Lacombe Lake

In late April, I stopped at Lacombe Lake on the way back from Calgary. I use the public boat launch off Township Road 402 in the NE corner of the lake.

The launch was lovely (and empty) with a shallow gravel entry and pretty clean water. There are no bathroom facilities here (I would guess the closest would be in Lacombe or Blackfalds. It was a windy day (from the south) so I padded down the east side of the lake and into the small beaver pond.

Lots of birds here, including loons. No beavers on this trip but I did see a muskrat.

The TransCanada Trail runs down the east side of the lake.

I went back out into the main lake and worked my way to the south end of the lake.

The picture below gives you a pretty good sense of the overall experience. The shore is reeds that give way to aspen and fir forest. There are hills on the east side and a farm on the west side.

The wind really came up for the trip back. I usually paddle about 4 km an hour (very average). The trip back down the lake saw me do as much as 12.6 kph (it was really blowing--fortunately the lake is shallow, so the waves were not too bad).

The lake is probably about 8 or 9km around so it's a two-hour paddle if you do the whole thing. If you wanted a shorter paddle, down the east side and into the small bay is interesting. The southern end is also okay. The north end of the lake is the least interesting and is the part to skip.

Lacombe Lake

In early June, I popped in to Lacombe Lake for  quick paddle on the way home from Calgary. Access was off Highway 2A to Township Road 402, which take you right to the boat launch in the NE corner.

The boat launch was nice sand and gravel with a gentle slope. The parking area was full (room for about six vehicles) and some folks were parking back up the hill by the Canada Post Box. A good mix of families, fishermen, and couples kayaking and paddle boarding. 

My wife picked up a leech at the launch. After dealing with that, we paddled down the east side of the lake. The shoreline is reedy and then gives way to aspen and spruce.

Near the bottom of the lake, we turned east into a little basin. There were a lot of birds in here (heron, grebes, loons, ducks, red-winged and yellow-headed blackbirds) as well as muskrats and beaver.

The Transcanada Trail parallels Range Road 271B on the east side of the lake and it looks like you could slip a boat in here as well. There was one channel that led to a clear path down from the trail (including a sign, probably prohibiting launching from there).

We ended up back out on the main lake and paddle north as the wind and cloud picked up. There were some pelicans in the south end of the lake and lots of grebes trying to lead us away from their floating nests.

Overall, a pretty nice paddle. It might be easily combined with Barnett lake or Elizabeth Lake in Lacombe for a longer day on the water. 

Lacombe Lake

This summer I had a chance to stop at Lacombe Lake, just north of Blackfalds. Access is off Highway 2A, either north of Blackfalds or south of Lacombe. You then turn west on Township Road 402 by the RV storage place and go west until you hit the lake (approximately where the green arrow points).

There is a sand-and-gravel boat launch with room to turn around and maybe park if it isn't too busy. I was there on an overcast day--the pictures would be a lot cheerier if there had been some sun.

The lake is about 2 km north-south and varies between 100 and 400m wide east west. The northern part was pretty shallow from what I could see and it looked like there were buoys for racing. 

The lake was nice but pretty unremarkable. Reeds giving way to a mixture of farm land or forest. There were a few houses backing onto the lake.

The west side was quite a lot calmer with trees creating a wind break. There was a pretty noticeable livestock smell (pigs?) whenever the wind picked up.

A nice little lake. The circuit took about 90 minutes. There were a fair number of birds, including heron, pelicans, grebes, loons, and terns.