On a grey and cool morning I decided to paddle a smaller lake.   I had done Louis Lake before on a SUP on a windy day.   This was the first time in a kayak.

The lake has extensive marshy sections with lots of bullrushes and cattails.  When the rushes are growing, they can be a barrier to paddle through, but in early spring, it was easy access.

On the lake were ducks and geese.   Blackbirds, an osprey and a woodpecker were spotted near the shoreline.   The duck most spotted was Barrow’s golden eye.

The west end of the lake is shallow with long sections of rushes.

The hillside rises up on the south side providing shade and darker water.

When I paddled east the sun broke through the clouds warming the lake.

Some of the east end is in Paul Lake Provincial Park.   Although there is no trail to the lake from the south, it would make a nice route.

The ridge that separates Louis Lake from Paul Lake rises 340 m and is covered in forest.    I have hiked to the top of the ridge from Gibraltar Rock (there is no trail).    I call this unnamed ridge Louis Ridge.

A paddle around the perimeter of the lake is 4 km and on this day I did it twice, building some stamina for the longer paddles of the summer.