Avoiding the Heat
The past week has been hot and getting hotter, reaching 33 degrees today. That would be very hot at home, over here it feels like 50 degrees, far too hot for any long strenuous hikes. There was only one thing for it, get on the lake and enjoy the cold splash of melt water down your bare legs.
Barrier Lake is our closest 'Mountain Lake' and at only 40 minutes drive away it is an easy run along the Trans-Canada Highway to that cool blue water and the surrounding foothills that are now devoid of snow.
at the South end of the lake there are some nice steep sand dunes which seem a bit out of place here in the mountains but do provide a great place for local kids to play and occasionally risk a paddle in the icy cold water.
There are quite a few people fishing including a group of school kids, the guy supposedly watching them as they ran around in all direction shouted that it was a lot like herding ducks, it made me smile as I passed by thinking how wonderful a place for school kids to come and explore.
I stopped at a small secluded beach further South and sat on the driftwood eating lunch with my feet cooling in the lake. I was soaked from the inevitable 'oar dribble' and the gentle breeze worked perfectly with the water to keep me lovely and cool as I enjoyed the short break.
After covering 2.5km I reached the Kananaskis river that maintains the water level in the lake, I fancied going further up the river to see how that went but I knew I had to paddle all the way back yet and didn't want to overdo it on my first Canadian kayaking adventure.
Rather than hugging the margins looking for fish all the way back I took a more direct line, cutting out the bays to conserve energy, the up side being that I was now going with the flow back toward the dam and the paddling was easy.
This was a really enjoyable afternoon and certainly a great thing to do when the weather is so damn hot....there'll be more of this in the near future I think.