MacDonald Lake

MacDonald Lake

Another beautifully sunny September morning and the Fox’s and I met early to head off to check out MacDonald Lake. At this time of the year we could possibly run into ice at the higher elevations, so we kept our fingers crossed.

Heading north to Peachland, we then took a left at the stoplight and headed up Princeton Avenue and onto the Brenda Mines Road. I have a habit of choosing a spot to zero the odometer just in case not all the roads have distance markers. Today when I reached the end of the pavement I set it to zero.

The first major intersection was at 5.5 kilometres where the left hand fork would lead to Glen Lake, Headwaters Lake and Crescent Lake, as well as some others. Keeping to the right we were soon on pavement again, passing the Silver Lake Road on the right at 9.3 kilometres. Silver Lake has a forestry camp and is quite popular, not being too far out. We continued to climb and began noticing more and more rusty brown trees in the bush. These are likely Pine Beetle kill.

For the most part we continued to climb towards Brenda Mines and at 19.2 kilometres passed a road off to the left which would lead to Peachland Lake and circle back past Headwaters Lakes and back toward the intersection we had passed at 5.5 kilometres.

Just before the Brenda Mines gate at 21.4 kilometres, we turned left off the pavement onto a rougher dirt road, which climbed quite steeply alongside the mining property. The bush here is quite thick and because of the area on the right is closed to hunting, has a healthy supply of deer, but the thicker country is not so easy for a stranger to hunt.

At 26.1 kilometres the left hand road was sign posted Pennask Lake, but it also leads to Brenda Lake. Keeping to the right we were soon at MacDonald Lake recreation site. It has a few tables and outdoor loo and from what we saw was well maintained by the users. Hats off to them. There is one private cabin and dock on the lake, please respect it.

After a brief talk to some campers, we took a good trail for the campsite to a little point further along the lake where I took this photo looking back towards the recreation site. We repaired a fire pit for use at lunchtime and broke out the fishing rods. I’ll have to admit here that I was out fished. It seems that spinners and a very small willow leaf about 8 inches long were more effective than my flies. These rainbow trout were a nice pan fry size, but from what I was told, they do reach up to 14 or 15 inches.

The shoreline varied from shallow spots to areas where it quickly dropped off into deeper water. Here on the point it dropped off fast enough so that the action was very close to shore. Further along the shoreline I could see a few rock outcrops, so look forward to another trip into this lake next year.

This pretty little lake is easily fished from the shore and would be fun in a canoe or belly boat. The water is crystal clean and cool and we did not notice a lot of debris along the shore. MacDonald Lake has been regularly stocked with from 1,000 to 2,000 diploid Pennask rainbow fry the last few years.