Big Meadow Lake

Big Meadow Lake

When exploring, even with maps and a GPS, two things become apparent: there are more roads than shown on the maps and there is never a straight line to a destination.

Ok, make that three things: road changes, fires and logging totally change the landscape so the old routes need to be replaced.

Today I was aiming to get into Nuttall and Big Meadow Lakes. I first went up to Chute Lake before taking off on the logging roads. Zeroing the odometer, I went across the Trans Canada Trail, past the private cabin and Chute Lake Recreation area then took the logging road off to the left and up the hill.

A small road took off to the left at 0.9 kilometres and at 1.8 kilometres a road to the right, which I was sure led to Elinor Lake and another old road heading up this way. I ignored a road at about 5.5 kilometres, keeping to the one that looked better traveled.

Reaching 7.6 kilometres, I took the right hand fork, turned right again in another tenth of a kilometre and soon ended up on an old log landing. Turning on the find function of the GPS, it was obvious that I had taken a wrong turn further down. However, I was only about 1.7 kilometres from the lake and set off in the general direction through the clearing. Reaching the other side I found the windfalls were more than I wanted to tackle so backtracked to the jeep. I did find a nice hunting blind on a knoll in the clearing, which I noted for possible future use.

I headed back down to the branch that I had ignored earlier and headed up the road until windfalls stopped me. At 8.4 kilometres, I had noticed a very rough cut road off to the right and soon after spotted Big Meadow lake, so I went back down parked, and began to walk.

This road very rough but with care could be driven. Soon I came across another road (this one up from Elinor Lake) and turned to the left towards the lake. It was a total of about 800 metres to the dam and the other side of the lake. The roads to this end were likely from the logging roads up behind Naramata and from Greyback and Corporation Lakes.

I began to check one of these out, thinking of reaching Corporation Lake, but took the wrong one. Sadly, I found the bloated carcass of a cow, which I managed to report to the owner later in the evening.

Back at Big Meadow Lake I watched an osprey soaring, so I figured there should be some fish. I poked my way around the shoreline, which was tough going, but didn’t have any luck though I thought I saw one rise.
Talking to several people on trail bikes and ATV’s I found out that the lake is very low later in the fall, and they did not know if there were fish there. The owner of the cow, however, seemed to recall it was stocked years back, so it is very possible there would be fish. At this time of the year, it would be a pleasant way to spend the day out on a canoe. Remember, though, it is a source of water for Naramata so treat it with respect.

Later on in the season when the lake is drawn down, the fish may be more concentrated, but the muddy shorelines would detract from the enjoyment. Makes one wish the cities and towns could draw water from the Okanagan and Skaha Lakes and leave these mountain ones at their most enjoyable levels.

One reader contacted me to let me know he has caught some nice rainbows at the South Ellis reservoir and his is concerned about the draining of this and other lakes.