Mackie Lake is quite a beautiful lake. The first time I saw this lake was in 1971. I had hiked in with Jimmy Nepraunig, a buddy I worked with. It was a gated, but decent road that took you there in those days, and as it was pretty close to the road, it only took us about 30 minutes to walk into the lake. I still remember that on my first cast, I caught a nice trout that was about 2 pounds. We got pretty excited and figured we were in for a great day of fishing. We fished for another few hours but did not get any more keepers. This was the only time I ever visited this lake.
It’s now June 2025, and I headed back in for a look. I was able to drive almost to the lake, except for the last few hundred metres. I did not recognize this lake anymore; it had been logged right to the lake the first time we went in. It is now a very pretty lake with a mountain towering over it on the East side. The lake is surrounded by a nice forest growing right to the shore.
The road I was walking on was a bit overgrown with alder trees, but it could be driven on with a small truck. I only went to where the lake was visible and hiked down through the forest. I suspect that the road must offer a way to reach the lake, and perhaps one could camp there. My wife was with me but stayed at the truck, so I did not have much time to spend there. I plan on going back soon to continue past where I stopped and see what there is to see.
There appears to be a lot of wildlife in the area. I saw a black bear on my walk in, and there was elk sign around. At the lake, while I was standing on the shore, I could hear an owl hooting on the other side of the lake. Then a loon began to call out by the Island.
On my walk back to the truck, I ran into a grouse on two occasions. The first was a lone grouse, although I suspect there were babies with it; she was a female sooty grouse. Then, just as I got to where I could see our truck, I suddenly was surrounded by baby sooty grouse running past me on the road with the mother just in the trees calling loudly for them. I got a photo of the hen, but the little ones were almost invisible when they stopped, making a photo tough to get.
I am looking forward to going back in to spend more time at this wonderful little lake that is so close to the highway. It’s funny how there were 54 years between my two visits to this lake. I often wondered just where this lake was as I would drive past this area. I knew that one day I would find it again.
