Author Archives: Kamloops Kayak

February – On the River

Kamloops Kayak Posted on by

In the last week of February the days were mild and the snows melted.     The river was clear of ice.      The gate to the boat launch at Pioneer Park  is still locked (??) so it is a bit awkward getting the boat down to the water.     I launched into the water and paddled upstream.     Without much wind, it was a pleasant paddle for about an hour.

The last day of paddling in 2023 was a cold day on November 12th, 98 days ago.     We will be out paddling lots more over the next 9 months.   A short video shares some of these moments:

 

@dsmith941

On the River (in February) #kayaking #kamloops #kamloopskayak

♬ original sound – dsmith941 – dsmith941

On Lesser-Known Lakes (3)

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Every year I try to paddle some new lakes, even if they are difficult to access.    Two of the lakes paddled this last year included Pemberton Lake and John Frank Lake.

There are a few small lakes high on the shoulders of the ridges between Mt. Lolo and Shaw Hill.    We paddle Hyas Lake every year and it is one of our favorites.    Off side roads are other smaller lakes like Andy Lake, Pemberton Lake, and Warren Lake.   After paddling Hyas Lake, I packed my folding kayak on a backpack and hiked for 0.7 km into marshy Pemberton Lake.   I paddled around the lake twice (2.4 km), then hiked back out.    There is a small Rec Site at the lake, but the road is rough and there were fallen trees.    It is a pleasant spot, with marshy shoreline, but it is very quiet and seldom visited.

John Frank Lake is in Roche Lake Provincial Park.   It is accessed by a rough 2.5 km road.    There is a hand launch spot on the lake.    The lake has lots of marshy areas and some of the bays become grown-in with aquatic vegetation in summer.    A paddle around the shoreline is 2.8 km so two loops may be a good option.    It is a scenic spot and it would be a regular spot to paddle except for the rough road.   Nearby is Frisken Lake which I have hiked into, but haven’t yet paddled.    The rough road to the lake is about 1.3 km so it may be pack-and-paddle route in 2024.

More lesser-known lakes will be featured over the winter…

 

On Lesser Known Lakes (2)

Kamloops Kayak Posted on by

Each year I try to paddle on some new lakes.    In this last year I paddled a few of them, including Black Lake and Fred Lake.

Black Lake is located in Roche Lake Provincial Park.    It is a destination lake for fishing, but the road in is very rough.    I have driven it, but regretted it and vowed never to do it again.    I have hiked the road a few times, usually on a loop route hike past a series of lakes.    I hiked in with a folding kayak in a backpack and paddled around the lake twice (4 km).    There were fishermen who had driven in.    I talked to one of them who was camped there.    He said he just drives very slowly in and out.    It is a very nice lake and one I will return to paddle.

Fred Lake lies in a forested area east of Lac le Jeune.    We can drive backroads (Ross Moore FSR), but the last access track is too narrow, overgrown, and rough for most vehicles.   I packed in my folding kayak and paddled twice around the lake (3.5 km).    It is surrounded by forest, but it may be a burned area now with lots of fallen trees.    It lies only 0.7 km from Ross Moore Lake.    Because of this, it may be a once-only lake.

More lesser-known lakes to come…

 

On Lesser-Known Lakes (1)

Kamloops Kayak Posted on by

Every year I try to find some new lakes in the area to paddle.    Access to some of the lakes may be an issue.    Rough roads and launch spots are a deterrent and the effort has to be weighed with the benefit.    After doing some of the lakes, I may decide that it was a once-only effort.    Other spots call for another visit.

Two  of the lakes from this year were Buse Lake and Chuwhels Lake.

Buse Lake has relatively easy access, just off Barnhartvale Road, but I had to haul the kayak down the slope and launch in a muddy area.    It is an alkali lake and late in summer the oxygen in the lake depletes and so we can observe brine flies and brine shrimp.    Alkali salts ring the lake and a red band of pickleweed grows above the white ring.   It is a quiet place for a paddle.     The cliffs of Buse Hill rise above the lake to the south.    The lake and the hill are part of BC Parks (Protected Area).   A paddle around the lake is about 2.2 km so two loops is a good option.     When I paddled the lake in the summer, there were still lots of ducks on the lake.    It can be combined with a hike around the lakeshore, enjoying the salt marsh ecosystem.

Chuwhels Lake lies in a small remote valley between Chuwhels Mountain and Greenstone Mountain.   Access is by bumpy backroads.    We can get to the lakeshore with a high clearance vehicle in dry conditions from the Greenstone Mountain Road, then a series of side roads.    The lake is dammed and we can hand launch from the shoreline.    The shoreline is forested with some rock bluffs above the shoreline on the south side.     It is a quiet spot that has some fish in the lake.    A paddle around the shoreline is about 1.4 km, so two loops plus the hike in carrying the kayak is about right.    I sometimes combine this with a hike on the Greenstone Mountain Trails or the Upper Cherry Creek backroads.

More lesser-known lakes will be featured in upcoming posts…

Reflections: Edith Lake on a Grey, Windy Day

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When the weather is marginal I got out to one of 4 lakes – Jacko, Edith, Paul, or Edith Lake.    On a day that was forecast for wind and rain, I got an early start.

On the open part of the lake, it was a bit windy and cool, but I did a counter-clockwise loop and entered the back channels, more protected from the wind.


There are two out-and-back bays on that end of the lake, both protected from the wind, but also hidden, with no other boats in sight.


The end of the back channel is surrounded by grazing lands.    I usually round the deadhead and return by the other shore.

A circuit around the lake takes about 50 minutes so I go around twice, once in each direction on some days.   On this day it was under an hour of paddling, a shorter outing for a busy day.

I will be back to paddle the lake again, then in winter to snowshoe around the lake.

 

Reflections: On Jacko Lake in the Rain

Kamloops Kayak Posted on by

The forecast was for rain and a bit of wind coming up late that morning, so I headed out to Jacko Lake for an early paddle in the drizzle.

There was one fisherman on the lake, but otherwise it was the swallows, eagles, blackbirds, sandpipers, American dippers. ducks, dragonflies, and one kayaker on the lake, in the rain.

Click an image for a lightbox view.

In spite of the rain and a bit of wind, this was a fine paddle, one of 78 in 2023.

 

Icy Bays and Frost on the Shoreline

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Near the end of the paddling season, the bays were freezing over and snow and frost covered the vegetation on the shoreline.     I wore ski gloves to paddle and kept the outing under an hour.

Winds were cold.    The end of the season had arrived.    I broke ice on one of the bays:

At this point the first day of kayaking in 2023 was March 13 and the last day was November 12th.   Three months to the first spring paddle in 2024…

 

 

 

Kayaking Nicola Lake from Monck Park

Kamloops Kayak Posted on by

On a fall day I launched my kayak from Monck Park and paddled south on Nicola Lake.   Nicola Lake can be very windy and even a calm day can soon turn into a breezy one.  

A short TikTok video shares some of these moments:

 

@dsmith941

Kayaking Nicola Lake (from Monck Park #paddling

♬ original sound – dsmith941 – dsmith941

Ice and Frost on Jacko

Kamloops Kayak Posted on by

At the end of October the air was cold and ice had formed in the shallow bays of Jacko Lake.

There was no wind so I ventured out to paddle around the lake.   Frost covered the north-facing hills and some of the icy bays couldn’t be paddled, but there were swans and ducks on the lake, a muskrat swimming across, and an eagle watching over the lakeshore.    A couple of bundled-up fishermen were out, casting their lines.

With work on the Trans Mountain Pipeline close by, it was not quiet, but the lake was peaceful.    Staying warm takes work so steady paddling for an hour was the course of action.    I was hoping for a couple of additional days of paddling before winter sets in.

 

 

McConnell Lake Kayaking in October

Kamloops Kayak Posted on by

Late in the paddling season I paddled on McConnell Lake.     It was cool but not yet too cold to kayak.   The next time at McConnell Lake will be a hike or snowshoe.

A new short video is now available on TikTok and embedded here:

@dsmith941

Kayaking McConnell Lake

♬ original sound – dsmith941 – dsmith941

 

Last Time on Mamit Lake

Kamloops Kayak Posted on by

I left Mamit Lake for the end of the season.

It’s a lake that seems to have poor water quality for much of the year, the highway is along one side of the lake, and there are ranches/farms on either end.   There have been water quality advisories from an algae bloom in the past and to my mind, the lake has a greenish hue all year round.   The lake is fed by Guichon Creek, Meadow Creek, and Chartrand Creek, all of which go through farm lands, ranching properties, and marshy lakes.    The lake is a reservoir with a dam at the south end, used to provide water to ranches downstream.

In the fall the algae bloom was mostly over, but the algae was still everywhere in the water, a less-than-appealing paddling experience.


I paddled for an hour completing a loop on the lake.

Its not that Mamit Lake is a bad spot, but there are 50 better lakes to paddle in our area.   I won’t be back again.

 

Late October Paddling – Edith Lake

Kamloops Kayak Posted on by

Fall conditions continued to set in and cooler weather limits which days and which locations I paddled.    On a cool morning (5 C) with a light wind, there was only one other boat on Edith Lake.

Smaller lakes are a better choice in windy or colder conditions and I can choose one, two, or three loops.


If I paddle all the bays, I can paddle the lake in 45 – 55 minutes.    With cool conditions I paddled non-stop and loaded the boat quickly.    I am not sure how many more days I will have in 2023 since minus degree temperatures are forecast.

Watch the Ramble On Channel Video Podcast on Cool Weather Paddling now available.

 

Kayaking Jacko Lake in October

Kamloops Kayak Posted on by

As the fall weather provides cooler conditions we often return to home base – the river, Edith Lake, Stake Lake, and Jacko Lake.   Most lakes are paddled once or twice in a year, but Jacko is a favorite so I paddle there 6- 8 times each year.     On a grey fall day, I launched my kayak and paddled around the lake.

There was a lot of construction going on on the newly-rerouted Trans Mountain Pipeline just to the north of the lake, but otherwise there were some fishermen, some ducks and eagles, and one kayak on the lake.
The lake is a scenic spot in every season, but there was some fall colour too.    The surrounding grasslands had very little rainfall so the hills were a shade of amber.

In the summer, the shallow bays become choked with aquatic growth, but there is more open water once the water temperatures cool down.

Eagles were doing swoops over the lake and coots were diving, but they worked in pairs taking turns to eventually catch their prey.   I watched the same thing happen at Mamit Lake the next day.

The final days of paddling will mostly be on nearby lakes and on the South Thompson River.    The paddling year will have started mid March and will end some time in November.