Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Kemp Lake Paddling

Another great day of exploring the lakes around my new home!

For this day, I took the #63 bus in Sooke for a day of commando kayaking, with my new little inflatable Lagoon kayak on a roller. The #63 goes past two little lakes, Poirier and Kemp. Both are stocked with trout for fishing. This day was my first time to Kemp Lake. Here's a link showing Kemp Lake, made using my SPOT.

It wasn't hard at all to get there from Kemp Lake Road. The bus driver let me off at the corner of Chubb Road where I could see the boat launch at the lakeshore. I walked two long blocks on pavement, past some houses and a pretty farm. There is room at the end of the road for three or four cars to park next to a large green shed which seems to be waterworks for a drinking water facility. Kemp Lake is drinking water for many local homes, so be clean and considerate paddlers here!

The boat launch itself is well-suited to kayaks and canoes, and there is a rickety little dock suitable for launching boats or swimming. A grassy space made a convenient place to inflate my kayak. Though the tiny beach has very shallow water, it's possible to launch without getting muddy. Tiny fish darted about the rocks and mud as I launched. A few minutes later, I also saw a trout about as long as my hand. Fish!

It was a day for relaxing and dawdling, so I floated in my little kayak and drifted. Turkey vultures circled overhead, bringing to mind the line from the first season of Game of Thrones where the dancing-master asks, "What do we say to death? Not today."

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