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.