50 of it. Since we have a tendency to frequent these areas, we save a ton of money by buying this annual pass. I digress.

To my surpise, Willow Beach turned out to be a really big area. The parking lots and facilities were expansive. There was a large marina and plenty of space to launch boats. It was quite the oasis in the middle of the desert. We found a water source and filled our hydration bladders and bottles. The air temperature was well over 100 degrees.

We found a parking spot where we could spread out a bit. We always lay a tarp down to protect our boards from getting scuffed up on the ground. We attach our inflator pump, set it for 15 psi, and get the rest of our gear ready to go. It's probably a 30 minute process, but when its 105 degrees out and you're excited to begin paddling, it feels like hours!

With the pre-launch prep work completed, it was time to get underway! The sun was hot, but the water was nice and cool. There was a bit of a breeze and some boat traffic, but the water was still relatively smooth. Those first few paddle strokes always feel like Christmas morning when you first get a gander at your stocking, and you were good that year! At that point, I just start ripping strokes and have to remember not to take off on Bianca. 

The Willow Beach Marina on your right as you head upriver towards Emerald Cove.

Bianca

Crystal Clear Waters

It was nice to get into this little cave and escape the sun for a little while.

Emerald Cove, AKA The Main Event!

We hung around Emerald Cove for a while, soaking in the sights and exploring some of the other features in the area. We decided to head upriver and seek out some hot springs that are a few miles further than Emerald Cove. We thought that it would be fun to soak in the hot springs for a while.

It was about that time, around noon, when we got a nice tail wind pushing us further upriver. We pulled into a nice beach for a bit of a break and noted an excellent primitive, river side campsite.

A beautiful spot to camp. Couldn't imagine a  much better place to camp. It is about 30 degrees too hot for me to want to camp there right now, however.

Some cat sailing a small catamaran upriver. Pretty cool. He was steering with his feet and laying in a prone position.

In the end, discretion was the better part of valor. We turned around as I was extremely leery of the increase in windspeed. As much as I wanted to continue on to the hot springs, I knew that it was going to be a slog back to the marina, battling what was shaping up to be a nasty headwind. 

After an hour of battling the headwind, I was starting to flag. I realized that I had been neglecting my hydration and nutrition. I was all of a sudden famished and thirsty. I pulled into a small, peaceful cove and pulled out a snack and my water bottle. After a few minutes Bianca pulled up and we took a nice break. 

This little rapscallion crawled right up to me. I gently urged him to head in another direction. Didn't want him to take a chunk out of one of my toes.

Is it just me or do Go-Pros make you look like a total badass?

After battling the wind for quite a while, we finally made it back to Willow Beach. We were worn out. The distance of over ten miles of paddling, combined with the epic heat, and the gnarly headwind, made for one of the toughest days of paddling I've had. We deflated the boards and packed the car as quickly as we could, as we knew our room at the Westin was waiting for us, what with cold beer, hot showers, and some delicious Mexican food. 

We pulled into the Westin Lake Las Vegas around 5:00, starved. What a classy joint. Wouldn't you know it, that that area has almost no gas stations, no grocery stores, pretty much nothing. Not sure what the folks do that actually live in that part of Henderson. We had to drive 8 miles from the resort, to a decidedly less classy area, to pick up some beer. The store sold liquor, tobacco, CBD, Pornography, and cold beer. What else is there? I'm pretty sure that the proprietor was stationed behind a wall of bulletproof glass. We picked up a case of Modelo.

We next headed to the Walgreens to get some snacks. I've never seen a Walgreens that had a security guard stationed inside. This one had not one, but two security guards. Not bad. 

After finally returning to our resort, we headed to the local Mexican restaurant, which had incredible food. If you happen to find yourself in Lake Las Vegas, I'd advise you to head to The Sonrisa Grill. The Chimichanga with carnitas is particularly appealing. 

It was all we could do to make it back to our room. With a heavy load of chips, salsa, the aforementioned chimichanga, a shot of tequila, and a couple of cold brewskis on board it was time for bed. We were exhausted and knew that we had a relatively early day the next day. I was asleep within seconds of my head hitting the pillow.

Our rooms came with a free breakfast. Sadly, that did not include a buffet. Happily, bloody marys were on the menu. The food was delicious! The cream, was real... !!

After breakfast, we decided to rent some bikes that were at the resort. We thought we'd pedal around for a couple of hours and explore the area before beginning our paddle. The bikes were rubbish, but fun nonetheless.

We rode around for a couple of hours and had fun. It was thirsty riding. A very hilly area, so we did a lot of climbing. We headed back to our room for a cold beverage before hitting the lake. That's our resort on the right.

Our room didn't suck.

In the end, we decided to use some of the boards that belonged to the resort. After the heat of the bike ride, we didn't feel like going to all of the trouble of inflating our boards and then having to deflate them and repack everything. We paddled around the entire lake for a couple of hours and covered over 5 miles. It was fun and a great workout, but pretty pedestrian as far as paddling locales go. We were there, so we paddled, but would not ever really feel compelled to return.

After we finished we walked by one of the pools and were waylaid by one of the poolside cocktail waitresses who had a tray full of delicious looking drinks. We decided to order just one. 

Some length of time, and some number of drinks later, we were back in our room ordering pizza. Well, it is Vegas, after all. Needless to say, we slept in a tad on Sunday morning, before firing down another delicious breakfast, sans the bloody mary.

We packed up our gear and made tracks for Lake Mead. I was stoked to get on the water. We arrived at Lake Mead, which is pretty big. We tried several access points and they were all rife with power boats, and the water looked pretty choppy. Furthermore, the area just wasn't very visually appealing. Somewhat reluctantly we decided to move on. I'm sure that the area must offer something for paddlers, we just weren't able to find out what it was.

We climbed back in the car for the long pilgrimage back to the Phoenix area. It was a great weekend. The highlight for me had to be the paddle through Black Canyon, and sharing Emerald Cove with Bianca. That is something that I'll definitely do again!

Weekend escape to Blue Ridge Reservoir

Bianca and I decided we'd give CC Cragin, nee Blue Ridge Reservoir, another crack this last weekend. We decided not to paddle camp, as we weren't familiar enough with the reservoir to know for sure that we'd be able to find a place to set up shop. The upside of that is that we would be car camping, and thus would be able to bring a larger cooler, as well as a few more niceties.

The plan was that we'd get on the road as soon as possible after work on Friday. We'd end up camping in one of the many dispersed sites off the forest road(s) leading into the reservoir. We'd wake up early and try to beat the hordes in to the launch area. On Sunday, we'd break out the mountain bikes and explore some of Passage 27 of the Arizona Trail. 

I didn't relish the thought of trying to find a place to camp in an unfamiliar place, late at night no less. Despite that little bit of trepidation, I was stoked for the paddling and the peddling. Additionally, the forecast was calling for temps in the upper 50s at night, with daytime highs in the 80s. Perfect!

I arrived from work and we began to pack Bianca's Ford Expedition in earnest. The Expedition is not a small vehicle, by any measure. It became apparent that our weekend was going to be very gear intensive, what with the camping, paddling, and mountain biking. In the aftermath of loading the vehicle, it was nearly bursting at the seams. 

We hit the road a tick after 5:00 and pointed the car towards Jersey Mike's in order to acquire our standard road trip fare. I got my usual #8 Club Sub, Mike's Way, hold the mayo, and add mustard please. It's a tasty product. Should you ever find yourself in a Jersey Mike's, I'd recommend it. 

After a short while, we made the approach to be the Beeline highway, State Route 87, for the trek North. We'd last been on the Beeline over a month previously. The contrast was stark. The devastation from the Bush fire was evident and somewhat sad to see. To see thousands of beautiful saguaros destroyed by the fire was a little upsetting.

Hard to see in the photos, but much of the landscape has been reduced to ash.

At about 9:15 PM or so, we reached the metropolis of Clint's Well and shortly thereafter made the turn off Beeline onto FR 751. By now, of course, it was pitch dark. We'd need to drive down the many forest roads that exit off of FR 751 in order to find a dispersed camping site. I was immediately glad that we were in a relatively high clearance vehicle, as these roads were kidney pounding tough. 

As we drove up and down these roads for about forty five minutes or so, we discovered that most sites that we could see were taken. I mentally began to ponder Plan B. Well, crud. There was no plan B. 

Eventually we found a forlorn little spot and backed the rig in. Bianca and I have set up camp together so many times, that we don't need to speak a word! Usually in about ten minutes, camp is set up. 

The temperature was a nice, cool 65! Within a few minutes I was comfortably deep inside my Big Agnes. My Big Agnes is my sleeping bag, FYI. Sleep came easy, as a wave of exhaustion overcame me. 

Seemingly minutes later, the alarm went off. I wanted to get moving as I knew that weekends at the reservoir are hectic and the parking lot fills up quick. Once that happens, you're stuck waiting in line. 

I sprang from my sleeping bag and fired up the coleman stove. With a few spits, hisses, pops, belches, and gurgles the percolator had percolated and we had coffee. After firing down a couple of Basha's Bakery cinnamon rolls, which frankly were better off left at Basha's, we began to prep our gear. 

Bianca inflated our boards using this beautiful, cigarette lighter powered air compressor. She had picked it up at NoSnow, our local SUP shop. I was dubious at first, but this little bad boy shined!! You can connect it to your board and then go about completing other tasks. It'll shut itself off when it reaches the preprogrammed PSI. It also has the added bonus of not getting you drenched in sweat, as is typical after using a manual air pump.

With everything ready to go, we departed camp around 7:15. Thankfully our timing was just right. We were able to pull right up to the launching area. We jettisoned our gear, and Bianca stayed to move our gear down to the water, while I went to park the vehicle. We were in and out in less than a minute.

We set sail and then watched as the area turned to chaos, a real Charlie Foxtrot. Folks inflating kayaks, SUPs, etc right in the middle of the launch ramp.

As soon as the cacophony from the launch area faded, and my tympanic membranes recovered, I was able to assess the splendor in front of me. It was quite spectacular, as it was reputed to be. Ponderosa pines abound. The water, a pretty shade of green. The sky, a, well, pretty sky blue! The surface of the water, glass like. Each paddle stroke as smooth as could be. 

After a few miles of paddling, those cinnamon rolls were burned off. Hallelujah! It was time to find a  nice place to have lunch. We pulled over to the side of the reservoir and hopped out.

What a nice place for lunch. Easy to pull the boards right out of the water onto large rock shelves.

Bianca putting together our lunch spread. We had PBJs, several salty snacks, cold water, a couple of sodas, and a beer apiece. We decided that we'd save these for closer to the end.

That's not mayo. That's my sunscreen.

We decided to poke around a bit after lunch. There was a trail leading up a small rise, away from the water. We decided to go hike it. To our surprise it revealed a sweet, primitive campsite. The site was expansive and had several chairs crafted from logs, a nice table crafted from wood, and over on the other side we could see a large, stone firepit. We walked up to the firepit and were immediately disgusted. Some scumbags had left their bags of used toilet paper and human waste in the firepit. It was one of the most sickening things I've seen in a while. I cannot imagine a human being doing that. Ugh. Evidently Leave No Trace doesn't apply to everyone. I'm sure that the three of you that read this blog weren't the perpetrators, but to quote old Hank, "I'd like to spit some beechnut in that dude's eye".

On that note, if you have to go, there are plenty of options that don't require openly leaving waste for the next person to find. In many areas it's legal to dig a cathole for your solid waste, following local guidelines. Have a plan before you get out there of how you're going to handle the situation. Shit happens.

I use Biffy bags, but there are countless other products. It includes TP and everything is contained in a deodorized liner and then sealed in a mylar-like Ziploc style bag for packing it out. Whenever I'm backpacking, bikepacking, or paddle camping, I have a few of these in my pack. Endeth the sermon.

After my olfactory sensory neurons began to recover from the absolute beating that they had just received, we returned to our boards and resumed our paddle. We observed some foreboding clouds moving in. It looked as though we could be in for some rain.

After five miles of paddling, we approached the Southwest end of the reservoir. It began to rain, which felt refreshing. It felt sort of anticlimactic. We turned around and began to head back. 

There was a campsite up on top of this formation. We didn't see a tremendous amount of places for tent campers. Maybe a half dozen or so. There may have been more that we just didn't see. On the other hand, if you are a hammock camper, you have tons of options. There are tons of trees, if not very many flat places. 

We got to within a mile or so of the launch area and decided to drink our adult beverages. Our original plan called for us to pass the launch area and head to the opposite end of the reservoir. This would equate to roughly 16 miles of paddling all together. In the end, we elected to just finish out the paddle to the launch area, as I was dying to get on the bike and sample some of the Arizona Trail, Passage 27. We'd have to settle for 10 miles on the board. That was enough, as it had been nearly 4.5 hours of paddling.

Biffy bag not needed.

We made it back to camp around 3:00 and had a quick snack. It was at that point that that new pump Bianca had picked up at NoSnow really shined and earned it's keep. Raise your hand if you operate inflatable rigs like we do. Yup, Ok, I see you. Nod your head if you can never seem to get enough air out of the board to be able to fit it back into the sausage casing that it came in!! Yup, I see you, and I hear you. No longer a problem!! The air pump will deflate the board for you. I'm talking down to the last molecule of air! Literally, the last nanometer of air. In fact, I'm worried that it'll implode due to the vacuum that surely must have been created in there! It literally makes it a snap to get a nice tight roll of the board in order to get it back into said casing. If you have the means, I'd highly recommend picking one up. I digress.

We quickly donned our riding togs. I just wanted to go for a quick ride and recon the trails that we'd be riding the next morning. Bianca seemed less then enthused, but gamely agreed to go along.

The trail was absolutely beautiful. A few sections of some chunky rock, but some nice smooth singletrack as well. 

We rode for an hour or so and returned to camp. We sat down for a beer and rehashed the day. It had been a good one. Eventually, the hunger pangs started panging en masse, and I fired up the stove. We had bacon and pineapple stuffed sausages that we'd picked up at Bashas in Payson, accompanied by some chips and salsa and some dynamite pesto pasta salad. It was a rather tasty denouement to the day. Soon enough, the toothpicks propping up my eyelids collapsed from the strain, and I made tracks for Big Agnes. We were wiped out and luckily had no need for an alarm to be set. It couldn't have been much past 8:00 PM. 

We awoke around 7:00 to a beautiful sunny day. After some coffee and a rather non-descript breakfast, we geared up, hopped on our bikes and rolled out of camp. 

We rode a little bit on some of the Forest Roads until we made it to the trailhead off of FR 751. The trail starts off nice and smooth and is a lot of fun.

Bianca getting ready to enter a rocky section

The trail to the right heads off towards Rock Crossing Campground, a really picturesque campground, which was regrettably closed.

The views seen from some of the outer campsites were spectacular.

After checking out the campground for a bit, we got back on the bikes, rode a few more miles and eventually worked our way back to camp. Within 30 minutes we had camp packed, and were on the road home!

All in all, it was an awesome trip! We got to paddle and pedal, two of my favorite things to do. We were able to escape the heat for a weekend, which is always nice! Can't wait to share another adventure with Bianca!