Sand Lake, Oregon

Sand Lake is, coincidentally enough, located in Sand Lake State Park, just off the Three Capes Loop, about a 15 minute trip north of Pacific City.

The put-in is just over the bridge (if you can call it a bridge) as you go into the park. Kim and I arrived about an hour after what should have been high tide. Most of the lake (estuary, really) bottom was exposed and a slight current was going towards the ocean. After paddling in a channel for a couple hundred feet, we had to walk our boats for the next couple hundred feet. We were able to paddle about 50 feet until the water was again too shallow. Kim towed her boat through the shallow water and muck and got to water deep enough to float. I walked out to assess the situation, and as we talked, the direction of the flow changed.

Off we went, paddling through mostly shallow water towards the mouth of the estuary. A few times, we bottomed out and had to back paddle and pick a deeper route. The strong current and deepening water left no doubt about the incoming tide. We paddled to the gap in the dune where the estuary exchanges with the open ocean, beached our kayaks, and took a quick walk out to the beach.

It was a gorgeous day -- calm, sunny, with a temperature in the seventies. After our look-see on the beach, we got back in our kayaks and rode the incoming tidal flow back to the put in point. The water in the lake was completely calm for the whole paddle. By the time we got back to the put-in (about an hour after we started), what had been exposed land was covered with enough water to float our kayaks.

During our trip we saw egrets, blue heron, and a couple of flounders.

I would classify this paddle as easy as long as there is sufficient water in the lake. I would be wary about paddling it on the outgoing tide, as the current could be strong and one could conceivably be carried out to the open ocean.

Paddle on.