Paddling Carnes Creek and Revelstoke Lake

Hi Blog!

On Sunday, July 2, 2017, we took our kayaks out on Revelstoke Lake. The lake is the reservoir formed by the Revelstoke Dam which flooded the Columbia River canyon in 1984 and covered the historic Dalles des Morts (Death Rapids) and some former gold fields of the Big Bend Gold Rush. According to our GPS, we are paddling on Old Highway 23 about 300 meters east of the Columbia River. I guess its time to update our Canadian topo maps.

We put in at the Carnes Creek Recreation Site. Our plan was to paddle up Carnes Creek as far as the current would let us. As we made our way down the lake to the creek, we had to be on the look out for submerged trees.

We had great view of the Monashee Mountains to our west.

Sometimes the submerged trees provided a great resting spot.

In about a mile, we found the spot where the Carnes Creek glacier melt water met the clear lake water.

We paddled hard to to cross over the break water. Here we looked back toward Revelstoke Lake. The Carnes Creek water is full of glacial flour giving it a chocolate milk appearance.

We beached our kayaks on a sand bar in the middle of the creek. We walked around to stretch our legs.

We even had time to play in the sand before heading back down stream.

Following the flow of Carnes Creek made it an easy paddle back to the lake. We just could not get enough of the wonderful emerald green color.

Back in the lake, we paddled north, passed the recreation area, to another creek.

We lunched on the beach while watching campers play in the water.

As we paddled further north, we noticed that Old Highway 23 re-appeared from under the lake and was now running along the east side of the lake. Dave scrambled up the steep bank to get a closer look. Many locals use this old section of highway to boondock camp. We passed a number of camp sites as we paddled back to the official recreation area.

The wind picked up and made it a bit of challenge to return to our launch site. With the Hawaii 5-0 theme playing in our head, we out paced the wind. All that extra exercise just made Happy Hour all the sweeter!