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Tag Archives: Adams Lake
Paddling Hummamilt Lake
In the back valleys between Shuswap Lake and Adams Lake are a chain of lakes. Hummamilt Lake is the largest and a superb lake for paddling. To get to Hummamilt Lake, follow the North Shuswap Road past Anglemont on the way to Seymour Arm. Pass Albas Provincial Park and turn up the Celista Creek Forest Service Road (may be called Ross Creek FSR). At 9.7 km, watch for a small Rec Site and a hand launch.
The launch area is in a small bay near the outlet and passes through a zone water lilies.
Hummamilt is a long narrow lake. There are some small islands and 3 narrow channels on the way to the end of the lake.
Both sides of the lake have steep forested slopes. The entire paddle up one shore to the end and back on the other shore is 25km, a long paddle, but a scenic one. When I was there on a weekday, there were no other boats and no campers at the two Rec sites.
On the way back, the winds rose and the paddling was harder, but the snowy ragged Anstey Range peaks were right ahead coming down the lake. Loons, ospreys, ducks, and dragonflies were the only other occupants of this remote lake.
A loop route is possible and had been planned, but I blew a radial tire and without a spare, I was reluctant to continue on to Stukemapten, Mowich, and Adams Lake, coming down Holdings Road to Agate Bay. That will be another trip, with a stop to paddle Mowich Lake. Hummamilt Lake is worth the long drive though, especially on a nice day with no one else around.
Johnson Lake Paddling
One of the best area lakes to paddle is Johnson Lake. Go north on Highway 5, and at Louis Creek, take the Agate Bay Road. Turn left onto the Johnson Lake Forest Service Road. Follow the signs to the Johnson Lake Resort, but don’t turn left at the end of the lake (to the Resort). Instead, follow the road around the south side of the lake to the Johnson Lake Recreation Site.
There is a gravel launch site at the campsite, but if the site is full, drop off your boat and park up on the road. The paddle around the lake shoreline is 11km. Limestone shoals make the water crystal clear down to 20+ feet. The aqua-green-blue water is similar to Pavilion Lake. There are a small number of cabins on the northeast side, but for the most part the lake is surrounded by dense hemlock-cedar forest.
On a summer weekend, the beach area by the boat launch will be full of families in the water, and paddlers have now discovered the lake, but it is a quiet location with (almost) no power boats. This is a lake to paddle every year. More information:
- Johnson Lake on Kamloopstrails.net
- Johnson Lake East on BC Rec Sites and Trails
- Johnson Lake Resort
Spillman Beaches Marine Park
On the east side of Adams Lake, accessible only by boat is a strip of land designated as a provincial park. It is user-maintained and usually in good shape. Many of us do maintenance at the site when we arrive and try to leave it in better shape than we found it. Spillman Beaches has a series of camping areas and streams coming into the lake. Previous article – Spillman Beaches
We drove up Holdings Road and went down a little side road to a hand launch site, fine for kayaks, canoes, and cartop boats. The paddle across the lake is about 1.7 km and the distance to the first camping areas at Spillman Beaches is about 5 km. Crossing Adams Lake on a very windy day is not advised, but with some wind chop only, pick the narrowest part of the lake to make the crossing. Generally speaking, crossing Adams Lake is best done in longer kayaks or full canoes and with experienced paddlers.
Early in the season the water is high and the beaches are small with cool water, but we swam in the clear waters of the lake. The shoreline is cedar and fir forest right to the edge of the lake. A few single track trails and some old skid tracks can be linked up to go up the lake, but paddling up lake and back is a good choice too.
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The best way to paddle on Adams Lake is to go in good weather on a weekday or off-season up the lake and enjoy the quiet and unspoiled lake leaving nothing behind but the disappearing ripples of your boat.
More information (links):
Poplar Point
On a kayaking trip on Adams Lake, we camped at Spillman Beaches, but the next day we took a long paddle up the lake to a green spot on the map, listed as Poplar Point Provincial Park. The route was 10km one way so we followed the treed east side shoreline. All along the way, we saw sandy/pebbly places to land. There are no bluffs on this route and a number of spots would have made fine camping spots. Almost no wind allowed good progress and, at the end of the 10km, we arrived at a sandy point, a small marine park half way up the east side of Adams Lake. We had lunch on a log on the beach and explored the “park.”
A few tent sites bordered the beach. There was a fire pit and an outhouse in need of repair. It is a primitive (BC Parks calls it rustic) campground, the last for many miles on the east shore.
This will be a spot for another trip, one of many calling to us on Adams Lake. The spell-song of the shoreline calls us now…
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Spillman Beaches
Kamloops Trails usually provides fairly specific directions to each trail, route, or site, but there have been a few exceptions. When an article on the Petrified Forest was published, no specific coordinates or directions were given. Fossil beds and game trails have not been included to preserve the sites and avoid motorized users from spoiling the spot or route. Spillman Beaches is clearly marked on maps and information can be found on Trails BC’s site. But specific launch spots are coordinates are provided with some reservation.
Adams Lake is large, clean water lake in a pristine environment. Up to now, the main road has been rough and somewhat unsafe to travel. The road has recently been improved and we are now seeing greater use by trucks, ATVs and motorcycles. With better roads come bigger power boats and marine campsites may now see parties who bring their toys to the wild. In the off-season, the marine campsites have very few visitors. On our recent trip, we saw only a couple of low horsepower fishing boats on the west shore and two tugs pulling boom logs. No one was camped along the east shore and we were able to quietly paddle and explore sites. Birds and the sound of running water were the only sounds to be heard. Campsites had not been used since last summer. Beaches had clear water over pebbles or sand. Quiet, idyllic, remote.
Summer will bring the power boats, water skiers, boom boxes/sound systems, barbecues, and party groups. If so, they will have to find the best camp spots on their own. No specific launch spots or landing spots are listed here.
We launched from the west shore in our kayaks and paddled across a narrow part of the lake to some petroglyphs on a cliff face, then proceeded north to Spillman Beaches Provincial Park. This is a series of beach marine campgrounds over a couple of kilometers of shoreline. We identified 4 “official” camping areas, but we found about 10 more. We camped at one, setting up two tents in an area that could accommodate many more.
The shore facilities were fairly primitive. The outhouse was up on the hill, with a roof, but no walls. A firepit at the water’s edge was well used. Tent pads have been carved out and are quite adequate. We followed a trail at one of the sites at the mouth of Spillman Creek and found a nice loop trail with small waterfalls. Following rough trails behind, we left the park and found logging spur roads with signs of hunters from last fall. Marine campsites can be more primitive because we can carry more in our kayaks than we would in a backpack.
This was an end-of-May trip, but we would happily return in the fall. Even in summer, when the powerboats bring noisy groups to the campsites, we could still find a smaller site up the lake. Kayaks can land in tighter quarters and one-man tents have small footprints.
We swam in the lake with the flat pebbles in the shallows heated by the sun. The water was clear to 20 feet along this shoreline. The sites faced to the afternoon sun and we sat by the campfire and watched the sunset. A perfect spot, but one you will have to find by yourself.
A Tale of Two Lakes
On back-to-back days, we paddled the Seymour Arm of Shuswap Lake and the southern end of Adams Lake. The contrast was amazing.
Although the Seymour Arm is a remote and scenic spot, it was inundated with dozens of houseboats, jet skis, powerboats, noise, and a collective disregard for others. The area is probably very quiet in the off-season, but we can’t recommend it in the summer.
On the other hand, we found Adams Lake to be remote, quiet, and relatively deserted. No houseboats, jet skis, or ski boats. Every time we travel to the shore of Adams Lake, we find clear water, wildlife, and a quiet wilderness environment.
The lake is long with a few access routes off Holdings Road. We drove north to the lake, then past the mill at the south end to Adams Lake, then a few kilometers north to Adams Lake Provincial Park (Bush Creek). We parked at the campsite and used the boat launch, paddling north up the shoreline toward Agate Bay. The water in the lake is high so the beaches are covered, but there are few roads, few homes, and lots of scenery. On a previous trip we had found broad, pristine beaches. We will return to Adams Lake many times. Shooting video from a kayak is a challenge, but we posted some footage to give readers/viewers a sense of the sights and sounds: