Paddling the Kamloops Lake Delta

The delta lands at the head of Kamloops Lake are covered in water now, but in early spring there were large sand/silt islands with shallow channels to explore.

We launched out of Cooney Bay, then went across the lake to the south shore, working our way back into shallow channels, landing on sandy islands.

At the end of the flooding season, a few logs and river debris lodged into the shallow waters and as the river continued to go down, the logs became stranded on silt/sandbars. When the snows melted in late winter, seasonal ponds and shallow bays formed among the islands.

The deltalands lie at the “gateway” to Kamloops Lake.

Before freshet, the river waters are less muddy and flow silently through the river valley into Kamloops Lake.

We walked on the islands a bit, then went upriver. Upstream paddling is still hard work so for this day of exploratory paddling, we went up to the Tranquille Conservation Area and back down, turning the point into Conney Bay and along the shoreline of the lake.

A few ducks and geese used the sheltered waters of Cooney Bay and the lee of Battle Bluff. The gravel beaches on the shorelines were wider and deeper than spring or summer, but will soon be covered by the rising waters of the freshet.

These “deltalands” are only exposed from late fall through early spring when conditions are colder so they are rarely explored. Some of the shoreline can be walked on foot, but much of it requires a short paddle to cross the river channels.

We walked some of the shoreline earliert (link provided below), then we returned to paddle the island network. We will return again to paddle the area, but will explore the floodlands several meters above the deltalands.