Red Deer Lake and Nelson Lake, near Ponoka

In early July, I tried to break up a trip to Calgary by paddling Red Deer Lake. Red Deer Lake is located about 40km NE of Ponoka and the best access I could figure is the west shoreline near the Johnsons Beach Campground. It looked like there was a public launch (orange arrow) so that is what I headed for.

When I arrived, access to the launch point was blocked on both ends (red arrows). It looked like you could drive around the eastern gate on the left (picture below) but I didn't try.

I then tried the campground (yellow arrow). The campground was operating but I couldn't seem to find anyone in charge to ask if I could launch off their beach (lunch break, maybe). Also, the beach was probably 200m from the edge of the water (below) and looked like a lousy entry due to water loss from the lake.

Eventually, I found a path through the trees towards the lake (green arrow) that didn't look too bad. 

After almost 100m of trees, it opened to a grassy field that gave way to mud flats and, after 200m, the edge of the lake.

The ground was very soft and the edge of the lake was super shallow so no idea how far out you'd have to wade to float (another 50 or 100m?) so I gave up. I did get an escort back by a horde of mosquitoes.

With that, I decided to call it and move on to my back-up plan, Nelson Lake.

Nelson Lake

Nelson Lake is located about 20km east of Ponoka on Highway 53. I was hopeful I could get in on the south shore here. There was a gravel drive with no gate or fence and a building that kind of looked like an abandoned public-works pumping station from the highway when I went by at 100kph.

I turned in to the drive and it looked more like an abandoned private building once I got out of the truck. I trekked through the weeds towards what looked like a trail down to the water.

Access was blocked by a gate with a no trespassing sign so I turned around. Some days go like that! 

If I'd had more time, I would have gone to First Chain Lake (which is just SE of Nelson Lake) or to Little Beaver Lake (which is just NE of Red Deer Lake by Ferintosh) but I didn't so I pulled back onto Highway 2 and consoled myself with an evening paddle at the Bowness Lagoon in Calgary (Glenmore Reservoir was too windy).

Sandy Lake, North Basin

On Canada Day, I decided to drive up to Sandy Lake, just west of the Alexander First Nation. We had paddled the southern basin in 2021 and I figured, with the extra water we've had, access might be easier

My plan was to hit the boat launch on the NW corner of the southern basin (red arrow). When we were here in 2021, someone had cut a channel from the then-dry launch through the cat tails and, with some work you could get out onto the lake (see photo below). This was not a first-date paddle, but it was doable.

Today, the channel had completely grown in.

I ventured a little further down the old launch (photo below) and this is now not even a "until death do we part" lake. 

My backup plan was to try the old Alexander campground access (yellow arrow) on the NE corner of the southern basin. It is a gravel/dirt road and, as the loop circles closer to the lake, there is quite an elevation drop (four or five meters). Doable in dry weather, but I wasn't interested in getting stuck at the bottom so I decided not bother. Access would still have required some bullrush whacking. I was then going to just bail out and go to Devil's Lake but, as I was driving west, I noticed this pull out just north of the first launch (green arrow) that seemed to give access to the northern basin.

This looks like winter access, maybe for ATVS or skidoos onto the lake. It was not too difficult to get down and, with the water high, it was possible to paddle through the usual bullrush bed.

Since I was here, I decided what the hell and put in. The northern basin is about 2.5km long (running NW-SE) and maybe 750m wide. It was about 75 minutes around. Below is a reverse shot of the launch.

The photo below is basically what you're in for. There is a deep band of bullrushes around the entire lake with a deciduous forest behind. About half the shoreline has cabins and the rest is wild.

There were lots of coots, gulls, swallows, and yellow-headed black birds. Otherwise, it was a pretty boring paddle.

There are some rush-islands.

The north end of the lake just peters out into a swamp.

The water is not great and was pretty smelly, especially in the north end. It is also thick with weeds. The photo below shows the bands of weeks, some sitting on the surface and the rest an inch or so below. With some warmer weather, weed growth would make this a hard paddle.

There is a bridge at the south end that maybe once offered access to the suthern basin. I would say that is no longer the case. There is also a playground no the SE corner of the north basin but that looked like a horrible entry (although there was a portapotty here).

Overall, kind of a grotty paddle and, absent some work to restore the boat launch channel, I'd say Sandy Lake is a bust as a paddle site.

Sturgeon River in Flood

June was incredibly wet in Edmonton (breaking records) and, as a result, there is lots of water. The Sturgeon River through St Albert rose above its banks in places and, in late June, I took a quick paddle from the Riel Park boat launch to the Mission boat launch and back.

It was a shorter carry than usual from the parking lot because the river had come up about four or five feet.

Probably the most fun part was paddling along what is normally the bike path. In the photo above, the paved path is about three feet below the surface of the water.

It was also possible to paddle right up to the ball diamonds by the railway trestle.

Much of the park at the Mission bridge was also under water.

The Mission boat launch was serviceable, really for the first time in years!

Overall, a fairly fun paddle on a section of river that I have kind of paddled out,

Postill Lake, east of Kelowna

In late June, we spent a few days at a lodge on a lake in the hills up above Kelowna. Postill Lake offers a nice, isolated boreal paddling experience.

We launched from the sand-gravel beach of the lodge. 

You  can also access the lake from the Postill Lake Recreation Area (which is a few hundred meters away).

The lake is about 2km long and, at its widest, is about 800m across. It winds with lots of bays and inlets and took us about 2.5 hours to paddle the perimeter (so 8km of shoreline, I'd guess).

Basically, these shots are representative of a reedy shore with a coniferous forest behind.

 

In other places, the shore line is stonier.

The water is clear but has a reddy-yellow tinge (the picture below gives you an idea but the red is mostly sediment on the bottom). 

There were lots of fish jumping and the boats seems to have only electric motors on them (no idea if that is a rule or just a convention).

We paddled for three days here and saw deer, eagles, and osprey.

At one point, we had four eagles circling above us and we watched the eagles chase the osprey around a small bay each day.

There were also waterfowl, including nesting loons, and a huge number of robins.

On the northwest corner, there is a dam.

Several of the online reviews comment on the road, which is gravel and steep and probably not for you if you'd describe yourself as a nervous driver. I'm in no way an off-road guy and I didn't find it too bad (it likely varies over time). We averaged about 40kph. There is a significant elevation gain (I think the lake elevation is 4500 feet while Kelowna is about 1200 feet above sea level) and there are some places where the drop off the side of the road is a couple of hundred feet. Meh, no big deal.

Overall, a nice paddle away from the crowds down in the valley. It was markedly cooler this high (like 5-10 degrees less than the valley) and the lake did get a bit windy at times. Overall, a very nice paddle with basically no one around.