Bucket List No. 12 - Paddle - Caddy Lake Tunnel #1

All Trails - Caddy Lake Canoe Trip

Why it is on my list:

My parents have a place close to Caddy Lake and I have heard about the tunnels for a number of years and with the rise of things I have seen about traveling in Manitoba on Social media lately I became far more interested in the tunnels. I never did much research as they seemed a lot out of reach but lately since our purchase of our Body Glove from Costco (similar to this one) for about $400 I have been taking every opportunity I can to explore. I want to be clear while it is a stand up paddle board and I have since learned how to stand on them and can do fairly well I still haven't manage to get myself back on the board so usually I will sit or kneel on the board. I like them more than Kayaks because I can lay down on it or drag my feet through water - but alas that is a different post. The point is I have had a lot of excuses why I should NOT do the paddle - including the fact that it's a decent paddle, about 2 miles in one direction; that the wind can suddenly kick up on the lake and give big waves. Honestly though I am tired of living but not actually living because of fear and excuses. 

I did it! 

On August 19, 2024 at Caddy Lake, Manitoba with Wynn. 

How I felt: Amazing - I learned many lessons on this trip including learning that really - when people say you shouldn't look back it's not true. Sometimes you need to take a minute, look back on where you came from and the progress you made and just marvel and what you accomplished. 

General Hike information:

Getting to the "Trail":

There is no "official" start to the this trip but there are generally two options: launch from Green Bay Resort OR park and launch from the Caddy Lake Camp ground parking lot. I parked at the campground and would recommend that for a number of reasons. 

Taking a break on the Island

1. Green Bay Resort is a private resort so you either have to pay $20 to park in the parking lot and launch your own equipment. If you have a cabin in the area and just need to use their launch it is still $10. Aside from this factor the biggest one for me is that it adds to the distance you have to paddle by about 1 or 2 miles in one direction. 

2. Caddy Lake Campground hosts Caddy Lake Resort. You can park in the parking lot for "free" I say that because you do have to have a park pass but there is no specific fee for parking in the lot. The staff in the Caddy Lake Resort were amazing answering questions for us when we first arrived (they have new owners). 

If you do not own your own paddle boards, kayaks or canoes you can rent them from either place. Caddy Lake also has cabins you can rent or you can find a spot in the campground if you would like to overnight. 

There is an outhouse near the parking lot - it's up and over the little hill that's there and not completely obvious but fairly easy to find. 

Navigation on the trail:

We had our phones with us and we had them in the protective Body Glove sleeves that came without our

phones. I will note that we have iPhones that are water proof and can be submerged and honestly I keep them in the case mostly because it has a long string on it so I don't loose or drop it in the water. I keep the string lashed to my life jacket. You can download an All Trails map - but honestly you head out and paddle North and keep going until you see tunnels so there is not a huge concern for navigation.

Starting the trail:

On the Island

Once you start the paddle it is a little deceiving how far you have to go because you can't see around the bend in the lake to where the tunnels are. We paddle out to the little island in the middle of the lake and explored that first before heading towards the tunnel. We also stopped because we felt like we were having issues with our inflatable Kayak that Wynn had chosen to take and I honestly just thought it was an "us" issue not inflating it fully. Unlike the paddle boards the Kayak is only blow up to 1 PSI - which means you can open it up and inflate it by mouth (the paddle boards are 15 PSI/1Bar - which is a lot of pressure).

As we got to the second bend in the lake it became obvious that there were issues with the Kayak so Wynn  pulled up and was going to wait at one of the docks a long the lake while I continued to the tunnel. As I approached the tunnel another gentleman was coming through and I asked if he was heading back towards the beach and he was so he agreed to paddle with Wynn back to the beach and keep an eye on them given we had concerns about the kayak. 

I managed to make it through the tunnels - I did use my whistle to give one loud blast going through as it is not a straight tunnel and you cannot see what's coming from the other end. It was amazing the current was strong enough to push me gently through so I could take some video and pictures.

Final thoughts: 

I think we left the beach around 1:20 pm and we didn't arrive back at the beach until I would say almost 4:00 pm and there were people just heading out to paddle. I will say this if your going to do the paddle I would leave earlier in the morning and give yourself a fair amount of time. There were a number of people doing the paddle so we weren't alone but it wasn't over crowded. There were a couple of boats on the lake but all were respectful and kept their distance. 

It was honestly on the way back that I learned something. The entire paddle to the tunnel I was working towards a goal I knew I wanted to reach and had dreamed of seeing but most of the paddle was on faith that I could do it that I could make the trip and that I hadn't gotten in over my head. Given that I didn't have a map or a trail guide to follow it was hard to know how far I had to go to reach the tunnel and how far I had to travel back to the beach. It wasn't until I reached the last bend and was looking at where Wynn and the other kayaker were that I realized just how far left I had to go and then in some ways worse I saw them keep going past where I thought the beach was so it was actually further. 

I took a moment to stop and reflect in the middle of the lake—thinking about how far I still had to travel and how distant the little island seemed, even though it hadn’t felt that far when we started. I  took a drink of water and looked back to see how far I had traveled to get to the tunnel and back to where I was. It was up to this moment that I still had doubts that I could do it, doubts that I would be able to paddle to the tunnel and back.
There I was, in the middle of it, almost done, yet I still didn’t believe in myself, even though all my progress was right in front of me. I was literally staring at the distance I had already traveled, proof that I was capable but still full of doubts
I sat there on my board and cried. It was such a metaphor for the last few years of my life. I’ve gone from being at my worst, seeing nothing but the end, to actually being out here and doing the things I’ve wanted to do—yet still struggling with doubt and lacking belief in myself.
In that moment, I realized that the old adage “don’t look back” was wrong. Looking back showed me just how strong I really am.