Lacombe Lake

In late April, I stopped at Lacombe Lake on the way back from Calgary. I use the public boat launch off Township Road 402 in the NE corner of the lake.

The launch was lovely (and empty) with a shallow gravel entry and pretty clean water. There are no bathroom facilities here (I would guess the closest would be in Lacombe or Blackfalds. It was a windy day (from the south) so I padded down the east side of the lake and into the small beaver pond.

Lots of birds here, including loons. No beavers on this trip but I did see a muskrat.

The TransCanada Trail runs down the east side of the lake.

I went back out into the main lake and worked my way to the south end of the lake.

The picture below gives you a pretty good sense of the overall experience. The shore is reeds that give way to aspen and fir forest. There are hills on the east side and a farm on the west side.

The wind really came up for the trip back. I usually paddle about 4 km an hour (very average). The trip back down the lake saw me do as much as 12.6 kph (it was really blowing--fortunately the lake is shallow, so the waves were not too bad).

The lake is probably about 8 or 9km around so it's a two-hour paddle if you do the whole thing. If you wanted a shorter paddle, down the east side and into the small bay is interesting. The southern end is also okay. The north end of the lake is the least interesting and is the part to skip.