In mid-June, we tried to paddle through Amiskowan Lake, up the creek and into Shady Lake in Prince Albert National Park. We did this paddle three years ago, but in Jul,y and the weeds were challenging. We were hoping coming a month earlier would make for an easier paddle.
Access to Amiskowan Lake is on the Narrows Road. You then paddle about 4km, east through Amiskowan, find the creek mouth, up the creek, and into Shady Lake. It is a good paddle there and back plus however much time you want to spend in Shady Lake. There is lots of wildlife and only one road (a culvert over the creek). We parked at the green arrow above and the skidded our boats down the steep bank to the lake.
The lake was about a foot lower than last time but it still looked doable so we thought we'd give it a try. We got most of the way through the western basin and started east only to find that beavers had dammed the whole lake (red line above)!
I've seen bigger dams in terms of height and volume, but never one that long. It wasn't possible to get close to the dam due to the water levels and the sides looked like a muddy nightmare. We decided we were too old and lazy to try to carry around and, instead, we took a quick tour of the lower basin before going elsewhere.
Hauling the boats back up the slope to the road was a good work out! I'm strong and this was hard.
While we were loading, a fox wandered along the shoreline, looking for lunch and briefly stalked a muskrat before bounding off after a bird.
Not every paddle is a success and I was happy we had a back-up plan.
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