Wapasu Lake and Akasu Lake

Wapasu Lake

In mid July, I visited Wapasu Lake about 90 minutes east of Edmonton on Highway 16. There is good access through the Wapasu Lake Park, operated by the County of Minburn.

The park is very nice, with picnic tables, a playground, pit toilets (with electric lights!), a ball diamond and playing field. The images online also suggested a sandy beach and easy access.

There was definitely a sandy beach, but the water level has dropped about 12 inches in the past two years, leaving a grassy stretch about 50 feet wide before you get to the water.

The edge is icky and slippery but the water is clear (I read it is a spring fed lake), the bottom is hard-packed sand, and the slope is very shallow. I walked out another 50 feet before there was enough depth to get in.

To paddle without hitting the bottom, I stayed about 75 feet off shore. At 100 feet out, it was only 3 feet deep in most places. I paddled about 40 minutes around the edge (so maybe 3km). The north and west shore have a bit of scrub with fields in behind.

The south and east shores have more trees, some private cabins and the land rises behind it.

Paddling back, I ground out this far from shore.

The water was clear but there was some bottom algae. There was only one motorized boat on the shore (a jet ski) and no boat launch likely this is mostly paddle and wind powered craft.

Overall, this was a bit of a disappointing paddling but might be good for paddleboarding. Nearby (maybe 5km to the east) is Birch Lake, which offers an island to explore and a much larger body of water.

Akasu Lake

I didn't have enough time to hit a second lake on this trip but I did have time to do some scouting. I've looked at Akasu Lake (just north of Lavoy) a couple of times on google maps. The lake is about 4km long and 2km at it widest.

There looked to be public access on the south side where Range Road 133 basically runs to the edge of the lake on the north side of Akasu Hill (the highest point between Edmonton and Winnipeg). The water level when I got there was a bit lower than the map above so there is something of a bay that curved out on either side of road in the image above.

It's an alkali lake so you get the salt rim that looks like snow. I'm parked at the end of the road on county land. Immediately beyond my truck is this mess of algae over top of gently-sloping sand. Doable but likely yucky. Probably better earlier in the year when the water would be higher and there would be less algae.

 

I did see that the salt pan ran to the left (west) and arced around to a point where the water was closer so I walked the coupe of hundred feet over that way. The ground was firm and there were quad tracks here.

When I got the end, there was better access, with only a few feet of algae over a sandy bottom before open water. The ground felt firm to me but who knows once you get out from the shoreline. I should have brought my paddle to probe a bit. The water beyond the algae was clear.

Below is a reverse shot back towards my truck. Not super helpful. The lack of elevation causes foreshortening, but I thought the sun looked cool, though!

The upshot is that access is doable. I expect this lake is better in the spring and might also be interesting in the fall when birds start to migrate back. I'd be happy to hear of anyone's experiences on it.