Magic paddling on North Okanagan's 'lake of many colours'

Photo: J.P Squire

The Kalamalka Lake Paddle Trail has a series of impressive cliffs and rock formations north of Kekuli Bay Provincial Park. The most impressive is a yellow-and-orange cliff that rises above the Okanagan Rail Trail.

Kelowna has bragging rights with the Okanagan's first paddle trail. However, it's hard to beat the Kalamalka Lake Paddle Trail on the “lake of many colours.”

As I outlined in last weekend's column, the Kelowna Paddle Trail has 22 GPS-registered buoys floating along the 27-kilometre shoreline from McKinley Beach to Bertram Creek Regional Park. By comparison, the Kalamalka Lake Paddle Trail has 53 buoys—44 spaced every 500 metres along a 22-kilometre shoreline. It covers the entire west side of Kalamalka Lake, from the south end in Lake Country to the north end in Coldstream.

The trail then curves around in a candy-cane shape to the northwest corner of Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park. An additional nine buoys are located at eight hand-launch beach accesses—Lisheen, Long Lake, Sovereign, Kirkland, Kalavista, Kal, Pumphouse and Westkal, plus the West Kal boat launch in Coldstream.

Each buoy identifies it as part of the paddle trail, has a kilometre distance and the jurisdiction—the Regional District of North Okanagan or the District of Lake Country. For example, “Kalamalka Lake Paddle Trail/ 4.5KM/ www.rdno.ca”

By comparison, the Kelowna Paddle Trail buoys have a list of beach accesses and the distance between each, making it easier for paddlers to stay oriented along the waterfront, to know when a rest stop is coming up and to even challenge themselves between each distance.

The City of Kelowna notes that its paddle trail passes more than 20 beaches and parks, three waterfront resorts, two bird sanctuaries and the downtown.

Photo: RDNO

This map, prepared by the Regional District of North Okanagan, illustrates the placement of 44 buoys floating along a 22-kilometre stretch of the Kalamalka Lake shoreline.

The Kalamalka Paddle Trail can't tout that many parks and beach accesses but it does pass two major provincial parks: Kekuli and Kalamalka Lake, both of them offering long beaches. It also parallels the north section of the Okanagan Rail Trail which has numerous small semi-private beaches for sunbathing and swimming.

Kalamalka Lake is unique in B.C. for its unusual colour-changing water—like a mood ring—from a deep blue to icy blue, from a dazzling turquoise to an other-worldly emerald green. In fact, National Geographic placed it among the top 10 most beautiful lakes in the world.

From a scientific point of view, every summer, as the outside temperature warms, the calcium carbonate (limestone) in this marl lake forms crystals that reflect the sunlight. As a result, the water never seems to be the same colour, hour to hour, day to day. (A marl lake is an alkaline lake whose bottom sediments include large deposits of marl, a mixture of clay and carbonate minerals.)

When heading north on Highway 97, the Sheriff and Constant Companion Carmen always check out the lake to see what colour it is at that time, on that day. Heading to the ski hill, they often ponder whether they should have been kayaking.

One of their favourite routes is launching at small Pioneer Park on Trask Road in Lake Country (not busy Kaloya Regional Park further down the road) and following the quiet, forested east side to view a small rock cave and what some locals call Hangman's Cliff, an impressive rock wall rising from the lake more than 100 metres high.

Last week, they kayaked north from Kekuli Bay Provincial Park staying on the west side for most impressive views of the series of rock cliffs rising above the Okanagan Rail Trail. Walking or cycling the trail, most users never look up. But on the water, you get the best views as you slowly drift by without taking your eyes off the wide range of colours and textures of Mother Nature's sculptures.

The Sheriff and CCC usually drift past the best and highest rock wall—bright yellow and orange, then cross the lake to Turtle's Head Point (aka Rattlesnake Point) in Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park and paddle along more distinctive rock walls to Cosens Bay for lunch.

Here’s a little history.

“Shortly after the Kelowna Paddle Trail on Okanagan Lake was opened in 2018, talk began about the development of a Kalamalka Lake Paddle Trail," said Stacey Raftus, RDNO communications officer.

"The RDNO Greater Vernon Advisory Committee approved the project in 2019. Since then, we partnered with the District of Lake Country to complete the work, and to ensure all provincial and federal regulatory requirements were met to install the paddle trail marker buoys. The project cost was $82,497, split proportionally between the RDNO and the District of Lake Country."

Brad Ackerman, RDNO manager of parks and recreation, added: “The purpose of the paddle trail on Kalamalka Lake is to provide additional recreational amenities to the public, promote safety by encouraging non-motorized watercraft to stay close to the shoreline, reduce conflicts between motorized and non-motorized water vessels, and to help encourage motorized boat use away from the shoreline to reduce erosion caused by wakes.”

The regional district prepared a paddle trail map and worked with the Ribbons of Green Trails Society to incorporate it into the Vernon society's online interactive trails map (https://www.ribbonsofgreen.ca/).

Society president Richard Stranks emphasized caution by paddle trail users.

"This trail isn’t a power boat-free zone from the buoys to the shore as people might think. Power boats and Sea Doos (personal watercraft) can freely enter this area,” he said.

City of Kelowna officials also recommend staying on the shore side of its buoys.

The RDNO purchased the buoys but it took a long time to determine the legalities of placing them in the water because it was more federal jurisdiction than provincial under the Canadian Navigable Waters Act, Stranks explained.

In the event of sudden weather changes, paddlers should return to shore as quickly as possible. The Sheriff and CCC were once paddling close to shore and didn't see a storm come in from the other side of the Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park hillside. Large waves appeared out of nowhere and they hastily returned to Bertram Creek.

Photo: J.P Squire

The Kalamalka Lake Paddle Trail has 44 red and white buoys spaced every 500 metres along a 22-kilometre stretch of Kalamalka Lake shoreline. The buoys have kilometre measurements to gauge how far you have paddled along the two provincial parks and the numerous beach accesses in Coldstream and Vernon.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.