Trip Coordinator: Mike Eaton

When people talk about paddling mountain lakes, thoughts usually run to Jasper to Banff corridor. There’s another set of paddling gems to be found in Kananskis Country. Lower and Upper Kananskis Lakes are reservoirs used for power generation and river stream flow control. They also offer majestic scenery without the chaos of Banff or Jasper. Although to be honest, ever since the pandemic, people have started to flock to the area.

Joining the trip were Janice Q, Cap’n Bob T, Taera D, Frank G, and Alan S. A few more were planning to come but the iffy weather report gave them pause (more on the weather later)

We had sites booked at the Lower Lake Campground and the gang rolled in Friday afternoon and evening. Rain at the highway 40 turn off turned into then scattered cloud at the campground. Bob, Janice and Taera, and Mike set up camp and dug into supper. Rain started falling around 8:30 PM but we were nice and dry under a nice big taarp. Frank and Allan arrived shortly afterwards.

Saturday

We woke to blue skies and signing birds (Swainston Thrush with occasional Loon). We drove to the Lower Lake boat launch and hit the water around 1000 am and paddled south along the east shore. The lake level was down so several of the bays were inaccessible but the weather was perfect for paddling. No wind and blue sky.

While the lakes existed before the dams were built, they are larger then original. Several areas were logged off before the levels rose to present day. As the lake level fluctuates there are some hazards not normally encountered on one of our trips. In several places, we had to keep our eyes open for stumps just under the water.

Out of the water they looked like Tolkienesque creatures.

We stopped for a leisurely lunch at the South end.

After lunch, we paddled north past the Upper to Lower Lake dam outlet. The flow was fairly low from other times Mike has paddled here. A couple of us not to be named played in the current at the outflow of the dam and then we headed north again up the lake.

A nice tailwind picked up pushing our speed up to 50% faster the the south bound leg. We paddled up into the arm where Smith Dorrien creek enters the Lower Lake. Taera did some amazing demos of butterfly, standard and shotgun Greenland rolling. Greenland rolling is like ballet on the water. Check it out on YouTube.

Cap’n Bob was also in on the rolling action and amazed us in a scramble re-entry in a kayak we thought was unreenterable(?)! Both Taera and Bob commented on how much chillier the water was at the creek mouth.

We made our way back to the launch and loaded up. Back at camp we got the campfire going. A brief rainstorm hit during supper then the sun came out again. We seized the opportunity and walked the trail from Lower Lake campground to Mount Sarrail campground. It's a lovely paved trail through the forest. Well it was lovely until we found a berry seed filled “present” on the trail. There had been reports of a bear in the area and some of the trails higher up were closed. We ventured a bit further and when we saw a yearling grizzly off in the distance we decided turning around was a good idea.

Back at camp, fire number two for the night took us to bedtime with great conservation.

Sunday

Well the best laid plans...as they say. We were going to paddle the Upper Lake however we woke to rain and low cloud. It looked like it was setting in for the day so no one was excited about paddling. Some of the group has never been in K-Country so we headed over to the Upper Lake to take a look from the launch. We all agreed that heading home was a good idea Mike promised to “get the band together again” later in the year so we can enjoy the Upper Lake