Cardiff Pond

On a sunny afternoon in June, I ducked out before a storm to the Cardiff Pond just east of Legal. There were a lot of people fishing from the edge but I was the only boat.

The entry was pretty good. They upped the level of difficulty this year by adding a snake to the dock. I thought it was rope until it slithered.

I think the water level was up over past years (maybe 8-12 inches). There was also a new fishing platform on the SW corner.

Had beautiful blue skies and calm waters despite the weather forecast.

There was quite  a lot of wildlife, including a pair of herons (grey, I think) and a deer tat I startled in the NE corner.

Nobody nesting on the island that I could see.

There were two tons with a youngster. One of them got pretty aggressive with me.

Overall, a lovely paddle close to the city. Only about 45 minutes to paddle the whole perimeter at a very leisurely pace. But a good place for a first paddle or young kids.

Cardiff Pond

We took a couple of trips out to Cardiff Pond this spring while the Sturgeon was too low to paddle and the North Saskatchewan was too high.

A kayak club has taken up residency here which means a new (and better) dock and beach. This makes for a much nicer launch.

Jess always enjoys collecting fishing gear that has floated away from the many anglers. We ended up with 14 floats and a half dozen lures this time. We also managed to get into the one reach we could not paddle last year because of an aggressive loon.

I also managed to recover a large patio umbrella and a sodden coat. On a separate trip, I found two cans of beer (thanks to the graduating class of Morinville High!).

Overall, a pleasant afternoon only 30 minutes north of town. Lots of birds on the water, including terns, loons, geese, ducks and heron.

 Also lots of other kayakers as the club has practices and races on the weekends.

Cardiff Pond

Cardiff Pond is located about 15 minutes north of St Albert, just east of Morinville. It is a small municipal pond that is stocked for fishing (and there were lots of folks fishing while we were there). The easiest access point is by the main dock (about two-thirds of the way down the lake on the west edge).

There is a parking lot that is about 300 feet from the water. I didn't see any bathrooms here but I suspect there must be some in the park. At the water, there is a floating dock (behind bush in picture below) but you can also access the water for a beach launch. It isn't much of a beach and I was happy to have water shoes).

Below is a reverse shot of the landing, which is to the left of the dock, just below the trailer.

The pond is small and narrow and has good cover from the wind. It was pretty breezy the day we were there but the water was calm. A nice place to take kids or to practice stand-up paddle boarding.

Although the lake is small, it has lots of coves and reaches. We leisurely paddle all but the NW reach in about 40 minutes. We would have paddle that one as well but we ran into an angry loon (young nearby) so we decided to reverse course.

Jessica had fun hunting for lost fishing tackle and we recovered four errant floats.

I'm not sure I'd go back. It was a nice paddle. Pretty much similar to Hermitage Pond in NE Edmonton. But it was a bit small for our tastes and abilities at this point.