On a grey morning with rain and stormy weather forecast for the afternoon, I chose to paddle Horseshoe Lake.    To get to the Rec Site on the lake drive toward Roche Lake, but turn onto a gravel road that goes to the West Roche Lake Campground.    Turn right (watch for the signs) and follow a good gravel road to the small Rec Site.    There is a boat launch there and adequate parking for day users of the lake.    The lake has two longer arms that are marshy.      The lake was fairly low so the marshy channels were quite shallow, just barely enough for a kayak.   We can usually paddle farther earlier in spring.

On this day there was one small fishing boat and only one trailer in the Rec Site.     I launched and had a quiet paddle on the lake, going around the shoreline twice (a total of 4 km).

There was a great blue heron in the west arm.    Two loons with two chicks sounded the alarm in the south end of the lake.    There were ducks with ducklings, geese with goslings, killdeer, red-winged blackbirds, marsh wrens, swallows, and American dippers on the lake’s edge.

By summer this lake shrinks and the shallow bays become filled with aquatic growth.     It is a nice spot for a spring paddle each year.