Munro Lake

Munro Lake

Years ago I might have been to Munro Lake: I was at a lake in the general vicinity, but was not 100 % sure of the name. Today, with it plotted on my G. P. S., I was going to see if I was at the right lake then. I had also been studying several maps, so had a rough idea of where I was heading.

Again we headed west from Summerland on the Summerland-Princeton Road, past the Bald Range, until we dropped down to Trout Creek again. Just after the second bridge we took the Munro Forest Service Road, which appeared on the right. We quickly crossed the Trans Canada Trail and began climbing the side hill with its grassland and mature trees.

It was quite likely that most of the traffic was going into Munro Lake, so we would generally ignore the smaller side roads. 8 kilometres along we took the left hand branch and at 9.7 kilometres the right hand fork in the road. There many changes since my last trip years ago, so the decisions of which road to take were taken with the aid of the G. P. S. and a little intuition.

Sitting at kilometre 11.8 I was really torn, but eventually decided on the left hand fork. At
kilometre 15.2 I took the right hand turn and soon ended up at the lake. There were a few
camping spots and an outdoor loo. There is also a private cabin on the lake -- please
respect it.

In response to our questions, we were informed that the fishing was fairly good with fish up to 18 inches, but it was much better to use a boat. We did not have the canoe with us so after a quick lunch, Edda, Stephanie and I headed along a trail along the shore to try our luck. On Stephanie’s first cast, a decent sized fish smashed into her float. In fact she ended up having much more action than Edda and myself, although most seemed to be after the float. I have since suggested that she do away with the fly and leader and just attach a hook to the float.This trail was somewhat overgrown and is in need of someone to go through with a machete and possibly a chainsaw.

This is a nice lake, fairly well treed, but the far end appeared to be marshy. Possibly the right hand fork at 11.8 kilometres would have taken us to that end, which was more like the lake I remembered. Munro Lake is about 20 hectares and at an elevation of 1555 metres should have reasonable fishing though out the season. It is reasonably deep with a maximum depth of 8.2 metres and an average depth of 4.5 metres. Although records show it has both brook trout and rainbow trout, the last six annual stockings have been 3000 rainbow trout.

This is fairly good deer country, both for white tail and mule deer, so it is an ideal lake for a combined hunting and fishing trip. There should also be a fair amount of grouse around. There’s nothing I like better than wings and legs floured and slowly fried up in margarine. Note though, that regulations require that you keep one wing on the carcass until you get to your permanent residence, unless of course you have eaten the bird, so be prepared to cook the rest of the bird up as well.

One thing I noticed in some areas of the trip was a lot of windfalls amongst the trees. All this fuel in the woods presents a real danger if a camper is careless with fire or there is a lightning strike or other ignition point. Cutting these windfalls for campfires or for the fireplace at home would greatly reduce the risk.