Thunder Lake

In late June, we took a trip up past Barrhead to Thunder Lake. We put in at the day-use area in the provincial park. There is a public boat launch a bit further down the road but the park is nicer.

The park has pit toilets, picnic tables, fire pits, as well as a beach and play area. This year there was also a kayakomat on site. From the car to the water is about 30 feet, with a slight step down to the shore. The water was iced-tea coloured.

The lake was like glass, with no boats or wind when we got there so we headed across to the south shore and turned west, working out way to the far end.

We saw lots of wildlife, including some deer and beavers.

The real story was the birds. There were loons and heron and cormorants and thousands of ducks and about 100 pelicans.

After having lunch on the water, we turned around and had a slight tail wind back towards the beach just as the afternoon waters started to churn up the lake.

Overall, one of the nicest paddles at Thunder Lake that we've had. It looks like we went about 12km in 2.5 hours (I was beat!).

Thunder Lake

In early August, we went back out to Thunder Lake. We'd paddled the SE third mid-day in June but the lake was too rough that day to venture up the lake. This time, we went after dinner and the water was calmer.

We put in again at the day-use area of the provincial park, which was basically deserted. I picked up my first leech in maybe 10 years (last time was in the green canoe out at Astotin Lake) and it had lots of friends in the water when I started looking!

We went NW along the north shore for awhile and basically it is reeds giving way to an aspen forest. Very pretty but nothing really notable. There was a blue-green algae warning on the lake but we didn't see any algae.

There were a lot of boats on the lake but the wakes weren't anything to be bothered by. It was smoking hot at 28C with no wind.

We paddled around the islands in the middle of the lake, watching the birds. Terns, cormorants, loons, ducks and some black-birds.

The cormorant drying its wings was the most interesting part of the islands.

We got about halfway down the lake and then some wind came up so we toured the south shore back towards Lightening Bay. Lots of young birds in the sheltered areas plus a few folks water-skiing.

Eventually, we cut back across past the deserted public beach and pulled out. A few more folks had arrived for a late evening paddle board as we were leaving.

Overall, a nice evening paddle. I'm more of a morning person and I'd forgotten how nice a warm, calm paddle with the sun dropping towards the horizon can be.

Thunder Lake

We drove 90 minutes up past Barrhead to Thunder Lake in late June. We put in at the day use area in the provincial park (no charge). Maybe a 25-foot carry to the edge of the lake and a small step down to the water (12 inches?). There was lots of parking, pit toilets and picnic tables. There was also a small store and the camping looked nice.

There is  a fairly large public beach with a playground, toilets, sand and swim area right beside where we put in. It was surprisingly nice and also deserted.

An alternative entry is the municipal boat launch just to the south of the provincial park. Apologies the shot below is so distant--we had some waves on the way back and I didn't want to take the time to paddle over.

The wind was coming up when we got there at about 10;30 so we cut across to the west side of the lake and then went into the southern basin.

There were lots of bays and swampy areas i the south so we had a nice calm paddle among the lily pads and the nesting birds (lots of grebes).

We then crossed back to the east side and ground our way north into the waves and wind and back to the beach. The wind kept going so we decided to try the northern end of the lake another day (lots of islands and pelicans from what we could see). A lady we met suggested evening were calmer so we'll try that again. Overall, a pretty lake.