Trip #5 - Elk/Beaver Lake
| Well that's it - I've found the most beautiful place
on the island so far! The passage between Elk Lake into Beaver
Lake is just breath-taking. If you look up picturesque
tranquility in a very fine encyclopedia, you'll see a picture of
this awesome place, I'm sure of it. |
|
|
|
When I get a digital camera, you're going to see LOTS of
pictures of this great outdoor wonderland area of 2 lakes, biking, hiking and
even equestrian trails, picnicing, playgrounds, it's all here! We spent a good 4 hours out
today, which was a nice surprise as I thought I'd just be taking a
"quickie" on the Inner Harbour as there was a Russian submarine in
during the week, but it was rough conditions down there... cold and windy, and there was no
sign of the sub, so we took off for Elk/Beaver Lake, and boy am I ever glad we
did! |
| Elk Lake was choppy when we arrived, but there was 3-4 fast waterski type
boats running around over the speed limit. Some were support for the
Canadian Masters 2000 rowing competition (sculling) going on out of the Victoria City
Rowing Club, which is on Elk Lake. They had 6 racing lanes set up and a guy on a blow horn advised us the best way past
the festivities and that was that. Once past by that, we headed to the west coast of Elk Lake and then
headed south to Beaver Lake. Even in a light
choppy condition, it seemed much faster water than the Gorge with associated
tidal influences. |
If you want to view the interactive map on
the mapquest.com site, just click this one.
|
The passage from Elk Lake into Beaver Lake was just beautiful, and the water
turned to glass. All of Beaver Lake was smooth and it was just
wonderful. By the time we returned to our north shore of Elk Lake launch
site, the waters there were pretty calm and the masters class races were done
for the day as well. I've spend the past few weeks wondering when kayaking
was going to be "easy" and the time has arrived today - in this
gorgous setting - it was an effortless, fun, relaxing and wonderful paddle that
you should be able to complete in 4-5 hours with plenty of what we like to call
"goofing around" time.
|
Last weekend, we did not kayak as we were still recovering
from the stupidity of the week before, so all we did was hike around at
the top of Mount Douglas a little bit. Nice view up there, that's
for sure. |
|
|
