Paddle River Dam

In early May, we popped out to the Paddle River Dam near Sangudo. The reservoir behind the dam is a good size (maybe a 10km perimeter) and I was keen to get up the Paddle River a ways on the west end.

The boat launch is very good, with both gravel and a cement pad. There is parking up above with a pit toilet (that could have used some cleaning) and a picnic table. There is also a campground at the top. Dams are big and the scale of things takes some getting used to. The picture below is from the parking lot looking down at the boat launch (10-foot orange kayaks for scale).

The wind was from the south and it was cool so we decided to paddle clockwise to get some shelter from the south shore.

The southern shore is decidedly boreal feeling.

When we got down to the far end (the power lines are about two-thirds of the way), we started looking for the entrance to the river. There were two accesses (the delta is a bit of a mess, with smaller channels and lots of debris), both basically below the farm house on the north shore). The deeper bay on the south side dead-ends with old oxbows.

The paddle river itself was deep and muddy with not much current. It might be the source of the reddish tint the water has in the reservoir.

We saw two eagles nesting up a tree (sorry the picture is bad--it was a long way off). The river eventually narrowed about 1.5km up. I could get to the chute on the left but could not paddle hard enough to get through it. You could carry your boat past this point.

We were pooped so we headed back. The north shore looks like this, with more of a parkland vibe and two farms. There were lots of birds (mostly water fowl). We also saw a beaver, but no forest critters.

Overall, a nice paddle. There was only one boat on the lake with us (right at the end) and the lake is big enough that that is no bother.