African Lake (Cold Lake Area)

August 12, 2009. I was back in the City of Cold Lake to get my car worked on again so I had the opportunity to make another attempt at getting to African Lake.

I am compelled to give a bit of an explanation about my interest in African Lake. I basically grew up in the Cold Lake area and I have been to most places in the area. I have noticed African Lake on topographical maps. But before I had ever seen it on topographical maps African Lake was a rather mythical place for me. Back in the late 1950's there was a military exercise in the Cold Lake area. I recall on the way to school seeing a number of parachutes being dropped from aircraft. Exciting stuff for me. That evening my older brother told about driving around with his friends and coming across some solders who they stopped to talk to and may have even given a ride to. I recall that the solders were trying to get to African Lake. That is the first that I had any hint that there was a lake out the in that rather empty tract of land. It was probably a few years before I was able to, see a topographical map of the area and confirm that the lake really existed.

So when I saw the sign 'African Lake Bicycle Trail' I just had to go explore it. Wednesday August 12 was my second attempt. I could see that the old 'Radar Station' was close to it so I decided to attempt to access the lake from that side. I rode my bike north on 51st Street. The area has been developed so much that I do not recognize most of the places there so I missed the road to the 'Radar Station' which is now the Cold Lake Museum. I had to back track then. I then went east on the right road. There is a lot of signage around the museum prohibiting off road vehicles, including Bicycles from traveling off the road. But I ignored the signage and followed a well worn track on the the east. According to my GPS I was within 400m of African Lake. But it was all bush and there was no access to the lake, that I could find. The ATV track that I was on looped around to the south and back to the Museum. It was a trail that I mostly had to walk and even then there were some slopes that were so steep that I could barely even push my bicycle up. So I headed west back toward 51st street. I found a dirt trail north to Township Road 632 which saved me from going all of the way back. My next attempt was to bicycle south on 16th street to the Motor Cross track. There was clearly no access to African Lake from that place so I returned north on 16th street and back to urban Cold Lake. Next east on Forest Dr. then 16th Ave. until I saw an African Lake Bicycle Trail sign pointing south on 8th Street. As I rode south for a short way the street was pavement, then a maintained gravel road, then gravel but not maintained, then it became a dirt road and eventually it became an ATV trail that continues straight south to African Lake. The trail continues on around the east side of the lake. This part of the trail is sandy in places and portions of it make rather poor cycling and I found that walking them was the easiest way to go there. The ATV Quads form ruts just deep enough so the bicycle peddles would catch. There is access to the lake on the south end as well. The trail continues south. It is rutted with mud holes but it does improve and is rideable again through some more level and open meadows. And eventually I did end up on the trail that I had been on the week before when I ended up at Fountain Lake.

In my opinion the African Lake Bicycle trail is a poor trail for bicycling. And the reason is largely due to the heavy use by ATVs. I noted places on that some slopes where trail has been worn down to about waste deep.

Once I completed the trail I then bicycle to Cherry Grove,
total distances was 31.6 km
about 3 hours moving 47 minutes stopped.
Maximum elevation was 1908 and the total ascent was about 1000 feet.

Later in the day I then rode my bicycle back to pick up my car which was another 15.3 km and took me 1 hour and 10 minutes. So the total distance that I rode that day was about 46km.