Bleeker Lake is a long narrow lake located just north of Roche Lake. To get to the lakeshore, drive up the Roche Lake Road and then turn left onto the Bleeker Lake FSR (3 km before Roche). Follow the bumpy 2WD road to the west end of the lake. There is access to the lake off a side road, close …Continue reading…
On a warm summer day, I went into the Roche Lakes area to paddle a lake and hike into a different lake. The turn to the West Roche Lake campsite is the same turn that branches off to the Horseshoe Lake Rec Site. There is a boat launch at the small camping area on the shores of the lake. …Continue reading…
When we travel to the lakes of our area to the Interior, we usually try to go a lake that is large enough to warrant the time an effort to load up, drive, launch, reload, and drive back. We prefer a lake that has a 5 km shoreline or longer. If we choose a smaller lake, we try to …Continue reading…
Ross Moore Lake is a pleasant lake in the Lac le Jeune area, but its not easy to get to. The best road access is to drive out onto the Brigade Lake Road, then turn onto the Long Lake Road. After the last ranch, the road is not maintained very often so it will requires some slower driving on backroads, …Continue reading…
Tunkwa Lake is a busy place all summer. The campgrounds are full or very busy, many fishing boats are on the lake, and the off-road group is active in the area. But, with such an open area and multiple places to launch a boat, paddlers can get on to the lake and stay out of everyone’s way. Fishermen don’t …Continue reading…
We try to travel to many lakes to do our paddling each year. With about 100 lakes accessible to kayak, we move around as much as we can. We paddle the river in the early and late season, but as soon as the ice is off the lakes (usually Kamloops Lake first, then Jacko and Six Mile), we paddle many …Continue reading…
One of the best lakes for paddling in our area is Heffley Lake. The launch spot is at the east end of the lake close to the BC Rec site. A tour of the entire lake, following the shoreline is 13 km, so for most days on the lake we just choose a loop to paddle to match the conditions …Continue reading…
We paddled Lac le Jeune 6 times at the end of June, each time launching out of the Provincial Park Campsite. Cloudy, bright skies led to silver light on the lake each day. Each day featured a different loop under the grey skies. The best paddle of the series was the one where I went under Lac …Continue reading…
We padded up Clearwater Lake in Wells Gray Provincial Park to the Diver’s Bluff Marine Campground, then hiked the Eagle’s View Trail. We launched our boats (canoes and kayaks) and headed up the west shore of the lake. With calm conditions we were at our destination in about 75 minutes. From the boat launch at the end …Continue reading…
We try to paddle all of the lakes in our area and a number of them warrant a return visit. We enjoy both Knouff (Sullivan) Lake and Badger Lake. We drove from the Heffley Creek – Sun Peaks Road up the Knouff Lake Road, past the community of Knouff Lake to the BC Rec Site on the west side …Continue reading…
We camped at Haynes Point Provincial Park to do some paddling in the South Okanagan area. Osoyoos (“narrowing of the waters”) Lake is 18 km long with 2/3 north of the border and the south end in the United States. Haynes Point is one of the “narrowing” points with a shallow passage on the east side of the …Continue reading…
In most years the Thompson River floods during freshet filling Tranquille Bay for easy launching and access to the floodlands. In 2019, however, the river has not flooded these lands extensively so launching is more difficult and some of the channels we can normally paddle have low water. On a day in mid-June I launched out of Cooney Bay. There …Continue reading…
Whitetail Lake lies in a valley in the Purcell Mountains about 28 km from Columbia Lake in the East Kootenays. Access is by the Findlay Creek Forest Service Road near Canal Flats. The final section is on the Whitetail FSR to the Whitetail Lake recreation Site. The lake is a destination for camping and fishing, but we traveled out there …Continue reading…
Most of Griffin Lake is within the McQueen Lake Environmental Education Center. It is a swampy lake, not suitable for fishing. It is too small a lake for a destination paddle and there is no good access to the lake’s edge. On a spring day I put my kayak on some wheels and followed a rough track from the …Continue reading…
When the river rises in spring, the McArthur Island boat launch is an easy launch for access to the Thompson River. Each year I paddle a loop route going upstream to the end of Rabbit Island, downstream around the island, across the river to the McArthur Island Slough, thorugh the slough to the end and back, then back upstream to …Continue reading…
In early May I paddled down the Columbia River from Invermere to Radium, a distance of about 16 km. The river was low and slow-moving except for 3 spots of faster water. Adjacent to the river are many wetlands so birds and waterfowl were abundant along the way. The launch spot was by the Athalmer Bridge at the outlet to …Continue reading…