Kamloops Lake to Tobiano (South Shore)
We launched out of Cooney Bay on a sunny, blustery day in October. Cooney Bay Road is a bit rough and it is a bit of a haul down to the muddy beach over logs. Once in the water, paddlers have to navigiate around the sandbars at the mouth of the river. It is much easier to round the point and venture into Cooney Bay and then along the north shore of the lake. To get to the south shore of the lake, there is a long traverse over some turbulent water to reach the rocky bluffs. The railway (CPR) follows the south shore and goes over trestles, platforms, and through tunnels where the clifffs come right down to the lake. The railbed was built in 1885 and the tunnels and platforms date back to this time, but were improved over time. Some of the platforms are quarried rock:
Paddling Kamloops Lake on a calm day is a great experience. It can be an adventure on a windy day and should only be attempted by experienced paddlers with full safety gear.
Taking pictures in a kayak with waves and wind is not easy. Further along the lake is a trestle which we paddled underneath to a rocky cove.
The shoreline remains rocky all the way to Tobiano. The angle of the lake turns WNW so the waves were now cutting across our bearing and we had to time each wave surge (some were 3 feet high) to avoid being swamped or overturned. This made for some concentrated efforts all the way to Tobiano.
Tobiano has a launch ramp. some docks, and a sandy beach. We found the landing to be easy, pulled our boats onto the shoreline and had then lunch.
A paddle from Cooney Bay to Tobiano is not an easy one. Good weather is important and a two-car system would work best. We are not sure if Tobiano would charge you for a landing. We understand that it costs $10 to launch there. That day was late in October, no one was around, and we paddled all the way to Savona, landing at the small park. It is a longish paddle with a lot of open water, but the scenery is fine all the way. It would be nice to have a better launch spot near Kamloops, but this also measn that there are very few boats on the east end of the lake.