Whiteswan Lake and Moose (Alces) Lake

In July, we were in southeastern BC and drove into Whiteswan Lake Provincial Park. The drive in off of the Highway is 22km of windy, rolling, gravel logging road that you share with logging and mine trucks. Most of the road is fine (just dusty) but, if you get car sick, you'll want to take some gravol. 

The biggest hazard are loose cattle, that are everywhere. There is a 3km stretch around the Lussier Creek Hotsprings that is more exciting, including a bit of single-lane, hanging on the edge of the cliff with a 300-foot drop and no guard rails. Not a big deal (people haul huge holiday trailers in here) but worth knowing if you are a nervous driver.

The first lake you hit is Moose Lake (or Alces Lake) which is a small, sheltered lake with only electric motors. You can get access at the campground or, a bit further down the road, at a boat launch. There is a creek that leads into Whteswan Lake, but I don't know if it is navigable. This would be a good fallback option in a windy day.

A kilometre down the road is the west end of Whiteswan Lake. There is a campground and a boat launch here. The road continues on the south shore and there are at least two other boat launches on the road plus launches at the two campgrounds on the east end. We put in at the first launch.

Access was easy. The carry from the car was about 40 feet and we did a beach launch. There is also a proper boat launch and a dock.

We had a very calm day and the lake was lovely. It is about 6km long and the width averages 1km (although it widens at the east end to 2km).

The water was super clear and we paddled the perimeter in just over three hours.

There were lots of nature-y things to see, including birds, dead heads, and some great underwater cliff faces. There wasn't really anywhere to get out on the north side of the lake until you hit the boat-in campground about half way down. The south side of the lake had pretty good access if you needed to get off the water most of the way along.

There was a creek (Cave Creek, I think) on the north side and there is a campground here with picnic tables, fire pits, and pit toilets. This looks to be boat-in only and doesn't show up on google maps.

The shoreline is basically this all the way along.

The water was crazy clear and a lovely green. We could see fish swimming below us and there were lots of people fishing in the east end of the lake. There was only one power boat on the lake and they were pretty respectful.

This might well be quite a different lake in bad weather or a big wind. We had an exceptional day.

Below is one of the launches on the south side of the lake with the road visible at the top of the ramp.

Overall, this was an amazing paddle, aided by the great weather, and was worth the drive.

Altrude Lakes

A trip into BC in early July saw us give Altrude Lakes a look as we crossed the Continental Divide on Highway 93 between Banff and Radium. Altrude lakes are a chain of small lakes. Access is "best" from the Continental Divide marker parking lot. You simply follow an old road bed east from the parking lot for a couple of hundred feet. Since we'd never paddle there before, we left out boats on the car and walked the route first.

The walk soon got more exciting, with a couple of steep gullies and a trail (sort of) to follow towards the lake.

You could definitely carry inflatable or foldable boats in here. Our hard-sided boats would have meant carrying them in and out one at a time.

Eventually (700 feet maybe?) you dump out into a marsh that is a couple of hundred feet from the lake. The reverse of this shot was my wife standing at the edge of the forest with her arms crossed and both eyebrows raised.

The first lake looks very nice. I'm not sure if you can boat though to subsequent lakes or if you'd need to hop out and portage for a bit.

In the end, we decided the small size of the lakes and the difficulty of the carry meant this wasn't really worth the effort to paddle (didn't want to blow a knee at the start of vacation) and we walked back to the car. I'd love to hear and see anyone else's experience these lakes.

Two Jack Lake

In early July, we found ourselves in Banff and had a chance to paddle Two Jack Lake. Parking here can be full on the weekend and on nice days. We got a spot in the lower lot at 9 am on a weekday without a problem. The carry was 25 feet to the water.

The parking area also has pit toilets and picnic tables. The gravel beach is shallow and it is an easy entry. The carry from the upper lot is not too bad, but is maybe 500 feet. Parks is using self-certification on this lake (either 48-hours dry or inspected by Parks staff).

The lake runs basically north-south. To the north it ends in a dam that controls the flow from Lake Minnewanka. This is a lovely rocky-shore paddle with amazingly clear water.

The south end of the lake sees the valley open up a bit with great vistas on a clear day.

The south end of the lake includes a canal. Half way down the canal, there is an old bridge that blocks access. 

You can get out and carry around the bridge. We didn't bother going further as we had a long drive ahead of us that day.

Overall, Two Jack is a great and easy paddle that take just over an hour. There is an adjacent campground, if that's your jam and you can manage to get a reservation. 

Buck Lake, Calhoun Bay

In late June, I drove 90 minutes down to Buck Lake and put in at the Calhoun Bay Provincial Recreation Area on the NE shore. I'd not been to Buck Lake before and thought this would give me a sheltered spot to paddle in case it was rough (it is a pretty big lake).

There is a small campground here with pit toilets and a launching point for kayaks (you can drive right to the edge). The launch itself is a bit DIY and the water was nasty so I see din dry and them bum-scooted out to float. Good cell coverage on the lake and so-so at the launch.

Below is the launch from the water. Pretty and all but not great.

The bay itself is a good size and was clam and scenic. Below is basically what you get: reedy edge blending into aspen forest. There was lots of waterfowl with families (grebes, loons, ducks).

There were also great reflections.

The perimeter of the bay is about a 6km round trip and took me an hour and a bit. I did venture out into the lake proper and it was a bit rougher. There was an interesting demarcation line in the water as I crossed out into the main lake that you can sort of see in the picture below. 

It starts on the bottom, about a third of the way in from the left and then S-curves up towards the right to the edge of the reed bed at the horizon. Smaller ripples in the bay on the left, bigger but smoother rollers on the lake to the right. It does not show so well in the picture but it was a very stark line on the water.

Then the clouds rolled on and it rained! There are two pelicans in the distance in the picture below.

The water was kind of gross in the bay. Below you are seeing algae floating on the surface and the paddle, when dipped, would disappear from view. out places were clearer than this, but some places were even worse. A lady I spoke with said this is typical and was about three weeks early this year because of how hot May was.

There are numerous other places to get in. some are clearly public launches like the Buck Lake Provincial Recreation area in the NW corner and the Buck Lake campground launch in the south shore (pictured below). Other launches are at the end of public roads (so are public access) but the adjacent docks and parking is private so you have to launch and then go park on the edge of the county road. The three different people I talked to about this all seemed kind of touchy about it. Whatever, probably not a big issue with kayaks anyhow.

I might try this lake again if I was in the area. The south campground launch looked like cleaner water but had more wave action.