Four vehicles have gone into Mixal Lake off the curve above it, and the road past it is the only way to Lee Bay and Daniel Point.
Where Mixal Lake sits, and the other places we attend
around Pender Harbour. Every name on the map is a link.
A lake beside the road to Irvines Landing
Mixal Lake lies north-west of Garden Bay, between Garden Bay Lake and Hotel Lake. BC Geographical Names adopted it on 2 December 1948, on map sheet 92F/9, at 49 degrees 39 minutes 03 seconds north and 124 degrees 02 minutes 18 seconds west.
The road order matters here and is easy to get wrong. Highway 101 gives way to Garden Bay Road, which runs past Garden Bay Lake and becomes Irvines Landing Road. Mixal Lake is then on the right and Hotel Lake on the left before Lee Road. Vancouver Trails sets out that sequence in its driving directions to Pender Hill, which begin about 36 kilometres north of Sechelt at the Garden Bay Road turning beside a Petro-Canada station. The curve that has made this lake known is on Irvines Landing Road, not on Garden Bay Road.
Bylaw 708 lists the plan area's accessible lakes from smallest to largest, beginning with Katherine Lake and ending with Sakinaw. Mixal falls between North Lake and Garden Bay Lake, which makes it the larger of the two lakes on this stretch of road and bigger than Hotel Lake. The plan also notes that terrain and soil types across the area pose moderate constraints on on-site sewage disposal, road building and site preparation, and that geotechnical review may be required.
The curve above the lake was built in 1936
The road here dates from 1936. A campaign group formed by local residents, Citizens 4 Mixal Curve Re-alignment, set out its condition in a letter published by Coast Reporter in 2023. The curve is sharp and narrow. Visibility around it is limited. Shoulders are minimal or absent. There are no safety barriers of any kind. The drop from the road edge reaches approximately 25 feet of deep water.
The letter was written by Jef Keighley, who called the curve a "real and present danger". By then the group's change.org petition had gathered nearly 500 signatures and it had written to the Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, Rob Fleming, and to the local MLA, Nicholas Simons.
Four vehicles have gone into the water, and a body was recovered in 2006
In 2006 a body was recovered from a van submerged in Mixal Lake. Three more vehicles went into the lake during the following decade. On 16 May 2023 a vehicle carrying Ian and Fay Wright left the road and entered the water, where a submerged tree caught it and stopped it sinking further. Two people were taken to hospital.
In December 2025 the regional district's Area A director put the same stretch at the top of his annual list of road requests, describing a roadway on Irvines Landing Road that is crumbling into Mixal Lake. The curve was ninety years old at that point, still without a barrier, and still the only route to Lee Bay, Irvines Landing, Daniel Point and Coastview Road.
Nothing north of Garden Bay Lake is on the treated main here
The North Pender Harbour water system takes its supply from Garden Bay Lake and holds Hotel Lake in reserve as an emergency source that is not currently needed or used. Its published service list covers Garden Bay, Irvine's Landing, Daniel Point and Sakinaw Ridge. Mixal Lake appears in neither the source list nor the service list. Properties around the lake itself depend on wells, private intakes and their own pumps and treatment, which run unattended through the winter.
Fire cover comes from Hall 2 at 13303 Deller Road in Garden Bay, the closer of the district's two halls, with two engines carrying 1,600 US gallons between them and no tender at either hall. Routing on 12 September 2026 measured about 12.9 kilometres and 18 minutes from the lake to the Madeira Park centre, which puts Sechelt Hospital roughly 45 kilometres and 51 minutes off.
The highway contractor, Capilano Highway Services, works in a set priority order: the highway first, then major side roads, then bus routes, then steep paved roads, and flat and gravel roads last. Irvines Landing Road and the driveways off it sit well down that list. In February 2025 a ministry employee told a Garden Bay dialysis patient without power that the couple might want to consider living somewhere less remote.
What a check at Mixal Lake covers
The driveway entrance onto Irvines Landing Road, including sightlines and any slumping edge
Gates, doors, windows and outbuildings, with locks tried and the crawlspace checked
Heat holding at temperature, or the whole system drained and the valve confirmed shut
The well head, pump, pressure tank and any filter or ultraviolet unit left powered
The lake intake line and foot valve, where the property draws from the water
Dock, float, canoe and small boat, and the bank below the house after heavy rain
Roof, gutters and any tree leaning over the house or the overhead service drop
Generator, fuel supply and the freezer after any multi-day power interruption
A dated photographic record of every item, sent to you the day of the visit
Insurance policies on unoccupied dwellings usually name a fixed inspection cycle through the heating season, four consecutive days in a large number of wordings, carried out by a competent person, with the alternative of shutting the water off and draining the pipes. Companies write the clause differently, so check the version in your own policy rather than assuming the common one applies.
What it costs
A scheduled check at Mixal Lake is
$55 a visit, plus
$10 travel. The travel charge is the same
everywhere between Gibsons and Egmont. There is no minimum term and no joining fee.
See the full price list.
Where these facts come from
Every figure, date and quotation on this page was taken from one of these. They are
listed so you can read them yourself.
