Bottle Lake and beyond, Lanark Highlands

The Bottle Lake trip was a real adventure in more ways than one. The adventure started when I got to Bottle Lake Road. Due to high winds on previous days, Bottle Lake Road had many trees down on the 4 km road. I was ready to turn around and try paddling somewhere else, but a keen fisherman showed up. He had a chainsaw and a rope to pull trees off the road with his vehicle. After about an hour of serious tree clearing, we arrived at Bottle Lake. 

Bottle Lake, 7km track

The fly fishermen had a flotation chair and used flippers to get around the lake. Bottle Lake has good fishing for Rainbow Trout. I’ll have to bring a rod next year! There’s good access to the lake, but you need to navigate a rather steep trail (50m or so). 

Fly fishing for Rainbow Trout

Tree clearing on Bottle Lake Rd

Bottle Lake is a small lake with less than 2 km of shoreline. For a longer paddle, I investigated making my way south of Bottle Lake via some narrow channels. About 2 km south of Bottle Lake is Cranberry Lake. But I wasn’t sure how far I would get in my 14-foot Widgeon kayak. There was a high beaver dam when I went down the south channel/creek. I managed to pull over into a small pond, but there were soon two more challenging dams to cross. It would have been easier in my canoe!

Dam below/south of Bottle Lake	Another view of a dam
A challenging dam to cross over!	Dark-eyed Junco

After dam 3, I had clear water for the next 1.2 km stretch. More dams were in the way to reach Cranberry Lake, but I left those for another day. This 1.2 km stretch of water/wetland is beautiful and dramatic. The eastern shore has high rocky cliffs, and much of the water is covered in a mat of leatherleaf bushes. I had a late lunch ashore on a rocky outcrop and wished I had more time to explore further south and a large wetland/pond to the west.

Large beaver abode	Beautiful area, below Bottle Lake
14-foot Widgeon kayak	Leatherleaf wetland & rocky outcrops

Next year, I would try at about the same time (first half of April) but bring my canoe instead. The trip may be better done with a canoe partner to make the beaver dams a bit easier and provide some extra layers of safety!

Leatherleaf

Midland Painted Turtle