Mabel Lake Provincial Park, near Vernon

In mid-September, we had the chance to paddle Mabel Lake, about an hour north-east of Vernon. The road in is paved and lovely until the last five kms, when it becomes gravel. The lake itself is huge, running about 35km SW to NE. The width varies between 1 and 2km.

The day-use area include pit toilets, picnic tables, and playground and a lovely beach.

The beach is about a 60m carry from the parking lot (photo below looks back to the parking lot).

We chose to use the boat launch to save our shoulders. It has a dock, a shallow cement ramp, and a sandy launch right beside. There is also a marina and general store.

Since the lake was calm and our plan was to paddle about 10km around the southern basin, we crossed to the western shore and then turned south.

The western shore was very rocky. There are placed to get out but the first 2km were pretty sheer. 

The water is crystal clear.

Eventually, the shoreline starts to become shallower with more places to get out.

We stopped on the southern shore on a gravel beach for lunch and then turned east towards the inflow of the Shuswap River.

The bird watching was pretty incredible the whole time.

We saw two turkey vultures just hanging out.

Along the south shore there were herons (pictured) and white sandhill cranes as well as all manner of ducks.

There were also two swans that were unhappy to see us.

At the mouth of the river, we watched a bald eagle buzz and bunch of ducks, trying to find a lame one for lunch. We paddled about 500m upstream to continue watching this.

Eventually, we floated back to the lake and headed north up the eastern shoreline.

This was fairy built up with cabins and that brought us back the marina.

Objectively, the nicest paddle of the trip, I think. We did, however get lucky with the weather (+26C and no wind). A big blow would have made this paddle much less pleasant.