We try to add new lakes and rivers to our paddling experiences every year, but those make for long days of travel, so we often return to some of the same lakes each year. McGillivray Lake is a spot that we paddle every year. It takes about an hour to get there with 6 km on a gravel road from Sun Peaks, but the road is usually fine and there is a good boat launch next to the McGillivray Lake Outpost at 1400 m (4593 feet).
On a day in early September, there was only one other boat on the lake so it was a quiet paddle around the lakeshore, a 5.5 km loop.
The shoreline is forested and there are some shallow marshy bays. McGillivray Lake is fed by streams of the hills above and the outlet stream flows into Little McGillivray Lake, then continues west down McGillivray Creek past Sun Peaks, joining Louis Creek near Whitecroft.
A bald eagle kept watch over the south end of the lake, unperturbed by the quiet kayak below.
While paddling north back to the launch, the slopes of Sun Peaks Resort/Tod Mountain rose over the trees, 7 km northwest.
Each lake that we paddle has its own unique environment. For McGillivray Lake, we avoid going there in spring because of the early access road conditions and cooler temperatures. We avoid June and July to miss the mosquitoes and the crowds. By the latter part of August the crowds are gone and there are no mosquitoes so we will continue to paddle there from mid August through the end of September.