Kayaking at Horne Lake, B.C.

By Keith and Heather Nicol

    On Monday June 3 we started out day with a bike ride along the Big Qualicum River Road (see : http://keithnicol.blogspot.com/2019/06/cycling-big-qualicum-river-trail.html for details) and the ride ended at Horne Lake. Since we had not ever paddled on this lake we decided to bring our sea kayaks along to check this area out.  According to information that we could find the main area for launching boats is at Horne Lake Regional Park at the western end of the lake. There is also camping here and some short trails and a nice launch point for sea kayaks or motorized boats. 

Some campsites offer your own private beach and launch area 

    Horne Lake somewhat kidney shaped so we opted to paddle along one end of “kidney” and save the longer paddle down the main section of the lake for another day when we had more time.  The route we took was just over 2 km one way and this part of the lake does not have the cottages of the main part of the lake so it suited us just fine. Horne Lake is surrounded by some rugged hills and Mt Mark has some dramatic cliff faces which make this area quite different for paddling compared to our typical jaunts around Hornby Island and other places in the Comox Valley.  

Mt Mark towers over the west end of the lake

  We reached the end of the lake in about ½ hour and then turned around and meandered back. We didn’t see much bird life except for a group of Canada Geese coming out of some shoreline reeds at one point. There are also several places where we could have pulled out for a snack or rest since the shore line has many gravel beaches.   We plan to return to Horne Lake to paddle down the main part of the lake since the rugged scenery and opportunity for shoreline pullouts makes this a fine destination for kayaking or canoeing.  And if you don’t have your own boat these can be rented at the campsite check in location (https://www.rdn.bc.ca/horne-lake-regional-park).  Check this area out if you haven’t already done so.   

Horne Lake offers some great day paddling