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.