End of Season

I wrapped up the 2021 paddling season with a couple of trips on the river (the last being November 5) before the frazil pan got too thick. 

The Emily Murphy launch was open again (albeit a much crappier entry point now) and other than having to chop through some ice to get out, it was a nice way to end the year (rescued a traffic cone that was accessible with the water being low).

These last few mid-day paddles saw me have the river to myself, which was lovely. I also managed to rescue a can of booze floating downstream (Watermelon flavoured hard seltzer--yuck).

The late paddling saw some interesting ice formations (frozen spring below).

The muskrats were happy to sit up on the ice and there was some interesting slush to plow through.

Overall, this was a great year. I paddled 45 times and we visited 14 new lakes/creeks. 

Looking forward to trying some new lakes south and north of town next year. Also hoping to take another trip into north Saskatchewan.

Happy new year!

Little Mere Lake and North Lake

In mid-October, we hauled back out to the Chickakoo Nature Reserve to paddle Little Mere Lake and North Lake that run along the north side of the reserve. The link above goes to google maps but, since access is tricky, I screen shotted a portion of the map.

So the best access we could find is on the east end of North Lake, right where Range Road 12 intersects Township Road 540 (yellow arrow). There is a "dead end" sign (below) and 15 feet to the east of that is a culvert that brings the lake right to the edge of the ditch. We just parked on the shoulder.

The bank is pretty steep and then you get to make an exciting DIY entry. We had to bum scoot the boats about eight feet before they floated free. The lake level is up quite a bit due to beaver activity so you then need to navigate a small forest to get out on the the lake properly.

The lake itself is quite nice. Iced tea water but no real smell. Lots of birds, though, with nesting boxes all around the perimeter.

The two lakes are connected through a swampy narrows.

Some deadheads here plus a lot of muskrats. Nothing too difficult at this water level. I'm not sure it would be navigable at the normal water level.

The western basin (Little Mere Lake) is smaller but also pretty nice (below). There is a road along the north and west shores. You could get in at the west end of the lake, but the bank is steep. The north road is much higher than the lake so that would be a sucky (or extremely exciting, depending upon your perspective) entry.

The sun was beautiful while we were out and the kid showed off what she's learning in her botany class.

On the way back, we followed the south shore and found where the lake used to drain towards Kettle lake. The beavers have dammed this up and the lake is several feet above its natural level.

Overall, a fun paddle with a rustic entry and no one else on the water. The shoreline is about 4km around and took maybe 90 minutes without any hurrying. We did see some hikers from the Chickakoo trails plus some horses from a farm the juts out into the lake.

Chickakoo Lake

On the Thanksgiving weekend, we went out to Chickakoo Lake for the first time in years. We've walked around here but I don't think we've ever paddled. 

The place was hopping and we snagged the last parking spot by the boat launch but there was no one on the lake (lots of hiking and picnicking). Some other paddlers showed up just as we were pulling out.

There is a dock, boat launch (sort of), dock, and pit toilets and picnic table there. We had to push a bunch of logs out of the way to use the launch and the water was pretty green.

The lake was surprisingly small once we go out on it. Nothing wrong with it but you could paddle the perimeter in half an hour if you you really hauled. The map suggested we might get into Kettle Lake via a creek but that is not the case.

We had a pretty good time puttering around and playing in the aeration bubbles.

The sun came out at the north end of the lake, near the scout camp. I fished out a float, lure and 40 feet of line someone had lost.

There were lots of muskrats to watch.

Overall, this was a fine enough paddle but a bit shorter than I wanted. It wa sonly about 6 degrees when we started so Jess was perhaps happy to be done so quickly!

More interesting to me is the seemingly unnamed lake (perhaps once part of Kettle Lake?) that is immediately north of Chickakoo and runs east-west just south of Township Road 540.  It looked like there was sore access on the east end off the road.