Franchere Bay, Moose Lake (Bonnyville)

In late July, we spent some time in Bonnyville and paddled Moose Lake. The weather was uncooperative (wind, rain, smoke) so we decided to put in at Franchere Bay Provincial Recreation Area on the west end of the lake.

There is a boat launch here but we decide the beach looked just as easy. We parked about 30 meters from the water's edge and carried down a gentle grass and then sand slope. There is was a one-foot drop (retaining wall) down to the beach.

There were pit toilets, picnic tables and the usual stuff in this campground. The lake has a sandy bottom and looked quite swimmable.

We went left off the beach (north) and under the bridge into the channel (Thinlake River) that connects to Thin Lake. There were a fair number of birds here, even during the slow time of the summer and we went about 3km upstream before we started to bottom out a bit and turned back.

The shore was basically bullrushes giving way to bog or boggy forest.

We came back out into Moose Lake and then Jenn got her kayak sail deployed and spent some time enjoying the wind.

We drove around a bit to look at other launch sites, thinking we'll be back at some point. On the southwestern shore is the Pelican Point municipal campground. This has a boat launch and beach (meh) and gives easy access to the southern basin (which as lots of islands). We may well try here next time.

On the northern shore, we came south off of Highway 600 down Lakeview Drive (Range Road 72A) to this sandy launch. This launch gives good access to the northwestern basin as well as river (that doesn't seem named on google maps).

A little further east on 660 is access to Moose Lake Provincial Park (down Range Road 70). The park is sprawling and the launch is pretty decent. It gives good access to the eastern end of the lake.

There seem to be lots of access points to this pretty big lake. I wish the weather had been a bit better!

Whiteswan Lake and Moose (Alces) Lake

In July, we were in southeastern BC and drove into Whiteswan Lake Provincial Park. The drive in off of the Highway is 22km of windy, rolling, gravel logging road that you share with logging and mine trucks. Most of the road is fine (just dusty) but, if you get car sick, you'll want to take some gravol. 

The biggest hazard are loose cattle, that are everywhere. There is a 3km stretch around the Lussier Creek Hotsprings that is more exciting, including a bit of single-lane, hanging on the edge of the cliff with a 300-foot drop and no guard rails. Not a big deal (people haul huge holiday trailers in here) but worth knowing if you are a nervous driver.

The first lake you hit is Moose Lake (or Alces Lake) which is a small, sheltered lake with only electric motors. You can get access at the campground or, a bit further down the road, at a boat launch. There is a creek that leads into Whteswan Lake, but I don't know if it is navigable. This would be a good fallback option in a windy day.

A kilometre down the road is the west end of Whiteswan Lake. There is a campground and a boat launch here. The road continues on the south shore and there are at least two other boat launches on the road plus launches at the two campgrounds on the east end. We put in at the first launch.

Access was easy. The carry from the car was about 40 feet and we did a beach launch. There is also a proper boat launch and a dock.

We had a very calm day and the lake was lovely. It is about 6km long and the width averages 1km (although it widens at the east end to 2km).

The water was super clear and we paddled the perimeter in just over three hours.

There were lots of nature-y things to see, including birds, dead heads, and some great underwater cliff faces. There wasn't really anywhere to get out on the north side of the lake until you hit the boat-in campground about half way down. The south side of the lake had pretty good access if you needed to get off the water most of the way along.

There was a creek (Cave Creek, I think) on the north side and there is a campground here with picnic tables, fire pits, and pit toilets. This looks to be boat-in only and doesn't show up on google maps.

The shoreline is basically this all the way along.

The water was crazy clear and a lovely green. We could see fish swimming below us and there were lots of people fishing in the east end of the lake. There was only one power boat on the lake and they were pretty respectful.

This might well be quite a different lake in bad weather or a big wind. We had an exceptional day.

Below is one of the launches on the south side of the lake with the road visible at the top of the ramp.

Overall, this was an amazing paddle, aided by the great weather, and was worth the drive.