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.

Paddle River Dam

In early August, I drove up Highway 43 to try out the Paddle River Dam. Access is on the west side of the Highway 43 just past the Rochfort trestle bridge. It is well signed.  

Once you get off the pavement, you go about one kilometre then there is a blue sign indicating the boat launch is to the right. Stay on the pavement and voila. There is a big launch with a parking lot up above. The parking lot has pit toilets, picnic tables, and fire pits (no wood, though). There is also a campground here.

The launch is pretty big and steep. I dropped at the bottom and then parked up top.

Access was easy, with a gravelly bottom and a cement boat launch. The water in early August had blue-green algae (looks like it was full of dill weed or fine grass clippings). The water itself was very reddish (I don't know if that is iron-coloured silt or something growing in there).

The reservoir runs NE to SW and is about 4km long and maybe 500m wide. I paddled west along the north shore. This is basically an old rover valley that they dammed and filled so the sides are steep. You could get out anywhere but there was often no where to go once you were on shore.

The good part of this is that the lake is about 50 feet below the level of the surrounding and so there was very little wind. Between the dark water and the calm, the reflections were great.

In terms of wildlife, I saw a doe and fawn and then later three bigger deer.  Also one coyote (not pictured). There were also geese and ducks and grebes.

 

The paddle river flows in at the west end. Most interesting thing here was a tiny frog (not pictured) swimming past my boat.

There was no one on the water for most of the day (it was a Friday). One boat water skiing showed up near the end but it is big lake and that was no big deal.

 

The round trip took me two and half hours but I didn't rush. You can see below how the water level fluctuates.

The dam itself is right by the parking lot and isn't much to see. Just a big pile of aggregate, an overflow spillway on the right, and a small set of pipes set low in the lake in the middle below what looks lie some kind of control building.

Overall, this was a pretty neat paddle and I'd go back, maybe in the autumn when the leaves are changing or in the spring when there would be more waterfowl.