Horsefly Lake
From 150 Mile House in the Cariboo, the town of Horsefly is a 45 minute drive east and access to Horsefly Lake is another 14 km farther east. Horsefly Lake Provincial Park is on the north side of the lake and it is a great spot to camp and paddle. We launched our kayaks and paddled all the shoreline at the west end of the lake for 3 days. Since the entire lakeshore is 100km around, we have only begun our exploration of the lake.
From the Park we paddled down to Birch Bay and the Horsefly River and back and along both sides of the lake east all the way through the narrows to Hansen Island. The paddling was so good on the lake that we repeated some routes twice.
From across the lake we could see the snow-capped ridges of the Cariboo Mountains above Quesnel Lake.
Through the narrows, the lake bends easr to the Quesnel Highlands.
From a viewpoint in the Park we could see down to Birch Bay and Horsefly Landing at the west end of the lake.
On one of the days, the wind came up and we got to work a lot harder in whitecap conditions, but for the most part, the water was calm and the water was not cold. The quiet whispers of last-light alpenglow on the hills before dark reminded us that another great day of paddling awaited.
It would be possible to kayak-camp this lake once the lake levels dropped enough to expose some beaches. This would best be done from mid-August to the end of September. Otherwise we will be driving backroads to launch spots down the lake. Both Prairie Creek Rec Site and Suey View Rec Site look promising for a return trip to Horsefly Lake.