We love Kayaking Lakes and Rivers, today we kayaked Cowichan Lake.  This lake is one of the largest bodies of fresh water on Vancouver Island, BC.  The lake has a boat lock (weir) between the lake and river, where the lake is approximately 3 feet higher than the river.  To enter the lock, you pull on a cord on each side which rings a bell to alert the wer attendant who lives close by in a RV.  We first entered the lake from the river, the attendant opened the river side gate to let us in the lock.  As the gate was closing it made creeking sounds as we wandered if we will lost if the Cowichan Lake Weir.  The gate closed and the attendant opened the lake side gate ever so slowly to let water into the lock.  in our Kayaks we were riding up 3 feet as if we were in an elevator.  The gate opened enough for us to pedal out of the lock and into the lake.  We made it into the lake and told the attendant we would be back in about half hour to return to the river.

We approach the weir this time from the lake side and ring the bell for the attendant to open the gate.  We enter the weir and the attendant slowly lowers the creaking sounding gate.  He then slowly opens the river side gate and we slowly get lowered three feet to the level of the river.

This gave us great experience for this fall we will be entering the panama canal and lock system in a slightly larger water vessel.