In late August, I decided to try Lac Ste. Anne. I don't think I have paddled here before. The lake is pretty big so I decided to try it in pieces, starting at the west end from the Darwell boat launch. The boat launch is at the bottom centre of the picture below. I turned right, paddled northeast east around the island and back. Maybe 6km all told but really only a fraction of the lake.
The boat launch was pretty good. Big grassy parking area with garbage cans, a dock and a cement launch. There was no one around and there looked to be pit toilets at the community picnic shelter on the right as you enter the boat launch.
There was a tiny bit of algae collected right in front of the launch that I managed to paddle to the side so I could get in cleanly. The water was a medium green colour and I would not want to fall in.
Below is a pretty representative photo of the paddle. Reedy edge giving way to an aspen forest. There were weedy patches in the water but nothing that interfered with paddling much.
There was a lot of wildlife on this paddle including about a dozen herons fishing and several hundred ducks flocking up. I also saw an eagle cruising overhead and I startled a couple of beavers.
The water in this end of the lake was calm and I saw no one the entire time (there was a campfire going on the southern shore but I couldn't see anyone around). Maybe the lake is too shallow and full of deadheads here for boating?
The loop around the island was interesting for the wildlife. The island itself was nothing special.
On the way back, I saw 21 pelicans formed up in a V (right below the Sun in the shot below) headed south.
Overall, this was an okay paddle. The absence of anyone else was nice (I figured the lake would be busy on the last Sunday afternoon in August). The boat launch was well kept. I'm going try a bit further to the east the next time I'm out here--maybe paddling out of the West Cove boat launch and up Farming Island.
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