Spider Lake Provincial Park
This is a small lake - about 1.4 km by 0.7 km - and motorized boats aren't allowed. So, it's an ideal place for stand-up paddleboards, canoes, kayaks, and swimming. It's also stocked with small-mouth bass and rainbow trout, so people fish here all year.
Imagine a big glacier melting away 10 thousand years ago, and leaving behind a washboard pattern of shallow undulating ridges of gravel and sand. Now imagine how these fingers of land DRAIN really well, and also that the area is in the long rain shadow of Mt Arrowsmith. The result is an arid, nutrient-deficient ecosystem with a lot of shore pines, which are usually out-competed by firs and hemlocks and cedar in wetter areas of the mid-Island. The pines and the glacial till make this a unique and essential part of your Vancouver Island exploration.
Reasons why this lake is made for paddlers:
- It's only about 130 acres so you can see all of it within a couple hours or less
- It has a ton of shoreline to explore, because of all the fingers of land
- Motorized boats are NOT allowed
- The lake is shallow so it's not as cold as other lakes on the island
- More than half of the shoreline is park
- You may find a rope swing or two
Camping and fires are not permitted in this provincial park.
There is a day-use area with washrooms. It's gated off from Oct 01 - May 14, but you can still access some nearby outhouses and a small boat launch any time of year. It should be noted that the boat launch is not well developed, and may prove challenging for people with reduced mobility.
Note: The aerial photos give the impression that there is a ton of beach here. However, the sand-and-gravel shoreline is actually too steep in most places to make a comfortable beach for hanging out. I imagine this is less true in the summer if/when the water level recedes, but I can only speculate as I haven't been there in summer yet.
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