Kayak: Buntzen Lake

:: Buntzen Lake ::

Burnaby :: Kayaking

May 22, 2015

While this adventure wasn’t a hike, it was a great experience! My friend, Clarissa, and I were set on taking the dogs Kayaking. After my shift I met her and we hummed and hawed over the task of trying to fit two kayaks, two people and two dogs in one suburban after finding out her brother had borrowed her truck with the roof rack on it.

After some kayak themed tetris and a little MacGyvering, we tied the boats in securely and managed to leave room for us and the pups. We accidentally took the scenic route to Buntzen, somehow managing to go UNDER the Port Mann Bridge instead of over it. We eventually got to the boat launch and got the Kayaks in the water. Zoey, my lab, is a nervous girl and I really didn’t know how this was going to go as she had never been on a boat before. I got in and coaxed her to sit with me. She was not happy about it and looked like she was going to lose it when Clarissa launched me into the water but after a little nervous trembling she figured out, “Oh  hey, this is fun!”. I’m really glad to because I had a blast. With Zoey in my kayak and Dozer in Clarissas, we set out on the southern half of the lake. Buntzen is twenty minutes away from the city so it’s normally super busy and loaded to the tits with people but out on the lake it was nice and not to mention the surrounding area was beautiful. We paddled under the floating bridge and people seemed to really get a kick out of seeing the dogs in the boats with us and a few stopped to take our picture. So, somewhere out there, there probably is a photo of me looking very confused with a dog in my lap out on the lake. The stranger picture taking didn't stop there. When we passed the fishing docks more people seemed to find the sight too much. Do we smile? Do we keep talking and look like weirdos?

 

 Dozer decided that standing on the bow of the boat was a good idea, we managed to get him  back
seated down before we decided to head back to the dog beach. We brought our kayaks right up to the lake edge and let the dogs out to play for a good hour or so with a multitude of other very happy and very soggy dogs before getting back in the kayaks and headed back to where we started.