In June each year, I look for reasonable conditions to paddle and I travel to different lakes each time, trying to avoid the busiest times for a quiet paddle.    Loop routes are my first choice, but I try to avoid long stretches of private lakefront cabins/homes where possible.   On a number of lakes they are confined to one side so I paddle the forested side or up the middle of the lake.     Paddling early in the morning  often solves the noise and congestion problems.

On grey day that promised rain, I launched my boat into Isobel Lake from the boat launch in the northeast corner of the lake.   There were no other boats on the lake and only one fisherman on the fishing dock on the north side.

In late spring we can paddle into all the bays and around 3 islands.    A complete loop of the lake takes about half an hour.    On this day I went around twice, once in each direction.    A few spits of rain spattered the lake, but I stayed dry under my splash deck and rain jacket.

On a Friday morning I launched my boat into Heffley Lake.     This is a lake that can be very busy (and noisy) on weekends, so an arly start on a weekday a good choice.

The north side of the lake has lakefront homes, so I usually paddle along the south shoreline, going into the bays, then returning down the middle of the lake.    There was one other boat with a trolling line, so the lake was fairly quiet.

One of my favorite paddling spots is Stake Lake.    It can be a busy spot, but in the early morning, there are usually less boats.    There are often lots of walkers, hikers, dog walkers, and bike riders on the trails, but on the whole it is a quiet area in the morning.

Once around the lake takes about 25- 28 minutes, so I usually paddle the lake twice, once in each direction.    On this day, I secured the boat, then went for a hike afterwards, choosing a different route each time.