I made a list of 40 local lakes to paddle and have chosen to do the shoreline of all of them. Monte Lake is accessed off a short side road on the way to Vernon, off highway 97 south. Right before the lake, turn right onto a gravel road and there are two launch spots on the north side of the lake.

The route around the lake is 7 km, a decent paddle in a kayak. Along the east side is the highway and the noise is always there from every part of the lake. There is also considerable debris under the water and along the shoreline on the east side. On the other side is the railway track, a spur line connecting the CPR with the Okanagan, now rarely used. As I paddled this shore, I was disappointed to see how much railway debris was in the water and along the shoreline – ties, poles, steel plates, bolts, and maintenance cast-offs. Clearly little care for the environmental damage to the riparian zone and the lake itself was shown. There are still piles of creosoted ties next to the line, a fire hazard to the area, and damaging to the lake through run-off and leaching. Railway companies need to be more responsible for the environmental damage they do to our waterways.

The Kelowna-Pacific Railway is currently in receivership and it is unclear if the line will be active again in the future. The Kamloops Heritage Railway is not using the line in 2013. Maybe it is time to pull out the rails and clean up the line and make this into a multi-use trail, available to recreationalists, linking into the Trans Canada Trail to our south?

Monte Lake is a good place for a paddle as a workout, but it is not a peaceful location.