In early August, we were in William Switzer Provincial Park for a few days and wanted to paddle Blue Lake and Cache Lake. This ended up being slight more complicated than expected but was a great trip. My initial plan was to simply drive over to the Bus Lake boat launch (purple arrow) or park (blue arrow below) and carry down the slope (yellow arrow) to the lake.
Two problems arose. The first was that there was a locked gate (red arrow) to keep people out of the Blue Lake Centre (which seems quasi closed, although not totally abandoned when we walked around it). I'm also not sure whether the boat launch is publicly accessible when the Centre is open.
The second problem was that the path down the slope from the parking lot was steep and rooted and muddy and it was wet as hell. Yeah, you could do it but I wasn't up for a tumble on the mud with a boat on my head. The picture above is the entrance and underplays how steep it was; the picture below is where the path come out at the lake (shot the next day from the water)
What we decided to do paddle into Cache Lake, find Jarvis Creek, paddle 2km up the creek, and then hang a right into Blue Lake
Cache Lake
The best access to Cache Lake is at the canoe takeout in the Graveyard Lake Campground (purple arrow, which is actually on Jarvis Creek). This required a few kms on a gravel road and the campground is a nice seven-site, grassy campground with pit toilets, garbage cans, fire pits and picnic tables. It was empty when we were there.
You can park right beside the creek and either enter at the bottom of a small slope (right behind my truck, in the photo below) and paddle 100m south into Cache Lake. Alternately, you can walk up a short, signed path over a bridge and get pretty close to Cache Lake. You might have to do this if Jarvis Creek is low, as the first 30 meters is shallow.
The slope is a bit steep (maybe a 1.5m vertical drop with some quasi- mud and grass steps). The shot below gives you a sense of the height. If this is too daunting, there is always the 30m carry to a gentle bank entry.
At the bottom of the slope is a little ledge of mud and gravel to get in off of. It was wet the days we were there and this was both gooey and slippery as hell in our water shoes! If I had to do it again, I would enter about 3 meters to the left (up stream) from where Jenn has gone in in the picture below.
Once in the water, we paddled 100m upstream. There was a slight S-curve that was shallow and someone has re-arranged rocks to create a paddle-able channel here.
Cache Lake was amazing. Clear, clean water with fir trees on the shore. The perimeter was maybe 3km so about 45 minutes.
We were watching a loon with two chicks when suddenly it started making a distress call. Over our shoulders came an osprey carrying a fish with a bald eagle in hot pursuit. I'm going to try to embed the video below (fingers crossed).
There was quite a dog fight and the osprey eventually out turned and out climbed the eagle and everyone calmed down.
We did a quick circuit of the lake, including the large island in the middle and eventually found the entrance to Jarvis Creek (green arrow in map above).
Jarvis Creek
Jarvis Creek is a fairly gentle creek, maybe 3 to 5 meters wide that flows through a boggy fen. It is part of a canoe trip you can take from Highway 40 (orange arrow above) to the pull out at Graveyard Lake campground (purple arrow). We saw some folks putting in off Highway 40 the next day as we drove out of the park.
I understand that this trip is sometimes not possible at lower water levels. About a third of the way in, you can turn west and access Blue Lake (blue arrow). I'd say if you were just doing the creek, you should allot maybe an hour for the trip (which is about 4km), more if you plan to paddle one or both lakes (and why wouldn't you?).
The access to Jarvis Creek from Cache Lake was easy to find and the paddle was pretty straight forward. There is a bit of a current but it was no big deal.
There is some signage along the way but basically you just stay in the main channel.
After about 2km (45 minutes), you will see a sign saying Blue Lake that points down a smaller channel with lots of grass. This is a short spur with no real current that dumps you into Blue Lake.
The grass is pretty tall here!
Blue Lake
Blue Lake is a small lake (maybe a 3km perimeter) with lovely clean water that had a deep blue-green colour to it.
There is a small landing on the north side (where the Blue Lake Centre boat launch is) with pit toilets (locked!), a picnic table, and some canoes. We stopped here for a snack and to stretch our legs. You could swim from here.
We then did a quick circuit of Blue Lake.
You can see the dining hal at the top of the hill in the picture below).
We then reversed our trip back down Jarvis Creek (a 20-minute ride with the current!), crossed Cache Lake again and pulled out where we put in. The round trip took us just under three hours.
Jarvis Creek continues into nearly Graveyard Lake and then on to Gregg Lake. The signage and google maps suggests that there are a lot of blockages and paddling that way isn't recommended. We'll maybe check out Graveyard Lake next time we're in the area.
In early August, we took a trip to Hinton and Grande Cache, which gave us a chance to try some new lakes, including Desjarlais Lake in Pierre Grey's Provincial Park. Access from Hinton is about an hour north on Highway 40. There are five lakes in the park, three of which are easily accessible and none of which allow for gasoline-powered motors.
We had finite time to paddle so we chose Desjarlais Lake since it looked to be the biggest and most interesting. The easiest access was at the main boat launch (blue arrow above).
The launch is large and you can drop right by the water. There is a floating dock and a fish cleaning station. Pit toilets (which were lovely) are just up the hill 25 meters by the parking lot.
The bottom at the launch was gravel and the water was clean and people were swimming. To the right is a causeway out onto the ling spit of an island that breaks up the lake halfway down. There were lots of people fishing, both from the shore and from boats.
We paddled the southern bay and stopped for lunch on the water. The shoreline is basically fir trees down to the water. The bottom was mostly sandy or tan coloured silt. On the west end of the island, there was a large osprey nets wth three birds in it. You can see in the photo that the weather is starting to turn!
There was lots of sunshine but also periodical sun showers. The area around the island is quite shallow.
There were several spots like the ones below where underwater springs were pushing water into the lake.
We got soaked about half was to the north end so turned tail and came in. Overall, a nice paddle and a very quite lake with no motorized boats to content with.
Before we left, we also toured the other launches sides. Access to Moberly Lake (green arrow in map above) was easy with a concrete ramp and floating dock. You could park right just to the left of the launch in the photo below. The water was clean and beautiful and people were swimming.
The launch at MacDonald Lake (orange arrow in the map above) required a bit of a carry (maybe 20 meters) down a hill.
At the bottom, it was a fairly easy grass launch and there was a floating dock. The water was again clear and beautiful. Not shown are a bunch of paddle boarders.
Overall, this was lovely park to visit and I would definitely go back to try the other lakes if I was in the area.
I have a long list of lakes to visit around the province. In early August, I decided to check out Trappers Lake, which is located immediately west of Elk Island National Park. The lake is about 2km east-west and 1 km north-south, although low water can have a significant effect on the dimensions of the lake.
Access is north off of Highway 16 up Range Road 210 until it ends (green arrow below). The road that hooks to the right (red arrow) is not accessible, basically being an ATV trail within Elk Island Park, behind a 10-foot bison- and paddler-proof fence.
When you get to the end of the road, you can park by the bullet-riddled dead-end sign. Access to the lake is down a "path" that starts on the left side of the photo below.
The path to the lake is about 100m long and is vague most of the way (more of an animal path). It roughly follows the green arc on the map below. I ended up bushwhacking a fair bit of the walk.
There is a bit of a downward slope, lots of fallen trees underfoot, and quite a bit of rose bush for the first 50m. I'd suggest good boots and long pants! Honestly, it would be a real chore to get a boat though here, even on my head.
Then you get out of the trees into a meadow. It is another 50 meters to the lake. Again, there is tricky footing with lots of thistle and shoulder-high nettle. Shorts were a poor choice on my part.
The shoreline is soft, shallow and muddy. Maybe you could bum-scoot your entry to deeper water. The trick would be getting back out without sinking in the goop. There was a rough quadded trail that looked to go around the south side of the lake, so you might be able to find a decent entry spot further east or west.
At this point, I decided this was a "pass" for me and I hiked back to my truck. Finding where I'd come out of the wood was challenging. The direction of the sun and the national park boundary marker was helpful in this regard.
This was (hopefully) the only real bust trip for the season and I'm happy this wasn't too far to go.
In late July, my daughter and I made our way to East Twin Lake, southwest of Edmonton, by Winfield. It is located just east of the Twin Lake campground and required about a 1.1km carry to get into.
To get there, drive to Twin Lake. As you approach the main beach parking area, the road forks. Take the left (east) fork and drive through the campground (along Range Road 33A) until the road dead ends (orange arrow above, there is a pit toilet here). You can unload you boats here and then go back about 100m to park (red arrow, more pit toilets along the way). The path to get into East Twin lake is obvious (a one-track gravel and dirt road) and roughly follows the green arrow above.
You start out walking through a pine forest that looks like the picture above. You will want real shoes, not flip-flops, for the walk. Eventually, the trail starts to rise (maybe a 10m elevation gain over a long distance) and dry out, and looks like the trail below.
There are sign posts along the way and no chance of getting lost (you just follow the road). You will want to bring bear spray. We stopped a few times to rest our arms but, overall, it wasn't a big deal. It just took some time.
Eventually, the road curves north and drops down to the lake. There is a picnic table here and a garbage can. There is also an old pit toilet a ways back up the trail, hidden in the trees. We surprised a garter snake at the launch!
The launch is grass--just follow the slight drainage cut on the right side of the clearing. The bottom of the lake is sandy and firm. The water is pretty clean and there was no algae when we were there.
The lake itself runs east-west and is about 1.2km long and 300m wide. We went east, paddling into the sight wind.
The south shore is a fir forest with a walking trail just into the trees. The north shore is mostly deciduous and climbs up a steep hill.
The east end of the lake (below) has a small creek flowing in. The west end (not pictured) is reedy.
There were some birds (loons, ducks, a heron, and and osprey) and there are fish and beaver here. The water was clean but a bit murky (Twin Lake would be a much better choice for swimming).
We did a leisurely lap in 40 minutes (maybe 3km) and then had lunch at the launch. You could easily do Twin Lake and East Twin Lake in a day.
The walk back out was a bit of a grind but there was lots to look at each time we stopped. The hiking trails looked pretty well used.
