2025 Wrap-up

I still have a bunch of 2024 blog posts to come but this seems like the time to wrap up the 2025 paddle season. We got out 61 (or maybe 62) times last year and the season ran from April 10 to November 10 (likely could have gone a bit later, but I was tired).

We had some amazing trips and paddled 21 new-to-us lakes across Alberta, BC and Saskatchewan. I made a special effort to go east of Edmonton this year and try new places. Prince Albert National Park in Saskatchewan was again a winner of a trip (well worth the drive). A bit closer to home, we also had a great time in William Switzer Provincial Park, just north of Hinton.

I'm not sure what 2026 holds. I have a bunch of lakes (some new, some repeats) I'd like to try west and north of Edmonton. We're also talking about another trip to southeastern BC.

Clear Lake

In lake August, we were near Wainwright and put in at Clear Lake. Clear Lake is essentially a circle, about 1.5km across, set down below the surrounding prairie. It took us about hour and a bit to paddle the perimeter (so maybe 4km).

We accessed the lake from the boat launch on the north shore. It is a sand-gravel launch with a dock and a pit toilet. You can drop beside the water and then park about 20m away.

The water was very clear and clean.

Excepting the south shore, the shoreline is entirely built out with cabins. Every cabin pretty much had a big boat docked in front of it. It was a quiet and coolish day when were where there and the lake was not too busy. I expect it would be hopping on a warm weekend in the summer.

The southern end of the lake is a bit more natural-looking.

A couple of the cabins had their own funiculars to get up to the road behind them!

The fall colours were just starting to come out in places.

On the western shore, there is the Clear Lake Dive Site which offers another way to get onto the lake. There was parking, a short carry and a beach lunch. There was also a roped off swimming area.

Overall, a nice lake and an easy two-for-one with nearby Arm Lake.

Arm Lake Provincial Recreation Area and Shuster Lake

In late August, we had a chance to paddle Arm Lake and scout Shuster Lake, both just SE of Wainwright.

Arm Lake

Arm Lake is a small lake (maybe a 2km perimeter) with access through the Arm Lake Campsite. It was quite a cloudy morning when we were there and the photos don't really do justice to a very nice lake.

You can get in either at the boat launch or of the swimming beach. We chose the beach. It had change rooms, pit toilets (meh), nice sand, and a steel dock. It was maybe a 20m carry down a gentle sandy slope.

The water was super clear and swimmable. The lake is located down below the level of the surrounding land so it was also quite sheltered. It would be a good SUP option.

The shoreline is a mix of undeveloped forest and private cabins (moreso on the north and east shores). We went left (north) off the beach and paddled slowly around the lake.

The shoreline includes a fair bit of reeds and there were grebes and other waterfowl there.

In the SW corner, there is a second small, beach a the boat launch.

The launch was sand-gravel with a dock and a portapotty. It also looks like you can get into two smaller basins off the back side of the boat launch, although we didn't go explore this.

 

Overall, a lovely but very small lake, perfect for SUP or kids.

Shuster Lake

Just to the southwest of Arm Lake is Shuster Lake. This is a small, reedy lake, likely best for fishing. access is from the south side of the lake and requires a 2km drive off the pavement that starts as gravel, and then becomes sand, and then turns into a dirt track with some bumps and mud.

Not any kind of big deal (maybe it would be after a rain) but worth knowing if you are headed that way and don't like more adventurous driving.

The track eventually ends at the edge of the lake with a small area to turn around and a fire pit. There is a short canal that leads out into the lake.

This looked like a hard entry to a pretty so-so lake, we we decided to take a pass and head over to nearby Clear Lake.

I probably wouldn't bother to drive here again, especially given the proximity of Arm and Clear Lakes.

The first year of Edmonton’s new life-jacket/PFD requirement

In May of 2025, s.61 of Edmonton’s new Public Spaces Bylaw began mandating all adult boaters within the city boundaries wear a life jacket or a personal floatation device (PFD). 

For the purposes of this requirement, anything that floats is a “boat” (with two listed exceptions) and the bylaw addresses paddling on the North Saskatchewan River (NSR) as well as the various creeks and ponds within the city limits. 

Requiring recreational boaters to wear a life-jacket/PFD is a more stringent requirement than those in the Canada Small Vessel Regulations (s.209) of simply having a PFD on board. 

Calgary adopted a similar requirement in 1974(!). The rationale for Edmonton’s change is to increase boater safety. The basic argument is that, like seat belts, life-jackets/PFDs only work if you wear them because there is not usually adequate time to locate, put on, and fasten one when it is needed, particularly in cold water. 

I spent a couple of hours reading academic papers on life-jacket/PFD use and efficacy. Research on the efficacy of PFD/life-jacket use by paddlers in conditions similar to those present in Alberta is uneven. This mostly reflects the design of studies which (1) often combine, to some degree, data on motorized and non-motorized boating, and (2) examine boating in multiple and/or non-analogous locations (e.g., oceans, warmer climates). This publicly available meta-analysis offers a good starting point if you are curious. 

 Those caveats aside, there does seem to be good evidence that:

• When there is an incident (e.g., a boat capsizes), the risk of drowning tends to higher for users of kayaks and canoes than for users of larger and motorized boats.
• Wearing a life-jacket/pfd is associated with a significantly reduced risk of death by drowning. 
• Life-jacket/pfd use among paddlers is higher than among motorized boaters but is still uneven.
• Mandatory-wear requirements increase wear rates.

I thought it might be useful to examine what happened during the first year of Edmonton’s bylaw change. The city’s park rangers were kind enough to share some of their stats (they are the primary enforcers of the bylaw). These stats provide only a partial picture because three separate agencies patrol and/or respond to events primarily, but not exclusively, on the NSR. The Edmonton Police Service patrols, mostly enforcing provincial statutes around alcohol and cannabis use. The Edmonton Fire Department provides search and rescue services.

A couple of things stand out to me in these stats.

• Upward trend in paddling: The number of citizen contacts has trended upwards. While this number is not necessarily a proxy for rising numbers of boaters (since it could reflect changes in the number of patrols conducted and/or record keeping), it is consistent with my observation that the number of paddlers on the NSR had risen dramatically in the past five years.
• Non-compliance: Of the 3460 warnings given by the park ranger maritime program in 2025, 1464 included a violation of the PFD/life jacket requirement (this data was provided to me separately). This means of the 10,842 total contacts, about 13.5% of boaters were non-compliant.
• Enforcement through education: As is typical when new rules are introduced, the park rangers appear to have focused on educating and warning boaters about non-compliance. Presumably, there will be more stringent enforcement of the PFD/life jacket requirement going forward. The Public Spaces Bylaw provides for fines of $250 for first-time violators.