Amiskowan Lake to Shady Lake, Prince Albert National Park

In July, we were in Prince Albert National Park and did a two lake paddle: Amiskowan Lake to Shady Lake. Access is off the road that runs along the south side of the lake (top left of the map below). There is a widening in the road and room for maybe five vehicles to park (we never saw another vehicle there during our five days).

There is lots of room to unload and Amiskowan Lake is pretty. 

It is a bit of a steep entry, maybe 10 vertical feet down to the water on a steep slope. But we managed to get in with dry feet.

The lake itself is long and narrow and basically you just head east to the end, where you find the creek entrance. The lake was weedy by the first week of July and the Canadian Parks staff said it was very hard paddling in the summer.

The connecting creek is fairly interesting. The first half is just weedy oxbows against the mild current. This seemed a bit endless.

It slowly gets narrower, with a faster current, and more alpine. A good introduction to current in narrows spaces for a newer paddler.

We saw a pair of deer up close (both times coming around a blind corner to everyone's surprise). There were also herons here.

 

Then there was a low and narrow bridge. It was okay in kayaks (paddling was tough but you could use the ridges on the corrugated culvert to push yourself along).

Then out into Shady Lake, which was mostly unremarkable. Lake, reeds, trees, repeat. We did see an eagle that we chased down the lake from tree to tree.

Then you turn around and reverse the trip. It was three hours of solid paddling and was probably the most challenging trip we took in the park. 

Jenn came to appreciate it on the return trip (where the current worked with you) but that was our only paddle that day (I was bushed). Definitely an early season (or maybe autumn) paddle.