Stave Lake/ Cardinalis Creek Paddle July 21, 2024

With a good weather forecast, 7 paddlers, (Ron W, Dave W,  Serrat V, Kaori F, and Dave S Carole and I) in 4 canoes meet at the entrance to Burma Road on the west side of Stave dam in Mission at 0930.  We travel the 9km up to Kearsley Creek day use area where we launch just after 1000. The $10 parking fee is a worthwhile investment for a day’s excellent paddle and a supervised parking area.

We set off north from the beach past the island in the center of the channel enroute to the big part of the lake. There we turn south following the west shore of the lake to the entrance of Kearsley Creek. That part of the journey takes us a little over 1 hour in calm waters with a pleasant breeze in our faces. Our only real hazards on this trip are the boaters, submerged stumps and the wind which can be challenging at times.

The water is about 2.5 ft higher than we usually see so the beach areas are smaller than usual but still with plenty of room, so many of us jump in to enjoy the mild temperature of this beautiful swimming hole. We finish our swim, eat lunch, and then head up Kearsley Creek for the 4km paddle to the top; this paddle can be as little as 2 km when the water levels are less.

A couple hours later we are back to our lunch spot for a short break before our trip back to the launch point. The paddle back finds us paddling north into a low-speed headwind with some stiff gusts. Further out in the lake we can see whitecaps though we are not directly facing those strong headwinds. We are however thinking of the nice tail winds we should have as we round the west corner ahead and turn south to Kearsley Creek soon. When we reach the west corner we are in a very peculiar scenario. We are paddling into a headwind coming from the north and we can clearly see the trees on the west shore where we are going, leaning heavily to the north from a strong headwind coming from the south! Yes, the dreaded headwinds in all directions paddling scenario!

Well, a close-to-the-shore paddle following sheltered areas with a few rests gets us home safely. Except for the mosquitoes that joined us for the later part of our lunch and the stiff headwind we found ourselves paddling on the last leg there were no other challenges. Everyone enjoyed the trip and the full day in the beautiful BC outdoors.

Good times folks!