Baptiste Lake

In mid-June, work took me up to Athabasca and we snuck in a paddle at Baptiste Lake, just west of town. Baptiste has been on my list of paddles for a few years, but weather and timing just never worked out.

We used the county boat launch on the south-west corner of the southern basin. There is a cement ramp and dock here as well as a pit toilet, picnic shelter, tables, and a playground and tenting site. It looks like there are day-use fees ($10?) but I couldn't tell if that included kayaks and the county website was unhelpful. I think the answer is probably you should pay the fee.

The lake is basically two basins, stacked north to south with a narrow neck separating them. The shore is a mix of aspen forest and cabins. There is a lot of development here and I suspect that there would be a lot of boat traffic on the weekend.

I've never seen Baptiste as calm as it was the day we were there and this was the first time I've managed to put in here (rather than driving on to a back-up lake).

The water had the start of an algae bloom when we put in but it was nothing to really take note of. Friends in the area say the agricultural run off and development means the water quality at Baptiste is the worst in the county.

We paddled about 90 minute north and got to the neck between the basins. 

We also paddled up a small creek. There was a real manure smell here.

There was a lot off sketchy MAGA signage and inverted flags on the cabins and vehicles in the area, which was pretty off-putting. I wasn't sure what this pink flag was when we went by. 

Coming back, there was a breeze and, happily, it was a Taylor Swift flag.

There was a fair bit of bird life (there were no boats on the water) and we saw this Osprey take off with a fish in hand.

On return to the launch, the algae had bloomed and the lake as emerald green in the south end. It was quite a wild change over two and a bit hours.

Overall, a nice lake but prone to wind and algae. Just to the north is Island Lake, which offers a nicer paddle, I think.