Kek Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Kek Lake pulls an A: clarity at 19.5 ft and phosphorus readings still being added put it in the top bracket for Minnesota. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

A TSI value of 34 puts Kek Lake in the oligotrophic range, where biological productivity stays low and the water column remains clear. The lake's 130 ft maximum depth is in the upper tier for Minnesota — deep enough for cold-water fish to find refuge in summer. Kek Lake is small — 55 acres alongside 1.3 miles of shoreline — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Among the 142 graded lakes in Lake County, Kek Lake ranks 18 — in the top quartile locally.

Kek Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2022, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The state fisheries records do not list documented species for Kek Lake, which usually reflects a lack of formal fisheries survey work rather than an empty lake. No formal public access is documented at Kek Lake — most use is by shoreline residents and their guests. Monitoring depth is thin here: the LakeGrade rubric is applied to a small number of sample years, and the grade will be revised as more data accumulates.