Ian goes to Island Lake Alberta

When I was a child my family lived in Edmonton.  My Dad and a number of his friends wanted to find a place to build cabins for summer holidays.  They reviewed aerial photos and selected Island Lake, which is near Smokey Lake and about 6 Km northeast of Hanmore Lake.  They found an area of sandy dune about 1 km from an existing road that ended in a small forestry campsite.  From there they built a dirt road into the area that they leased to build the cabins.

From age 3 until I was 11 years old and we moved out to Vancouver Island, I spent a large part of each summer at “The Cabin”.  I and my two brothers loved this place.  It was wild, secluded, and only friends were there.  There was a sandy beach, the water was tolerable for swimming and there were lots of pike and perch of good size for fishing. 

The place was such a part of my life and my consciousness that I have continued to dream about it all my life.  The dreams have invariably been dreams of loss where I ultimately end up at the empty cabin of my best “lake” friend Alex.  Often the dreams are “development” dreams, where I dream I return to the lake and there is a paved road running behind the cabin with condos and a shopping complex at one end of the beach.  So, it was with a great deal of excitement and some trepidation that I navigated my way back there yesterday.

The drive across the prairie north of Edmonton was familiar, with its large fields broken by stands and rows of birch and poplar.  There were many old houses, barns and sheds collapsing into ruin in the fields along the way.  I was able to find my way fairly easily.  Although Google earth wasn’t able to trace a route on most of the roads off the main highway, Google maps was at least able to tell me the name of most.  The last 5 km is along dirt roads that Google maps didn’t know about, although, when I got to them, they were actually posted (even the dirt road built by my dad and friends) as Range Roads.  Also, while the Garmen GPS (alias Gimli) didn’t recognize Island Lake (except for another lake by that name further north), it was aware of almost all the roads when I got to them.

I made one wrong turn on Range Road 610 which took me to a small church and a wolf!  The wolf was too fast for me to get a picture, but I was able to capture the church.  The wrong turn was my fault.  I had one other wrong turn which was the faulty of Google Maps. 

Google maps informed me that the unmarked road I wanted to turn off on was 6.9 KM along Range Road 157.  It turned out there was an unmarked road at this point, but since it was reasonable straight, and the unmarked road I wanted looked very windy on Google Earth I was suspicious. 

I drove the 3.5 KM down this road until I came to a place where a tree had fallen and blocked the way.  Since this was already 1.5 KM past where the next turn was supposed to be and I had come to no turns I headed back, pretty sure this was not the right road.  I was afraid I might have to give up at this point, but I drove further down Range Road 157, and after about ½ a KM another road showed up on Gimli, leaving the Range Road at the correct angle and showing the curves and windings I had seen on Google Earth.  Although this road was about 1-1-1/2 KM further than what Google Maps had claimed, it was clearly the correct road.

Cotton wood on the road near Island Lake

 Sure enough, after 2 KM on this road there was a turn off, and I followed this down to what we used to call “Main Beach” – the location of the forestry campsite that was the original end point of the road to the lake.

"Main Beach", where is the water?

I had, of course, seen the satellite images of the Lake on Google Erath, so I was prepared for changes.  The images show that the lake level has dropped and the old shoreline had started to grow in.  If not for this I certainly would not have recognized this spot.  There was once a nice little spot right on the lake, with outhouses, right by the road.  The lake is now several hundred feet away and the area that used to be lake is now meadow, young poplar, and horse tail in the damper spots.  From when I was a child until my last visit in 1976, the shoreline was stable.  The level might have varied by a foot one side or the other, but nothing like what I was seeing.  In this spot there used to be a firm delineation between lake and dry land, now it is all marsh and there is no easy approach to the water for someone in city shoes, or bare feet, which were my only options.

I stopped and tried to walk out to the lake.  I only made it as far as a small pool before it was too soggy to continue.  I did see one of the small frogs that I remember crowded the beach in front of the cabins in great number every night.

A quarter sized frog in the Horse Tail at "Main Beach"

I continued along the road until I came to the gate that blocks the road down to the cabins.  This used to be a chain, but now it is a larger metal construction that is less likely to decapitate a snowmobiler.  It was locked, of course, so I parked and continued on foot.  The section from Main Beach to the hill down to the lake is just as I remembered it.  But when I got to the fire break that became the croquet course I saw that this had become a road leading off to the right behind the cabins.  A bit like my "development" dream, but at least it is dirt!

The gate

I went down the hill and quickly saw big changes.  The road that goes off to the left towards Ridge’s and Hunter’s cabins is still there, but the road that used to go in front of the cabins down to Bean’s is gone, overgrown by poplar.  The lake shore has receded out beyond the “Reed Bed”, which is now a hillock with poplar growing on it.  This used to be maybe a hundred or so feet off shore and was a favourite place to fish.  There is so much brush and growth between the cabins and the lake that they have to clear paths through and mow them to keep them open.  Again, the recession of the shoreline has destroyed the clear distinction between land, beach and water that was always there when I was a child.  

This was all underwater in 1976

 When you get to the water, it is still sandy on the bottom, but grass and other plants grow down to and into the water, so you can see that at times the lake level has been lower even than it is now.

When I was a child it was like this:  there was a low and wide sand dune on which the cabins were built.  It is anchored by poplar trees.  This still exists, much as it did.  Below this dune there was a relatively level area of sand with a few clumps of shore willow growing here and there.  I suppose that this area was cleared when the cabins were built.  Next to this area was the road that ran parallel between the cabins and the lake shore from where it came down to the lake, turned left up to Hunter’s cabin, and right down to Bean’s cabin.  Between the lake and the road ran a low mound we called the dike.  It was covered in low brush and weeds.  It just now (on this trip) occurred to me that this dike was created when my dad and friends cleared for the road in front of the cabins.  You can still vaguely make out the line of the “dike” due to the fact the poplars growing from it are a bit taller.  On the lake side of the mound was the sandy beach.  This beach grew and shrank by a couple of feet, depending on the year, but being the true and long standing interface between the lake and the shore it was kept clear of weeds and grass by wave action.  The spot was chosen for the cabins because the beach was there, and visible on aerial photography.

An old piece of dock with one end on the "dike".

The road in front of the Cabins!

Beach access cut through the growth

When I first walked down to the shore I saw a couple of people out on a dock near the hillock that was the “Reed Bed”.  I went over and introduced myself and apologized for intruding.  I remember how much we all valued the privacy of the place and didn’t appreciate strangers visiting the cabin area.  Harvey and Marie welcomed me graciously and we exchanged stories about the lake.  It turned out they were staying in the beautiful cabin that is now built on the site our cabin was on.  The cabin actually belongs to another couple that was not there.  Harvey and Marie used the cabin for a week or two each year.  They were able to give me some information on who owns each cabin now.  Their information wasn’t 100% complete, but it sounds like the only family that is still there from my childhood days is the Desrosiers.  They had met Denise Desrosiers a year or two before (sorry Denise for misspelling Desrosiers in the note I left inside the back screen door).

The reed bed from the breach in front of our cabin.  The reed bed is now a low hillock connected to the shore.  There is grass and small trees almost all the way to the reeds, and small trees growing on the hillock the was the reed bed.

I walked down along the cabins to Bean’s old place.  The Desrosiers' looks more or less as I remember, as did the Sidle’s and the Bean’s.  I saw the railway tracks still sticking above the sand that went from the Sidle’s boathouse down to the lake.  There are small trees blocking the way now.   I walked back behind the Bean’s and found the “Lagoon” was no longer there.  The Lagoon was just a bay of the lake with lots of rushes, water lilies, and reeds where there was a dock where Alex and I used to sit and watch the muskrats and ducks.  I could vividly remember walking up the cabin steps, going into the screen porch and knocking on the door – “Can Alex come out and play?”  Just like in my dreams the cabin was empty, but at least there were no Condos beside the place.

Bean's cabin

After exploring for a bit Harvey kindly invited me in for a beer.  I signed the cabin owner’s guest book and left my email offering to share information and pictures from the “old days” and I wrote a note for Denise and left it in the screen door.  I would have left one for Alex too, but it sounded like the Bean’s no longer own the cabin.  I left “The Lake” with mixed emotions.  In some ways I wish I had not gone back and my memories could have stayed intact, but in talking with Harvey, his love of the place was apparent.  It was some comfort to know that although the place has changed so much, it is still loved by the people who go there and that the qualities of seclusion and quiet remain.

The cabin built where ours used to be.

The kitchen table in the original cabin

The Original "Carmichael" Cabin

Across the lake from our cabin window

It is hard to know what has caused the recession of all the lakes in this watershed.  There has been a drought for a decade or more, so that may be the cause.  But, there has also been a huge increase in oil and gas activity and, apparently, at least two pipelines laid along the bed of the lake.  Since other lakes in adjacent areas have not been affected so badly by the drought, t is hard to believe the oil and gas activities have not been part of the problem.  I wonder how much water is used by the industry around Smoky Lake?