Saturday, November 11, 2023

Mayatan Lake

On the August long weekend, we popped out to Mayatan Lake. I see google has finally marked the boat launch but, if you need them, fuller directions are in this older post.


We got out at about 9 am, figuring the boat launch would be busy on a long weekend. There were a few cars here and maybe four kayaks on the lake. The parking area was starting to fill up as we left around 11.


This is basically what you get in both basins of Mayatan: clear water, weedy bottom, reeds on the edge immediately giving way to aspen forest. It is a bit swamper in the eastern basin than the western.


The water level was quite low this spring and the channel between the two halves was apparently tricky earlier in the year. The June rain seemed to have sorted that out and we had no problem passing through it.


The bottom is sandy but mostly weed covered. There were lots of fish and one jumped into the sidewall of my wife's kayak (first time I ever saw that happen!).


The day got quite hot as we paddled around the eastern half and had lunch in the boats.


There were a fair few loons and some ducks. There were also two heron (and maybe a many as four--hard to say) who were unhappy we were interrupting their hunting.



The lake smelled better than it has the last couple of times (no septic smell going past the cabins).

Overall, a nice easy paddle. It looks like they are improving the road between Mink Lake and Star Lake, which is good news.

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