Trip Coordinator: Frank G.

Photos: Various participants

A tradition in this club is to paddle Astotin Lake in Elk Island National Park at least once early in the season before the blue-green algae clog up the waters. And it’s important to get there early before most of the weekend day trippers clog up the parking lot.

We were there by 10 AM, in time to split up into the canoe-launch and beach-launch groups. Paddling today were Lorne S, Peter B, Ben C, John B, Christine O, Taera D, Emily C, Karyn M, Fiona M, and Frank G. The canoe launch has been improved with the removal of some of the concrete and rebar detritus, but some heaving of rocks was still necessary to effect a relatively smooth launching path. The beach launch, best for kayaks, was murky/muddy, but not a blue-green soup like later in the season.

The weather conditions were almost identical to our trip in 2022: air temperature went from about 18 C when we started to 23 by mid afternoon. The NE wind was light at about 10 km/hr, and the light cloud cover kept us from getting too hot, on basically a sunny day.

We did a clockwise rotation, starting from the beach, then going past the golf course and peninsula of Elk “Island” and into the bays that have been created by ancient beaver dams. The water levels have been dropping over the last few years, so the previously flooded birches along the shore were now on soggy ground, making for a few spots to land and stretch our legs.

We made a good passage through the bay on the west side of Long Island toward the Parks administration building before heading along Lamont and Crane Island and back to the beach. We had a leisurely lunch at a picnic table near our cars before heading home. As expected, there wasn’t an open parking space to be had in the parking lot. The BBQ and kite-flying crowds had arrived.

It’s getting increasingly difficult to paddle this lake after early June. This year, Alberta Health Services put out their first advisory of blue-green algae in Astotin Lake on 18 June. And by early July, Parks Canada was turning away vehicles from the Park due to overcrowding on weekends, especially because of this summer’s free entry policy recently announced by the federal government. So get there early next year! It’s worth the short drive for a short paddle and a relaxing day.