Lac Beauvert

This would be the seventeenth day without internet or phone and we had had it.  We drove into town to the visitors center with our electronics hoping to download some new books for Ted and to check our accounts.  We were able to access our email and Facebook but couldn't download anything or even search anything.  The connection was free so we shouldn't complain but we didn't realize how dependent we were on being connected.  We left the visitors center and returned to the campground for lunch after driving into Lac Beauvert to see if we could launch there.  On our way out, traffic was stopped and a mother bear with two black cubs were disappearing into the woods.

After lunch we drove back to the lake which means beautiful green...and it was.  We chatted with an older gentleman who said he had lived and worked in Jasper for forty years.  He said there was a pair of loons on the lake with one chick.  We heard them call as we were unloading.  There was an Asian young woman with her non-English speaking parents who were quite impressed with our kayaks.  They asked questions and she translated.

We launched into the surprisingly only cool water and paddled counterclockwise around the lake.  The first part of the lake was beside a golf course and we waited for a foursome to tee off across the water before we paddled by.  A golf assistant came up to us in a cart and warned us that they might be hitting balls over our heads.  We saw several  balls in the water and quite a few Canada Geese before we rounded a corner away from the action.

Canada Geese at the Golf Course

The water was so crystal clear we could see the bottom where ever we paddled.  We kept trying to get pictures of our shadows that we could see on the bottom.  The next cove had a big resort with lots of cabins and a central main building.  They were setting up for two different weddings and we sat and listened to the beautiful voice of one of the vocalists checking that the sound system was working.  We also saw some big fish in that cove as well as schools of minnows.

As we paddled along, I noticed that circles made from water dripping off my paddle were making shadows on the bottom.  After several tries, I finally got a good photo of the effect.  Around the next point, there was the female loon and her chick.  We quietly paddled close to shore so not to stress her out while the man we had talked to was across from us with his dog and telephoto camera.  When we got around to where he was, he asked if we had been to Mt. Edith Cavell.  We said we planned to and he told us what time of day we should do it. In the meantime, a canoe and paddleboat were harassing the loon by being noisy and much too close.  The male showed up and puffed out his chest with his wings spread out as well as calling out.  It was great to see but the boats, soon joined by two others, followed the birds all the way across the lake basically surrounding them.  We stopped to chat with the man again as he was on the path that goes all the way around the lake and he was upset for his loons that he has been watching all spring.

Whistler Mountain From Lac Beauvert

Shadows of Paddle Drips 

Loon and Chick

Mama, Papa and Baby

Amazing Color 

More Shadows

We returned to where we started in the now dark turquoise water.  Ted did a couple Eskimo rolls to cool off as the temperature was ninety-one degrees when we got in the car.  It is supposed to be in the nineties all week.  When we were getting ready to turn into the campground there was a mobile sign that said the road south was closed beyond the Icefields Centre.  The forest fires continue to burn and visibility is really poor to the south.