Chestermere Lake is part of the Western Irrigation District (WID) reservoir system and is more properly referred to as Chestermere Reservoir or Reservoir No. 1. It is filled in the spring and drained in the fall, usually at the end of October. That means I have about a week left to enjoy this body of water before it is gone until next spring. I raced out after work was done to get a few last laps around the lake in.
There was one oddity worth mentioning as I headed out. The seagulls were swarming over a significant portion of the town and I caught some of the action on Vlad’s dashcam. Shades of Hitchcock, as it were.
I did manage to enjoy the lake this evening in spite of the impending avian doom, although I did get off to a mildly frustrating start. I broke a fin on my last Bow River float and haven been playing with replacements on and off. I didn’t realize until now that if I remove the locking nut from the fin assembly, it cannot be inserted again while the board is inflated. That’s kind of a problem if your board is pumped up and you haven’t inserted the locking nut yet. Whoops.
Chestermere, AB, 2024-09-23
Chestermere, AB, 2024-09-23
I have a few items I have added to my kit, and the first one turned out to be indispensable. My old pocket pliers died after having them for about a decade and I hummed and hawed over replacing them because I didn’t use them a lot. I found that the price had dropped considerably over the past decade so I got a replacement pair. Man, they came in handy to put in the locking nut after I deflated my board.
Once my board was reinflated I had tunes courtesy of my mini-speaker and a beverage thanks to a cup holder to put it in. Most civilized.
Chestermere, AB, 2024-09-23
Chestermere, AB, 2024-09-23
The water was mirror calm while I was fighting with my fin, and then the breeze came up at about the same moment I finally got my board on the water. Figures. Still, It was manageable for the most part, other than the wind would try and push me into someone’s private dock or the reeds while I was taking photos.
At one point I was trying to do a guided relaxation exercise when I suddenly realized that the wind was pushing me towards a dock again and this one was occupied by the two dogs that have been making me nervous all summer. They often growl at me as I pass. There went the relaxation for a few moments, anyhow.
Lake, Chestermere, AB, 2024-09-23
Lake, Chestermere, AB, 2024-09-23
The sky was flat out amazing for much of my trip. I was enjoying it so much that I kept the paddling to a minimum just so I could relax and look at the colours, feel the breeze, and enjoy my craft rocking gently on the water. There was not a single powered craft on the north side of the lake and it was wonderful.
Chestermere, AB, 2024-09-23
Lake, Chestermere, AB, 2024-09-23
The character of the lake really changes as the end of the season approaches. Weeds have been a headache for much of the year. At some points when I am in a patch of them and getting them all over me I feel like I am in the middle of a tossed salad. I only hit one small patch this evening and it is obvious the weeds are dying.
The bugs are also gone, which is fantastic. I didn’t have to put on bug spray while going on the lake for the first time this year. Sadly, many of the birds are also gone, especially the blackbirds that I enjoy watching so much. There are still plenty of those nasty @#$%ing seagulls left, however.
My time on the water was over too quickly and I headed back to the dock before I felt ready to leave. It was still warm out and I probably could have gone for a while longer, but I hadn’t brought all of my lighting with me in my hurry to get to Chestermere after work. It would have been unsafe to stay on the water as it was getting dark without my having any illumination.
One again, there was mild disagreement between the GPS tracker on my TG-7 camera and the two apps on my phone, but nothing to lose sleep over. I wasn’t really concerned with distance as I was more about just relaxing, getting some images, and enjoying myself. I did still make a lap of the north end, and that was good enough.
I snaffled a nice shot of the lake from the shore as I was hauling my board back to my car. I had to be careful not to bonk the looky-loos who like to stand on the dock right by where I come off the water and block exiting the kayak/board launch. Saying “excuse me” just gets a blank stare half the time. Mildly frustrating, but I feel I dealt with it well enough since no one got knocked into the water.
A pleasant surprise was seeing a falling star on my way home, just outside of Chestermere heading east toward Strathmore. It was a nice touch to end what had been a gruelling day at work.
I’m hoping for one more chance to hit the lake before they drain it, but if not, this was a good way to end the season at Chestermere.
Photos from both my Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and OM System Tough TG-7. Dashcam video from a VIOFO A29 Pro dashcam in Vlad the Impala.
