Alouette Lake Kayak Trip

September 5, 2026August 21, 2026 / Maria / Leave a comment

It’s been an interesting summer for kayaking. Usually we do a lot of kayaking in the Spring, focusing mostly on day trips, and one multi-night trip before the end of the season. This Spring, we barely did any kayaking aside from a long weekend trip to Pitt Lake. Seth’s been in school, so it’s hard to accommodate his schedule, but I wanted to do a second trip and we opted to visit Alouette Lake in Golden Ears Park in mid-July. I really wanted to rush up to the lake after work on Friday so that we could spend 2 nights on the lake, but Seth had too much school work, so instead, we drove to the lake early on Saturday morning.

Alouette Lake is a well known destination in the lower mainland. It’s located in Golden Ears Provincial Park, one of the easiest to access locations for frontcountry camping. As a result, the lake is always very busy on the weekends. It’s hard to get frontcountry campsites and you need a free day pass just to enter the park. It used to be easier to backcountry camp in the park, but they’ve recently brought in a reservation system for Viewpoint Beach and Panorama Ridge, so now you have to plan in advance if you want to go backpacking.

Fortunately, it’s still easy to plan marine camping. There are several marine campsites located on the lake and they are all first-come-first-serve. You do need a permit to camp there, but they’re available at camping.bcparks.ca for $5 per person, per night, 2 weeks before your trip. I’m not sure how popular the campsites are in mid-summer. Even though we visited in the middle of July, it rained on and off on Saturday morning, likely deterring some people and meaning that it wasn’t busy. There’s not that many campsites and not a lot of room for overflow, so finding a site could be a problem on a nice weekend.

Alouette Lake is one big, long lake, but it almost feels like two lakes because it gets so narrow at the midpoint of the lake that it gives the illusion of two lakes. Even from South Beach, you can see all the way up the lake to what is known as “the narrows”. There are 3 marine campsites on the lake, as well as East Beach Campsite, which I don’t include because it’s located at the south end of the lake and is accessible by vehicle. I believe it has its own booking website, but the other sites are all FCFS.

The first site is called Moyer Creek. It’s located roughly 10km from South Beach, approximately 1km before the narrows. The second site is located in the narrows and is aptly called, The Narrows. The final site is called Alouette River and is located at the very back of the lake, roughly 18km from South Beach. My ideal trip would have been to paddle to Moyer Creek, camp two nights, and day trip to Alouette River in between. But since we only had one night, we just paddled to Moyer Creek.

It can get very windy on Alouette Lake, so I always advise to paddle early. The wind is almost always blowing north, meaning it should be an easy paddle up the lake and a challenging paddle on the way back. We’ve done day trips on the lake a few times, going as far as Gold Creek and North Beach, which is a 5km paddle from South Beach, but we’d never been further. It was raining when we left South Beach at 9am, but the water was relatively calm as we paddled to Gold Creek. We took a snack break at the entrance to Gold Creek before continuing on towards Moyer Creek.

Unfortunately, it was at this point in the trip that the wind picked up, earlier than we expected, and just our luck, it was blowing south. This meant that we had a pretty rough headwind for the last 5km to Moyer Creek. It wasn’t so windy that it was unsafe, but it was windy enough that it wasn’t a comfortable paddle and it required a lot more energy to battle the wind. We put our heads down and paddled hard until we got to the back of the lake.

The campsite is a little bit confusing upon first visit. There’s not really one central place to camp, it’s more a series of small beaches with campsites cut out of the woods. There was only one person camping there when we arrived, so we had first pick of the rest of the campsites and we got a nice spot at the back of a small beach. A lot of the sites are in the trees, so make sure to pull your boat ashore and walk through the woods when looking for a site. There is a more central area where several of the campsites are, but there are more located around the corner if you don’t see any available. The challenge is that, depending where you camp, it may make it difficult to access the outhouse, bear cache, or creek, which are all located around the main area. The bear cache looked brand new.

Fortunately, the rain stopped by the time we arrived at camp, but we set up our tarp and tent and hoped it wouldn’t return. The sun looked like it might try to make an appearance, so we set up on the beach to have lunch and enjoyed a few hours of solitude while the wind blew whitecaps around the middle of the lake. Eventually, a few other groups arrived in canoes, but in total, there were only 4 groups that stayed overnight.

The wind died down in the afternoon, so we decided to go for another paddle while the weather was calm. I’d been on the fence about if we should stay at Moyer Creek or The Narrows, and I wanted to see the other campsite. I picked Moyer Creek because I figured it would have a better view down the lake. We paddled towards the narrows to check out that site and concluded that we made the right choice staying at Moyer Creek. There’s a nice view from the Narrows, but I think that site is more popular among power boaters and day trippers. There was a large group having a BBQ next to their beached motorboat. I’m sure they had a great time, but they were very loud and it wasn’t the vibe Seth and I envisioned for the weekend, so we were glad that we stayed at Moyer Creek.

We paddled through the narrows into the second part of the lake, but it was too far to go to the back of the lake. The clouds cleared and the sun finally made an appearance. The water was dead calm as we paddled, a rarity for mid-afternoon, and with the sun out, it got pretty hot. Eventually we turned around and paddled back to Moyer Creek to go for a swim. The water was cold, but not so cold you couldn’t hang out in it. Alouette Lake is interesting because it’s a reservoir, meaning that at some point, the river valley was flooded. It’s obvious by the many tree trunks either poking out of the water or submerged just below the surface. You need to watch where you paddle, but it made for a fun swim, with lots of tree trunks to stand on.

We went to bed fairly early and the wind picked up again. It made for a noisy night as I could hear the wind blowing through the trees. I got up to pee around 2am and almost had a heart attack when I shined my headlamp around camp to find a stag staring at me from no more than 10 feet away. It definitely gave credence to the phrase “a deer in headlights”, because it did not move and we both stared at each other as I peed on the other side of the campsite. It was a beautiful animal with gorgeous antlers, but a little too close for comfort. I’m glad I saw it though because I heard it blundering around in the woods the rest of the night and if I hadn’t seen it, I definitely would have thought it was a bear.

We got up early the next morning to get ahead of the wind on our way back to South Beach. The forecast was still calling for a south facing wind, but I was skeptical we’d be lucky enough to get a tailwind. I was right to doubt because despite our early rise, it was very windy and it was definitely a north facing wind. This means we had to paddle against a headwind in both directions – just our luck! I was hesitant to go out in the wind because I could see white caps forming towards the middle of the lake, but we decided to try since it was only calling for more wind later.

It was definitely not my favourite paddle. It was choppy the entire way back to Gold Creek. We didn’t encounter too many problems, but it wasn’t enjoyable and it was definitely more effort. We stopped at North Beach for a snack and then powered our way back to South Beach. I always hate paddling back to South Beach because you can see your final destination the entire time, so it feels like it takes forever to get there. It was really busy at South Beach and we had a challenge to land and load our kayaks around all of the people.

So overall, it was a fun, but somewhat challenging trip. It felt too short and I would like to go back in the future to do two nights. The real benefit of the trip is that it’s so close to home and unlike Widgeon Creek, the campground isn’t that busy. It’s a good option for a weekend trip and I think in the future, I may try to visit in the Spring. We had a lot of fun at Pitt Lake in late April, and generally, I think it’s a good time to camp and paddle before it gets really busy in the summer.

10 Paddling Trips near Vancouver

August 29, 2026August 21, 2026 / Maria / Leave a comment

A few weeks ago I shared a list of 10 Easy Day Paddles near Vancouver. In keeping with the paddling theme, I’d like to highlight 10 Paddling Trips near Vancouver! We’re lucky to have easy access to excellent paddling routes in Southwest BC and these are a few of my favourite overnight and multi-day trips. Please be aware that overnight tripping does add complexity to the activity and you should make sure that your skills and experience match that complexity. I highly recommend taking a paddling course from Paddle Canada before attempting any of these trips as you want to ensure you know how to self-rescue and are familiar with the basic paddle strokes. Despite canoeing being very popular in Canada, I do think it is more challenging than kayaking.

Twin Islands

A kayaker paddles towards Jug Island on a sunny day with calm waters in Indian Arm. Jug Island is located near Belcarra Regional Park in Vancouver, BC.

Twin Islands also made my list of day trips and it’s a popular overnight location for a reason. It’s only a 5km paddle from Deep Cove to Twin Islands and there are several tent pads located on the north island (camping is not permitted on the south island). While you can access Twin Islands from either Belcarra or Deep Cove, there is no overnight parking at Belcarra. Kayak rentals are available from Deep Cove and Cates Park and there is no overnight camping fee. Due to the proximity to the lower mainland, this campsite can get extremely busy. If you’re going on a weekend, I recommend leaving early, or avoid altogether by going on a week day. There is an outhouse on the island and please make sure to back out all your garbage and be respectful of other paddlers.

Granite Falls

Two kayakers paddle up the still waters of Indian Arm, with the mountains in the background and a steep cliff extending into the water near Vancouver, BC.

If you want a more ambitious trip than Twin Islands, continue north up Indian Arm to Bishop Creek or Granite Falls, where there are two more free campsites. Bishop Creek is approximately 14km from Deep Cove, while Granite Falls is 18km. Granite Falls is beautiful, with a large cascading waterfall, but it’s extremely popular among both paddlers and power boaters. I think this is a great trip, but honestly, the atmosphere on a busy weekend is not great. It attracts more of a party scene, meaning that it’s very crowded, noisy, and very few people practice bear safety. There are outhouses and bear caches, but the caches are undersized for the amount of people that visit the site. I recommend doing this trip on a week day, or consider staying at Bishop Creek instead. Some people like to do this as a multi-night trip, staying at Twin Islands on the way there or back. Leave early to return to Deep Cove as the wind gets high in the afternoon. Kayak rentals are available from Deep Cove and Cates Park.

Widgeon Creek

Widgeon Creek is a very popular summer paddling destination in Pitt Meadows. It was also on my list of day trips and it is a great option for an overnight trip for beginners. Park at the main lot on Pitt Lake and paddle across the Pitt River to Widgeon Creek, which is a leisurely 6km paddle to the campsite. From there you can do a day hike to Widgeon Falls. This area is very busy in the summer, but head out in April or May to avoid the crowds. Be careful crossing the Pitt River, which can have strong currents, and leave early to avoid the wind. Flows in the creek can be very low later in the summer, meaning you may have to walk your boat in some sections, especially at low tide. You can rent boats from Katzie in the summer, or through independent operators that deliver the boats to the lot. There is a bear cache and outhouse at the campsite and there is no fee to camp, but you do have to pay for parking at Pitt Lake in the summer.

Pitt Lake

Pitt Lake is located in Pitt Meadows and is a trip I recommend for slightly more experienced paddlers, only because it can get very windy on the lake. There are two BC Parks campsites located on the east side of the lake, in Golden Ears Park. Raven Campground is located approximately 9km from the boat launch and Osprey Campground is another 8km from Raven. Paddle to the far east side of the lake along the dike before following the coastline up to the campsite. There are some shallow areas along the edge of the lake that may require you to paddle out into the lake to avoid getting stuck in the mud flats. This is a tidally influenced lake, so make sure you set up camp above the high tide line. A permit is required to camp at these sites, it’s $5 per person, per night, from camping.bcparks.ca. There is an outhouse, but no bear cache.

Alouette Lake

Alouette Lake in Golden Ears Park is a popular location for day trippers in the summer, with lots of people exploring Gold Creek. However, there are also 3 BC Parks campsites on this long lake, two are located approximately 10km from South Beach, Moyer Creek and The Narrows, and a third, Alouette River, is located at the far north end of the lake, another 8km from Moyer Creek. Similar to other lakes, Alouette can get very windy in the afternoon. A permit is required to camp at these sites, it’s $5 per person, per night, from camping.bcparks.ca. There is an outhouse and bear cache at Moyer Creek, I’m not sure about the other campsites. You can usually rent canoes from South Beach in the summer.

Plumper Cove

Plumper Cove also made my list of day trips under the title of Keats Island. It’s the shortest paddle on this list and a great option for beginners because it’s only 3km from Gibsons. You can rent kayaks from Alpha Adventures at the marina and paddle across the channel to Keats Island, following the coastline north until you reach Plumper Cove Provincial Park. This park is primarily marine access and attracts a lot of power boaters. It’s a huge site with lots of space for camping. It is first-come-first-serve, and you’ll need to bring cash to pay the on-site ranger. Since there is a water crossing from Gibsons to Keats, pay close attention to the wind and do not attempt to cross if it is a windy day.

Sechelt Inlet

Sechelt Inlet is located just north of Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast. It’s a great option for multi-day trips and offers a more remote experience than some of the other trips on this list. There are more than a half dozen campsites located throughout the inlet, with some of my favourites at Nine Mile Beach, Kunechin Point, and Halfway Beach. The boat launch is located at Lamb’s Bay and you can rent boats from Pedals and Paddles. The campsites are all free and most of them have outhouses, though I’m not sure if they have bear caches. I recommend staying for at least two nights on this trip. As usual, beware of wind in the afternoon.

Gulf Islands

There are lots of options available for paddling in the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, located just east of Vancouver Island (Salt Spring, Pender, Saturna, Mayne Island, etc). Plan your trip around where you want to visit. I’ve done trips out of both Pender Island and Sidney. Pender is a safe option because you don’t have to do any open water crossings, whereas some of the other sites require water crossings out of Sidney, which are more appropriate for experienced paddlers. There’s a great first-come-first-serve campsite at Rum Island and another at D’arcy Island. Beaumont Campground on Pender Island has closed, but you can still make reservations at Shingle Bay. In addition, there’s a frontcountry site at Sidney Spit. Some sites require reservations from reservation.pc.gc.ca, but the others are pay on site, so bring cash. You can rent boats from Blue Dog Kayaking in Sidney or Pender Island Adventures on Pender Island.

Copeland Islands

A female kayaker smiles at the camera from her yellow Boreal Storm kayak while the sun sets over the water and leaves a pink glow over everything in the Copeland Islands Provincial Park on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia, Canada.

The Copeland Islands are located north of Powell River on the Sunshine Coast and can be accessed from Lund. There are several campsites located throughout the collection of islands and it’s approximately 10km from Lund to the North Campground. I believe the campsites can get pretty busy in the summer, but the water is super warm in this area, so it’s a great option to visit in May or September. It’s free to camp and there is an outhouse. This is a great 1-night trip, or you could extend it to paddle into Desolation Sound for a few more nights. I’m not aware of any boat rentals in Lund.

Desolation Sound

Finally, Desolation Sound is a beautiful provincial park reserve north of Powell River on the Sunshine Coast. You can access it from either Lund (via the Copeland Islands) or Okeover Arm. It’s a large area that warrants at least a few days to properly explore. The most popular campsites are on the Curme Islands, but these can get very busy in the summer with both paddlers and power boaters, so the campsites at Bold Head and Tenedos Bay are good alternatives. You do have to do an open water crossing to access the Curme Islands, so it’s not recommended for beginners. There is no freshwater, so make sure you bring enough for your entire trip. Permits are required from camping.bcparks.ca and cost $5 per person, per night. All campgrounds have outhouses and some of the mainland sites have bear caches. You can rent boats from Powell River Sea Kayak near Okeover.

West Coast Trail: Camper Bay to Gordon River

August 22, 2026August 18, 2026 / Maria / Leave a comment

After a very eventful day hiking in the rain to Camper Bay, we really needed a win on Day 6. We only had to hike 7km from Camper Bay to Thrasher, but we had a pretty important tidal window. Out of Camper Bay there’s a cable car and some ladders, followed by 2km of muddy forest walking before you return to the coast. Then there’s 5km of beach walking to Thrasher Cove through the infamous Owen Point section.

This section of the trail is well known by hikers because it offers stunning coastline views and the opportunity to explore the sea caves at Owen Point. The challenge is that it has a very sensitive tidal window. In other parts of the trail, there are a few pinch points that you can’t cross during high tides, but if you got stuck there, you could likely crawl up into the trees and wait it out. The section of trail along Owen Point is very long and lacking in safe places to wait out a high tide. This meant that we had the challenge of getting to Thrasher Cove by 1pm.

After our long day hiking to Camper Bay, I’d come to terms with the fact that Adriana likely wasn’t going to have the energy to get up early and hike to Owen Point. She’d expressed trepidation earlier in the trip about the potential slip hazards in this section of trail and I kind of got the impression she didn’t want to do it. I was disappointed about it, but could understand her concerns. To my surprise, when we talked about it the night before, she was keen to hike to Owen Point.

If you skip Owen Point, you have to do a 5km re-route through the forest. I can’t say for sure, but I believe this section of trail is very similar to what we did between Walbran and Camper Bay. We’d need to get up very early (at 5am) to give ourselves lots of time to make the tidal cut-off at Owen Point, but Adriana figured that since we were going to bed so early (8pm), it would be okay to wake up early. I think both of us were super keen to avoid another 5km forest slog, so we agreed to get up and do it in the morning. We wanted to leave camp by 7am and get to the beach by 9am, giving ourselves 4 hours to complete the 5km section.

We were still a bit sluggish when we awoke. It continued to rain all night and it was drizzling in the morning, although less wet than the previous day. In contrast to when we’d left Walbran, everything already felt damp. All our hiking and rain clothes from the previous day were still soaking wet, as were our shoes. Plus, I was disappointed to discover that a lot of things inside the tent, including my sleeping bag, were a little damp. I wasn’t cold overnight, but I don’t like to pack up a damp bag.

But the only way out was through. We packed everything and left pretty close to our planned time. We started with another cable crossing, which was fortunately very short and much easier than the crossing at Walbran. The rain stopped and we layered down after the ladders, taking off all our rain gear. The 2kms we had to hike through the forest was still very painful. The trail was muddy and in poor shape and we couldn’t quite maintain the pace we wanted, arriving at the beach access slightly after 9am.

We decided to go for it anyways. Generally, we move faster on the beach, but we were warned by the park ranger that this section was filled with dangerous surge channels and giant boulders that would make navigation slow. Our friends (the guys and their sons) arrived at the beach access at the same time as us and we ended up hiking most of the way to Owen Point with them. It wasn’t intentional, they were ahead of us, but as they navigated the obstacles, they were very kind to point them out to us when we followed behind, including helping us cross a particularly challenging surge channel.

Owen Point is located at the midpoint of this section and I would say that the terrain on either side of Owen Point is wildly different. On the north side, where we started, you’re mostly hiking across a large rock shelf. I’ve never hiked anything like it before, so it was a very cool experience. Overall, I thought the shelf was fairly easy to navigate, but there were a few tricky sections where we had to return to the treeline to get around a surge channel. Adriana was nervous, but we both agreed it was easier than navigating the muddy forest route.

We arrived at Owen Point with lots of time to spare! It was here that we were most satisfied with our decision to hike along the beach. Owen Point is very beautiful and I can see why it’s a staple of the trail. It’s a breathtaking stretch of coastline and there are a series of caves and tunnels located at the point. It was a bit busy because the hikers coming the other direction were arriving at the caves at the same time as us, but it didn’t detract from the experience.

After Owen Point, the terrain turns to giant boulders, by which I mean rocks the size of cars. There’s no obvious trail to follow, pick any route and scramble across the rocks as best you can, creating your own route parallel to shore. The largest boulders were closest to Owen Point, but I found they got smaller and easier to navigate the closer we got to Thrasher Cove.

We crossed a small beach where we decided to take a break for lunch. We learned the previous day that it is important to take time to eat, but we took a shorter break than normal because we weren’t sure how long it would take to navigate the rest of the boulders. It was around this time that the sun came out, further improving our spirits. Neither of us had been enthusiastic about putting on wet clothes in the morning, so we’d both started hiking in our rain gear, with nothing underneath. Once we hit the beach, I changed back into my wet underlayers in hopes of drying them out. It was a bit cold at first, but it dried a lot faster on my body and by the time we reached Thrasher, I was pretty much dry.

It ended up being a faster walk to Thrasher than we thought and we arrived with time to spare. All the other hikers that had started with us had decided to get up even earlier to hike all the way to Gordon River. It’s only another 6km from Thrasher to Gordon River, which is certainly achievable, but made more challenging by the fact that the last water taxi to Gordon River is at 3pm. Adriana and I were skeptical that we could make the water taxi (we wouldn’t have), so we committed to staying the final night at Thrasher.

It ended up being a great decision! The guys and their sons were the only others from our original group to spend the night there, so they arrived first, followed by us. We weren’t used to being early to camp, so we had our pick of campsites. We chose a lovely beach site and proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon building the most epic camp! All our things were still wet, but it was quite windy and the sun was out, so we figured it was the perfect opportunity to dry out our gear. We constructed a large clothes line and hung up pretty much everything in our packs. It all dried over the next hour with the exception of our hiking boots. It was so nice to relax in the sun on the sandy beach, I honestly felt like a completely new person!

I understand why people wanted to rush to the end after the long day of rain, but I don’t regret taking our time. I never hear people talk about Thrasher Cove, I think it’s just one of the necessary campsites where people stay, but it ended up being one of my favourite! The guys got a campfire going (we didn’t bother because we didn’t want to deal with wet wood) and invited us to share theirs, so we lay our boots next to the fire and managed to get those almost dry by morning too. I think the opportunity to stay an extra night at Thrasher gave us the chance to recoup and unwind before finishing the trail. I feel like it gave us time to process the previous day and it was really nice to end the trip on a high note. We had lots of time to enjoy each other’s company and it was a lovely way to end the trip.

The following morning we only had to do 6km through the forest to Gordon River. We knew there wouldn’t be any scenery and we expected there to be a lot more mud. After talking to the northbound hikers, we were thrilled to learn that this section of trail wasn’t overly muddy, it just had a lot of elevation gain and loss. At this point, we’d take anything over the mud, so we weren’t intimidated by a little bit of a climb.

There were several ladders going up from the beach and we wound our way through the forest for several hours. It was different terrain than the other sections of trail, but we were honestly thrilled not to have to slog through the mud. We were excited to finish the trail, but enjoyed the last couple of hours hiking. We hiked mostly alone for the first couple of hours, before we started crossing paths with hikers starting the trail. The trail felt easy to us after everything that had come before and it was fun to compare our experience against the new group coming in.

I could definitely have done without the day of rain, but honestly, I wouldn’t change it. I feel like rain is a quintessential part of the West Coast Trail and almost no one is lucky enough to do a trip without it. We only had to deal with it for one day, so it was still possible to recover. I can’t imagine how people function who get caught in a full week of rain. I feel like the risks would have been a lot higher hiking every day in the rain because everything gets damp and it gets harder to start a campfire (if they’re even permitted).

The trail wouldn’t let us go without one final challenge. The last ladder from the trail to the beach is very long and pretty much completely vertical. Most of the ladders were inclined and my stomach jumped into my throat when I looked over the edge of the last ladder. Adriana knew I was nervous going down, so she went first and instructed me not to look. I talked myself down like I did on all the other ladders, but I was relieved to place both feet on the beach. Even looking at the photo of the ladder, it’s pretty intimidating. I’m not sure what I’d have done if I’d had to start with that ladder, which is arguably the scariest one on the trail!

Unfortunately we missed the water taxi by mere minutes. It runs every half hour and it was pulling away from the beach as we climbed down. We took the opportunity to eat our lunch and have one last drink of electrolytes before the boat returned at 1pm to bring us to Gordon River. We checked out with Parks Canada and bought a few souvenirs. I did my best to take a sink shower at the Pacheedaht bathroom – there are actual showers, but they’re coin operated, so I had to be content with the sink shower.

We didn’t have a ferry booking, so we stopped into Port Renfrew for a second lunch before hauling ass to the ferry terminal. I thought we might get stuck waiting a few sailings, but it was a Saturday evening and we got on almost right away. I enjoyed a big burger on the ferry and Seth picked me up on the other side.

So overall, I’m thrilled that I’ve finally completed this trail. I can see why the West Coast Trail is the most popular of Vancouver Island’s coastal hikes. It’s hard to rank them against each other when they’re all so different, but I think I did like this experience better than hiking the Juan de Fuca Trail and the North Coast Trail. It might be related to the fact that I was more prepared for this trail and had a more realistic idea of what to expect. I was wise to approach the trail with a slow itinerary and despite spending more time on the trail, my pack was significantly lighter than when I did the other two.

I would absolutely recommend this trail to experienced hikers, but I’d recommend newbies to try other trails first. If you’re a local, definitely do the Juan de Fuca Trail. If you’re not from BC, try and do other multi-day trails in varied terrain before attempting this one. It helps to be dialed into the gear you’re carrying in your pack, to know that it’s been tried and tested. I don’t think I will ever do the trail again. We really had great conditions and I feel like it was a once in a lifetime experience, but it is challenging and I wouldn’t be in a rush to repeat it.

But if you’re up to the challenge, definitely go for it! This is a world-renown trail for good reason. I loved it!