On a hot summer day I parked at the gate area by Lac le Jeune and then hauled my kayak down to the lakeshore. We have to lift our boats over a fence now, then carry them about 40m down to the lakeshore, then do a muddy launch among the cattails and bulrushes.
A paddle around the lakeshore is about 3.5 km. There is a lot to see, so an easy pace works well for this lake.
On this day there were lots of western painted turtles, ducks and ducklings, geese, loons, blackbirds, marsh wrens, killdeer, and spotted sandpipers. A few of the paddling moments are captured in this short YouTube video:
When freshet brings the North Thompson and South Thompson Rivers to a high water point , the area at the head of Kamloops Lake floods. The flat floodplains near Tranquille get covered in several feet of floodwaters. In addition, Cooney Bay floods, the beach disappears, and the shoreline recedes. We paddled out of Tranquille Bay then followed the river downstream to Cooney Bay. the feet of the cottonwoods are under water and a barrier of logs covers all parts of the shoreline. A river buoy was untethered from the channel and also ended up along the log-covered shoreline.
The piling up of logs on the shoreline started about a kilometer upstream and continued all the way to the north end of Cooney Bay. The gate to the Cooney Bay Road has been closed for a few weeks now, but there would be nowhere to walk anyway.Ducks, ospreys, loons, and bald eagles are still resident at Cooney Bay. This eagle had caught a sucker and landed on a pot in the logjam.
The shoreline past Cooney Bay was log-free all the way to Battle Bluff.
Paddling back upstream, we enjoyed seeing the sheltered floodwaters reflecting the images of logs and stumps on the shoreline, this time creating a loop in the water.
Lenticular clouds formed over Tranquille Bay. Lenticular clouds, scientifically known as altocumulus standing lenticularis, are stationary lens-shaped clouds that form at high altitudes, normally aligned at right-angles to the wind direction.
Mount Mara and the shoreline reflect in the calm waters of Tranquille Bay on the paddle back to the launch area.
At the upper end of the Lac du Bois Grasslands at 983m (3225 feet) elevation the area turns to forests, ponds, lakes, marshes, backroads, hills, and a few trails. To the south of McQueen Lake are the Nature Conservancy of Canada Lac du Bois Conservancy lands, accessible on foot to hikers and snowshoers. To the north are forested hills, a series of cutblocks in the hills between 1000 and 1400m elevation). To the east is the upper end of the Lac du Bois Grasslands Protected Area. Rough backroads can be hiked or biked to the McQueen Creek grasslands. The Community Grasslands Trail bears east for 14 km to Deep Lake. Opax Mountain is on the west side. Some tracks lead up its slopes, but it is remote and not an easy area to navigate. There are several articles on this site on hiking Opax Mountain.
TheMcQueen Lake Environmental Education Center is run by School District #73. Visitors are asked to not use the trails when students are on-site. There are alternate routes to the lakes, ponds, and meadows (see the map below). Just 4.5 km past McQueen Lake is the Isobel Lake Recreation Site with a number of opportunities for outdoor recreation. Pass Lake Recreation Site is 2.5 km west of McQueen Lake.
In this interactive Google map, information, links, and images are provided. Use the controls to see it as a full screen map, to zoom in or out, and to pan to different areas.
A few Images of the McQueen Lake area are provided here:
A paddle around the lakeshore is about 3.5 km. There is a lot to see, so an easy pace works well for this lake.
On this day there were lots of western painted turtles, ducks and ducklings, geese, loons, blackbirds, marsh wrens, killdeer, and spotted sandpipers. A few of the paddling moments are captured in this short YouTube video:
