Crawling Valley Reservoir

In early July, we put in at Crawling Valley Reservoir. The easiest access was at the Crawling Valley Campground on the SW corner, just a few kms north of Bassano and northwest of Brooks maybe 40 minutes. There was no fee to launch but there was a bit of paperwork at the main office (mostly trying to control the spread of invasives through an inspection).

We launched off the main beach, which was lovely. All the usual beach amenities were there and there was a roped swimming area. We carried about 50 feet over the sand. The water looked great. The alternative was to use the old boat launch just beside the beach (pictured below).

This was our first trip so we turned left off the beach, paddled past the marina entrance and campground and into a swampy area on the west side of the lake. Then we worked our way up the lake and into an old coolie.

The lake bottom was a mix of sand and weeds and we saw a lot of cattle on the shore. There was no real wind near the shore. The reservoir is huge and had an enormous shoreline to explore. Despite a a constant parade of boats out of the marina on a Saturday afternoon, we hardly saw anyone on the lake.

The submerged coolie went quite a ways back into the surrounding ranch and, again, we saw a lot of cows plus shore birds.

We eventually turned back and let the slight wind blow us back to the beach. And an easy alternative would have been to paddle across the face of the dam to the east side and explore the islands there.

Overall, one of the nicest paddles of the summer and I would definitely go back again the next time I'm in the area.

Lake Newell

In early July, we were headed to the Cypress Hills. We stopped at Brooks for gas and detoured about 12km south of town to Kinbrook Island Provincial Park on Lake Newell for lunch. The park is lovely, with lots of camping, a beach, food stand, toilets, etc. Friends who have worked here describe this as a bit of a party campground on the long weekends.

Lake Newell is pretty big and was really rolling the day we were there (pictures don't really do it justice) so we had lunch on the beach and walked around. You could either get in off the beach (maybe a 150-foot carry from the parking lot). Or you could use the boat launch at the sailing club.

On the east side of the island is a sheltered part of the lake (there is a berm enclosing it) that we were told was full of birds. Access is from a small three-car parking spot (just follow the only road north from the beach and, if you hit the sailing club, you went too far) with a short walk through the trees to a dock.

The dock floats (sort of) and was pretty tippy. We got out boats in on the side, using the submerged part of the dock as a launching platform. This was a moderately challenging launch that was not for the faint of heart. It would have been easier to get a SUP or a canoe in off the dock itself.

We paddled the very calm waters north, basically doing a clockwise loop in about 75 minutes. There were lots of birds here, even though we were entering the quiet period of the summer.

The reedy islands at the south end of this area were a bit confusing and we ended up pushing through some reeds at the end to get headed back in the right direction.

There were no big waves to speak of in here but there was some stiff wind and it was a real grind to get back across the pond to the dock. My wife ended up drafting me. This would have sucked on a SUP.

Overall, a nice enough lake. I would have liked to have paddled the main lake but that is totally wind dependent. Crawling Valley Reservoir just north of Bassano (maybe a 40-minute drive west) is nicer and would be my choice if I was in the area again.