Pavilion Lake 02/09/2010

For over a month I had been organizing a trip to Pavilion Lake. Primitive life called microbialites had been found there by chance by a recreational diver. NASA has been involved in studying the life there to give them clues about how life could arise on other planets. The lake has been in the news a few times too.

Some details on the lake and the project:

Pavilion Lake itself:
823m elevation
Max depth 65m
Dive sites are at 0-40m
Recreational diving only permitted in designated areas.

On the map in the PDF below, the dark green areas are where diving is allowed.
http://www.pavilionlake.com/pdf/BCParksPavilionLake.pdf

The main project website is here:
http://www.pavilionlake.com/

Wikipedia article on the lake:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavilion_Lake

BC Parks information on Marble Canyon campground:
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/marble_can/

Logistically, it was complicated. The lake is at ~800 meters altitude, and to get there you are going up and down elevation in the mountain passes a lot, which made dive planning more complicated.. The drive is about 5 hours one way. There are no places for fills, so we had to bring all our gas, especially since most of us were on 32%.

Accommodations were limited to tenting it in the local provincial park. That was $16 per car, pit toilets and hand-pump water. There was a water quality warning sign on the pump, advising anyone with weak immune systems to boil it. There were no showers or washing facilities. Each overnight site was spacious and well tended, also each had a fire pit. Fire wood was not available, so you had to scrounge or bring it in.

The Sky Blue Water Resort was not open as far as we could tell, so don't count on that unless you call ahead and make sure. Their web site offered little information. When we arrived we thought we might stay there as it is right beside the central dive site, but the gate was closed and there was no obvious way in.

The provincial camp ground was far enough from the dive sites to need to drive back and forth. You wouldn't want to hike it with your gear!

The map and descriptions of the boundaries of the sites were good. However there was little we could find in the way of directions on how to find the microbialite formations. Thankfully we discovered that it was not hard!

We explored the center site and the south site during our time there. We did not have the time to explore the north site.

The center site entry was well marked with a large sign. It was the same document that you will get from the website, so there was nothing different in terms of details. There was space for maybe 3 or 4 vehicles at the side of the road. There is no official parking, just a wide shoulder area by the highway.

The entry trail looked very steep. However, this was not the trail we had to use. I had gotten a tip that there was an easier trail and this turned out to be correct. From the sign, the easier trail led off to the right. It was farther, and not obvious, but with doubles on it was quite manageable, unlike the main trail.

A google map link to the center site is here.

On the map, the entry point is off the shore at the north side of the small island, called 3 Poles Point. Entry into the water was on smooth gravel and sand. There was quite a nice shallow area to get prepped and do equipment checks. The bottom also had a lot of freshwater vegetation all over it. Our dive plan took us to the south west around 3 Poles Point, then back to the entry. The majority of the microbialites were in the 60-70 foot range. Right after entering the water and descending, we came across a large microbialite formation in very shallow water, about 15 feet.

We did not make it very far around the island as we were going pretty slow. All the microbialites looked very similar. Lumpy organic looking brown rock formations, with a lot of holes. We did not see the more spectacular formations listed on the project website. Those may be deeper, or in another location.

On day two, we dove the south site. A google map link is here.

This site was not well marked at all. However, it was fairly simple to find. There is a very wide and open trail leading down to the water from the highway. It went a very short distance through the trees down to a small beach. Parking was ample at the side of the highway again.

Dive 2 followed much the same profile as dive 1. We headed out from the beach to about 60' and then to the south west along the contour. There were a lot of microbialite formations at this site as well. Notable features were a "cascade" effect, where the microbialites cascaded down the depth contour perpendicular to the shore. Then there would be a stretch of sand, and another cascade. There were no microbialites shallower than about 50' here, so don't waste your time in the shallows!

Of further note, it looked like microbialites would attach and form their formations on dead trees or other things. Several deadfalls were slowly getting covered in the, and looked very spooky.

There was no fish life to speak off that we saw. There were a lot of small snails, and some kind of water flea, but beyond a lot of bottom vegetation, the lake was pretty barren.

All in all, a very interesting experience!

I did not take any of these pictures, but here are some from Anita who was on the trip:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AntonNorth/ScubaPavilionLakeAnitaHollandsPhotographer#