We had 7 sea kayakers come out to the Lake Monroe Overnight on Saturday March 25th for a windy day.  The weather started out cool, windy with some spotty rain early. The temperature was 49F at 10 am  with winds from the West at about 18 mph with gust up to 31 mph.  With wind direction we hugged the shore to get as much wind shelter as possible. 

We started out heading for Patton's cave but changed course because of the lake conditions. We decided to head along the peninsula shore and head north towards the tip of peninsula and get into wind shadow and find a campsite.   We ended up picking site 17 in the Deam Wilderness which was well sheltered from the west wind. 

We setup our tents, stowed gear, collected fire wood and had lunch.  After lunch we had 5 paddlers that wanted to go out in play in waves.  We paddled out of our projected bay and paddled into the wind towards the tip of the peninsula .  We use area between tip of the peninsula and bird resting area markers as our sea kayaking play ground.  The further you went towards north shore the bigger the waves.  Some of the waves got to about 2 feet and few were briefly capping.   We did laps in this area practicing playing in waves, surfing, side surfing and turning on top of the waves.   We had no swimmers or flips which made use all very happy since water was still quite cold.   

We had dinner and enjoyed nice sunset and good fire to keep the evening chill away.   The over night low got down to about 32F by early Sunday morning. 

Sunday was calm the temps warmed up quickly with temps getting to 46F by 10 am.    We paddled down to Patton's Cave and up the creek since water level was still rising.  Lake level was 543.96 ft. by time we got off water Sunday at 1 pm.  Lake level was 541.99 ft.  when we arrived on Saturday morning.  So lake was almost 6 ft. above normal pool.   When we got off the water the air temperature was up to 59F.   A great way to start the sea kayak season. 

Trip Leader:  Jeff Stejskal

Lake Monroe Trip Pictures Spring 2023