Park Lake Day Trip

August 28, 2022

Park Lake is rated by the Mississippi Valley Field Naturalists as the prettiest lake in the district, so how could we resist. The diections said to have patience, so we continued around Park Lake to the south end of Woods Lake where we came upon a campsite beside the lake. Here we parked and prepared to unload our canoe. There was a big problem - Bill forgot the key to the lock attaching our canoe to the roof rack. He got out some tools and eventually was able to remove the centre thwart and so slip the lock cable off. Phew.

The lake was very shallow, and although lovely, we thought it was a bit of a stretch to call it the prettiest lake. There were a dozen cottages, mostly with nobody there. We paddled the whole lake, except for the extremely shallow bays. We saw a few birds, including Eastern Phoebe, Common Loon, Great Blue Heron, Pine Warbler and Belted Kingfisher.

While paddling, we noticed a much better launch site, so after finishing, we went to investigate it. We should have kept driving another 3 km to reach it, but would have missed the Woods Lake section.

We went home by the same route as we had come. We stopped in Almonte for ice cream and briefly at the Burnt Lands. Here we got no sparrows, but a Black Swallowtail and American Kestrel. It was a very good day.