Sagar Lake

July 19th (Friday)

We awoke to blue sky and sunshine! After some early morning cleaning we headed to shore with our kayaks. We carried them over our heads along the trail into Sagar Lake. It was a trail with lots of twists and turns, but only 100 metres of elevation gain, however, with a kayak on our head it was made a lot harder. I found myself bumping into trees and barely being able to make some of the corners. The people who built the trail clearly did not have portaging in mind. 

Of course we could have deflated the kayaks and put them in their backpacks, but that seemed like way more work. The trail came out to the lake onto a long beautiful reddish sand beach. Very pretty. The dark water was fairly warm and we looked forward to swimming later. 

We paddled along the shore trolling for trout. In the little bays along the shore we would stop and cast in along the logs and lily pads. Jason caught two this way before we found the hot spot. 

The lake was almost like two separate lakes, as there was an island in the middle of the channel between the two parts of the lake. On one side of the island it was only about 20' to the other shore, and a fallen tree blocked the way. The other side was a bit wider, maybe 50'. Emerging into this second part of the lake we continued along the shore and worked our way into an arm that was full of logs. 

This was where the lake flowed out and down into the ocean, and this was where we found the biggest concentration of fish. Here it was rare to cast and not catch one. Some were quite small, but most were a good size, and we caught one that was much bigger. 

The fish that we caught were Westslope Cutthroat Trout. 

When we had as many fish as we wanted, we continued on exploring the shore of the lake. It was a very beautiful lake with a surprising number of sandy areas. We were surprised a few times as we rounded a corner to find a sandy bay or shore. Unfortunately the water was somewhat high after all the rain we had had over the past few days, so we were seeing the beaches at their smaller size, but the white sand stretched out into the shallows a long ways. 

We found one especially beautiful spot where a large creek, about ten feet wide, ran out of the forest and into the lake. It was a fast flowing gurgling creek coming down through rocks, and the green of deciduous trees protected it like a tent. There was a lot of foam on the lake immediately in front of the creek, and we also found this to be an area full of fish. 

There were also a lot of mossy areas and beautiful old growth trees. There were no signs that the area had ever been logged, and there were a lot of large trees to be seen. 

We enjoyed the company of many dragonflies on the lake; the little blue ones and the really big ones. It was nice to be in an area with them again. We saw butterflies, a humming bird, swallows, common loons, a heron, and frogs. 

We also saw quite a few pairs of gulls. Some of these had chicks, and would sound the alarm as we approached. Other gulls in the area would come and join in in the defence of the chicks by squawking and swooping at us. The chicks were really cute, but for obvious reasons we did not linger to observe them. It was really cute how attentive the parents were. One was always on watch and would stand at the top of the highest tree in the area and keep a most vigilant watch. 

Unfortunately because of us taking our time fishing and exploring, by the time we reached the other end of the lake it was already after 17:00. We decided to leave the other side of the shoreline for another time, and paddled back in a much more direct line. 

When we were once again in salt water we went to visit the owners of a powerboat who we had been talking to on our way by in the morning. At that time the man had just come back in from fishing, and he had caught a beautiful Coho. They had offered us some fish, so now we were able to give them some trout in exchange. We also got some salmon-fishing tips, and although it would seem that we have not been doing anything particularly wrong, we are now encouraged and eager to go try our luck again. 

We had a delicious dinner of fresh pan-fried trout with potatoes and sea asparagus. 

What a lovely day. We never did end up going swimming. It became partly cloudy, and with the breeze that would come and go, it never really became swimming weather.