Stave Lake: An Adventurous Canoe Trip
Gili wanted an adventure. For me the week prior to the trip was exciting enough. Heat Dome. A school closure before the last day of school because of the extreme heat. A toddler whose idea of a heat wave was to hug me as much as possible. I guess he was feeling overwhelmed, and it was his way of dealing with it, but it definitely made things hotter. But a long weekend was coming and we needed to look for something to do. Our apartment was boiling, so staying in the city was less than desirable, but also there was no way we’d be doing a hot drive to an even hotter places. So Gili came up with the Stave Lake idea. It’s a lake I’d never heard of before, not too far from Vancouver, but a different world nonetheless.
So on Canada Day we headed to Rocky Point Campground by Mission BC to start our canoeing adventure. And an adventure indeed it was. Just as we were heading out, a ranger from the park asked us if we knew about the mighty winds that cause wall size waves every afternoon. No, of course we didn’t know. The lake looked calm from where we were, but it was also the more sheltered arm of Stave Lake. It was already around 2pm when we started out, so our expectations were low for that day.
The wind didn’t actually prove to be an issue that day, but we quickly realized that Stave Lake has a lack of camping spots. We were paddling up the west coast of the lake and it just seemed like the lake was surrounded by steep green forest. After about an hour we found a place with a few rocks and a small island, so we decided to take a break. A boat with a family was just leaving and they asked us if we came to stay at the cabin. A cabin? here? Why would there be a cabin here, we thought. But the guy said it’s a community cabin and everyone was welcome to spend the night there. Indeed a few steps off the shore in the deep dark woods there was a small cabin. We had to check it out, of course, and Neil got overly excited and couldn’t pass on the opportunity to sleep in a cabin. Since we weren’t too optimistic that we would find a more suitable camp spot we decided to stay put. We explored the tiny island and woods by the cabin and after dinner we quickly called it a day. It was Canada Day and we were all alone in a well maintained cabin.
The next day we kept on paddling along the west coast until we reached a power plant. We decided to stop there for lunch, which turned into a really long break. The wind picked up suddenly and we started realizing what the ranger was talking about. Gili went for a quick paddle to check if it was indeed windy on the lake, and it was. So we stayed put, played, ate thimbleberries, read and even napped (at least some of us). When we saw that the wind had quietened down we continued paddling.
We didn’t quite make it to the end of Stave Lake but when we saw a nice flat spot hiding in the forest we knew we found our destination for the night. It was actually a perfect spot. Our tent was elevated above the lake, so we got some great views and we had a whole private beach just for us. It was a hot day and swimming in the lake was appreciated. We hardly saw any people during the day, and no one else was around our wonderful camp spot. As it turned out not everywhere is booked up and full over the summer in BC. There were also no bugs, which was wonderful. The kids and Gili had fun hanging our food in a tree and luckily it was still there in the morning.
The third day of the trip was the most challenging of all. It started out really good – we started at a reasonable hour, and first thing we crossed the lake to the other side. The east side was similar to the west in the sense that it still seemed very steep and wild without many camping options. After a while we found a nice beach, with lots of wooden structures that made us wonder what was going on in that place. There was even an outhouse someone had built and a bridge connecting to the forest. Slowly the place started to get crowded with motor boats and for about an hour or so turned into a real party beach.
We probably lingered there too long but the wind still didn’t pick up for that day and actually the lake seemed very smooth. Unfortunately our luck changed quickly with the strong winds that started picking up suddenly. We hardly made any progress and in addition to the wind there were many motor boats, some coming very close to us at full speed. We found a spot to wait, and we waited and waited and waited. There wasn’t much to do there, since there was basically only a log and a place for the canoe. The kids behaved incredibly well, not complaining once which was really helpful. We waited around three hours, but at around 7pm we decided we had to try again because we couldn’t have spent the night there.
Finally we saw some flatter shores in the distance. But wait, what was that on the side of the lake? Are those houses? It turned out that part of the east coast of Stave Lake is actually private property which seemed like bad news for our attempts to find a camping spot. The first place we stopped had a wild party going on. The people there were friendly, but not very helpful. A few houses down we saw an elderly couple sitting outside and we decided to try our luck. And lucky we were. They were friendly and helpful. They had no problems with us camping on their property and even had the cutest and cleanest outhouse I’ve even seen for us to use.
It was well past 8pm at that point and we were all exhausted. The kids started to crash so we ate dinner quickly, set up the tent quickly and got them inside. It was a long day. When we woke up the next morning everything was better, and the views made it all worthwhile. We were about two hours away from our starting/ending point which we managed to miss a bit and had to come back for. There were also lots of motor boats that made the return trip a bit less pleasant for us. When we were on shore we could finally sigh in relief. It was an awesome weekend, away from people and bugs but it was indeed an adventure.
