Bear Lake, kayaking adventure

July 27th 2022

Well today is the day, that we are going to get our kayaks back into the water, I know it’s been a long time coming. But it’s happening today!

Our destination is 33 kilometers (21 miles) due south from our present location it’s Bear Lake, and if you were to Google “Bear Lake” it’s not likely to even show up in the results, I tried it and ended up in the northern British Columbia on the mainland. So I don’t have a lot of hard data to pass along, but it is almost like a really big curve on the river that runs through it. But the little municipal park was quite nice, it had a roped off area for swimming, a concrete boat ramp, and was on a reasonably quiet lake. The boaters that we experienced seemed to be very respectful of us as kayakers, of course our happy spot is usually paddling around the shoreline, as that is where most things happen.

We just loaded the kayaks in the back of the toad, a couple of straps, and we were on the road by ten, we found our launch point and were in the water before eleven, pretty fast for an old fart like myself. There were a few residential properties on the shoreline but the majority was natural, and most was reasonably pristine. There was lots of wildlife and birds, although the later would come and go as we watched a large hawk circling overhead. There were patches of water lilies along much of the shore line and I seen a number of fish jumping as we explored it.

The highlight of the day had to be some mink that we spotted, now mink in the wild is not something that I would have experienced much back in Ontario, but we were entertained by a number of them along waters edge, and while very similar in size to a muskrat they have a bushier tail and also swim higher in the water.

We explored the whole shoreline, but the entrance to the river was too shallow to kayak through, and I didn’t think I was up to a lot of walking over the rocks while dragging the kayak, just to be stopped a few meters down the river. We were able to tuck back into a shaded area where we enjoyed a wrap that Miss Laurie had made for our adventure.

It was great to get back onto the water, but Bear Lake didn’t hold enough draw to likely bring us back. The park was nice, but was busy as it was time for our exit, as we left the water at nearly two o’clock there were lot of other water craft entering the water as well as quite a crowd of swimmers and sunbathers had moved in, but a great spot to get our feet wet and enjoy a sunny day.

It’s always good to get your paddle wet!

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