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Back to Campbell Lake

Kamloops Kayak Posted on by

We paddle Scuitto and Campbell Lake each and every year, but we try to schedule Campbell Lake for late August or September to paddle with the pelicans and sandhill cranes.   Campbell Lake is at the end of the Scuitto Forest Service Road, a 14 km bumpy backroad.   There is a BC Recreation Site on the south shore of the lake and a good boat launch there for fishermen and paddlers.

 

 

No wind is always a blessing for both paddling and photography.   An early start on a sunny day with no one else on the lake made this outing perfect, but I couldn’t see any pelicans from the boat lunch.

 

When the pelicans come to Campbell Lake, they usually roost in shallow bays on the south side of the lake.   There are some private properties on the north side of the lake.  They fly to other areas of the lake to fish, but they congregate in one of two bays, not very accessible by land, but fine for a kayak.   A kayak can skim over very shallow water to get closer to the pelicans.

 

 

Rafts of ducks filled all the shallow bays and a few perched on logs by the shoreline.

 

 

In the largest shallow bay there were 16 pelicans clustered together.    Some were sleeping with heads buried in their feathers, but most were preening or resting.   A few aired their wings, standing apart from the pod.

 

I used a telephoto lens to try to get a close up of the birds, but it is only an intermediate lens.   Its too hard to use a heavy, long lens in a kayak.   I floated in without making any noise and kept my movement to a minimum.  The pelicans kept an eye on me, but did not disperse.

 

 

I took lots of photos, then I continued around the lake.   There were also two sedges of sandhill cranes on the lake.   They are much more skittish than pelicans,  so I got whatever shots I could from the water.

The second group wheeled over the lake making a racket,  then settled into a small bay across the lake.

 

 

We spotted all sorts of birds on the lake, but the pelicans were the stars of nature’s show on this day.

 

 

 

Campbell Lake is a very nice paddle on any day, but it is a special place when there are blue skies, no wind, a quiet lake, and lots of birds to see.

 

Campbell Lake

Kamloops Kayak Posted on by

A popular fishing lake, Campbell Lake is also a nice paddle.    Grasslands surround two sides of the lake and forest on the other sides.    The approach to the lake is to drive up the Campbell Range Road, then turn onto the Scuitto Lake Road.   Follow this good gravel road to Scuitto Lake.    Follow the road along the lake going east until it crosses the creek which connects the two lakes.    The new road winds through the forest to the newly developed Campbell Lake Recreation site.

There is a good boat launch and parking lot.   The campsite lies to the east of the boat launch.   It has 32 sites and  meets a fairly high standard for BC Rec sites.

Along the south shore there are some rocky shallow areas near the campground and beyond along the southeast shore is an extended shallow area.  The three bays are also quite shallow.

On this day, the lake was full of waterfowl.   Ducks and geese swam in all the shallows and perched on rocks.    10 pelicans waded in the lake then took flight to spot fish.   On the other shore, I heard, then spotted 8 sandhill cranes in a bay out of sight of fishermen.  Two black bears foraged on the shoreline.

This is a quiet location when the campground is not full.   If you paddle the entire shoreline, it will cover 7.5km, but this will mean paddling long stretches of shallows.  The shoreline on the north side is dramatically different from the south shore, grasslands and ranching terrain.

On a migration route for birds, this plateau lake (3450 feet) is full of birds in the spring and fall, also times when the area is quieter.   Perfect for a paddle…