Low water levels a hassle for Yellowknife cabin owners

Water levels on some of the lakes around Yellowknife are low, in some cases lower than they've been in 20 years.

That means some cabin ownersare having trouble getting to their properties this summer.

For Dave Lovell, who owns a cabin on Banting Lake, it's meant trading his 18-foot boat with a 50-horsepower outboard motor for a freighter canoe.And it now takes himtwice as long to get into Banting Lake because a channel that wasalready shallow has dried up completely.

"When I get to Banting Lake I have to take everything out of the one canoe and carry my outboard motor over," Lovell says."I have another freighter canoe on the other side."

'Pain in the butt'

The N.W.T. Department ofEnvironment and Natural Resources says water levels are lower than average in many lakes and water systems.Prelude Lake, for example, is seeing its lowest water innearly two decades.

Data from the departmentshowsthat Yellowknife received less than half the rainfall this year than it usually gets in May and June. And that's after a spring that saw snow levels at 84 per cent of normal.

Clark Marcino can no longer use his own dock on Prelude Lake.He's launching his boat five kilometres further away at the deeper end of the lake .

"It's a pain in the butt," Marcino said. "It's double the boat ride each way. And so every weekend we are spending more on gas."

Lovell has seen low water cycles beforeand says it could take several years of above-average rainfall for lakes to recover.

If that doesn't happen,Lovell says he'll have to drive down an old mining road and hike in to his cabin.