Lake Champlain Land Trust Paddlers Journal

Lake Map and routes

Paddling Around Lake Champlain

Cathy and Margy
Margy and Cathy at the Port Kent Ferry dock, headed north to Plattsburgh's City Beach, 6/28/2004

Journal Entries
(Newest Entry 7/31/05)

A lone turtle
Lonesome turtle
South Bay

Fort Ticonderoga

April 5, 2005. The buds a on the trees are getting fatter, little ice remains, and a row boat awaits a warmer, gentler lake.

Two mallards swimming in the reflection of a mast of the Losi McClure.

Arnold Bay
The leaves are turning and the water is getting colder.

Burlington Bay
Heading to Juniper Island on a perfect September day.

Red Rocks
Exploring the Red Rock shore

Spiny Softshell Turtle
The turtle that held up a bridge, This turtle and several like it we found on the turtle platforms in Missisquoi Bay

Gunboat Philadelphia
Lake Champlain Maritime Museum

Crown Point Bridge

Eurasian Milfoil

Mary Poppins with a paddle?

460 million year old cabbage fossil.

Sophie the kayaking dog
Sophie getting a free ride

Margy Holden and Cathy Frank

Paddling Around the Shoreline of Lake Champlain and its Major Islands, Bit by Bit!

WE DID IT!

Finally, we have finished our circumnavigation of Lake Champlain and its major islands, a distance of close to 700 miles. But like a good book, finishing is bitter sweet. We really don't want to stop kayaking. So what's next - first we need to write our book and then we plan to kayak all the major rivers and creeks leading into Lake Champlain, as least as far as they are navigable from the lake.

We have observed the human life, wildlife, geology, weather, and where appropriate, reflecting on the extraordinary history that has transpired along the way. Always however, we have been taken by the shear beauty of this remarkably diverse landscape.

Most Recent Trips Appear First in this listing, however the actual journal entries are in chronological order and follow one another on this page for ease of reading. If you would like to start at the begriming of these shorter entries click START

(08/04/06) Woods Island - NEW - see below
(07/30/06) Four Brothers Islands - NEW - see below
(07/19/06) Watch Point to Chipman loop - NEW - see below
(07/13/06) Schuyler Island - NEW - see below
(07/07/06) Chipman Point - Benson Landing loop- NEW - see below
(07/06/06) Carry Bay - NEW - see below
(06/21/06) Port Henry to Westport- NEW - see below
(05/08/06) South Bay - NEW - - see below
(12/08/05) A Paddler's View of Water Quality - see below
(10/03/05) Perkins Pier, Burlington to Redrocks Point
(09/30/05) West Bridport to Ticonderoga
(09/19/05) Crown Point to Port Henry - Bulwagga Bay
(09/16/05) Cedar-Fishbladder-Savage Islands - Island Hopping
(09/08/05) Burton Island -So Close Yet So Far - see below
(09/01/05) Valcour and Crab Islands - An Historic Paddle - see below
(08/26/05) Where are We? - Why We Haven't Been Paddling -see below
(07/15/05) Mississquoi Bay - An International Experience - see below
(07/12/05) Incredible Cliffs - Westport to Essex
(07/07/05 Keeler Bay Revisited - see below
(06/27/05) Island Hopping - Knight and Butler Islands - see below
(06/24/05) The Southern Lake - Whitehall to Bensons Landing - see below
(06/20/05) Crown Point Bridge to Arnold Bay - see below
(06/14/05) A Short Paddle in a Mini Downpour - see below
(04/11/05) Spring is Finally Here - see below
(04/06/05) Daily Changes - The Osprey are Back - see below
(04/01/05) A Rapidly Changing Lake, Shelburne Bay - see below
(03/09/05) A Ferry Ride through the Ice - see below
(01/29/05) Lake Champlain Ice -see below
(01/09/05) A Winter Walk on the Malletts Bay Railway Causeway - see below
(12/30/04) Red Rocks Park, on Foot - see below
(11/06/04) Kayaks Stored for the Season - see below
(10/27/04) South Hero, Crescent Bay - see below
(10/07/04) Crown Point Bridge to Putnam Creek and back - see below
(10/01/04) Cumberland Head Ferry to Plattsburgh Beach and back - see below
( 9/30/04) Arnold Bay, Panton to Kingsland Bay - see below
( 9/22/04) Missisquoi Bay to HIghgate Springs - see below
( 9/20/04) Burlington, Juniper Island, Shelburne Bay - see below
( 9/13/04) Kingsland Bay to Little Otter Creek, VT - see below

Earlier Journals: These are longer articles which have their own separate pages.

(7/16/04) A Dramatic Day on Malletts Bay - Inner Malletts Bay
(7/12/04) The Charlotte/Shelburne Shore - Cedar Beach to Shelburne Beach
(7/09/04) Discovering Willsboro Bay - Port Kent to Willsboro Bay
(6/28/04) Paddling Through History - Port Kent to Plattsburgh City Beach
(6/25/04) The Maiden Voyage - Shelburne Beach to Shelburne Bay
(6/15/04) How Proficient at Kayaking Are We Anyway?
6/15/04) Introduc tion Summer 2004

(9/12/2004) After a long break from paddling, due to family visits and vacations, we are finally back on the water and feeling much the better for it, taking advantage of our glorious September weather.

(09/13/2004) We are now scheduling trips at a frantic pace, trying to get as many trips as possible completed before the weather turns too cold, too rough, or the days become too short for us to continue. As a result we are (obviously) hopelessly behind in our writing, as evidenced by the long list of "Coming Soon". So we are now trying to put a short paragraph up about each trip immediately after we complete it with the promise of a more detailed journal to follow...when the long Vermont winter sets in!.

(9/13/2004) Kingsland Bay to Little Otter Creek, VT ( 9 miles) New - This was the first day back to paddling after a month's layoff and we were rusty at everything. Our plan was to go from the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum near Basin Harbor to Kingsland Bay State Park starting early in the day. We got a later than planned start when Margy got delayed by telephone calls. When she finally got to my house she discovered she had forgotten her spray skirt, not something to be without on a day where the wind was forecast to increase to 10-20 MPH sometime in the afternoon. Our plans continued to deteriorate from there. On the drive down to Ferrisburg Margy took us down Spear Street Extension and somewhere close to Ferrisburg we crossed a 4 inch deep swath of what I though was mud that had run out of a farmer's dirt driveway in one of our many rainstorms. If only it had been just mud! Turns out it was more manure than mud and my car has not smelled the same since despite one trip to the carwash with a special undercoat washing! We could not find the original place we wanted to spot a car and when we got to Kingsland Bay State Park, our alternate site, we found it closed for the season and a big gate across the road. Fortunately for us we discovered the Ferrisburg Beach just down the road about 100 yards. By then it was time for lunch and the wind had already picked up to 10-20 mph from the south so we totally bagged our original plan, postponed lunch ( we hadn't done anything to earn it anyway except put the kayaks on top of the car) and decided to paddle out of Kingsland Bay and into Little Otter Creek and back again. That turned out to be the first smart decision we had made all day. With a strong tail wind we wandered around Kingsland Bay finding a beaver damn, a log full of turtles, an osprey nest and a beautiful overnight camping site designated as part of the Champlain Paddler's Trail. Once we rounded the point and headed north east toward Little Otter Creek we had the wind in our face but not much wave action. We had been so impressed with LIttle Otter Creek the first time we had been there (July 30) that we were hoping to return in the fall when migrating birds might be more in evidence. Perhaps it was the wind, be we saw no wildlife at all. The water was a little higher than when we had been there a month ago, but aside from that nothing had changed, including the wind. We paddled hard up the creek about a mile to the boat launch we had used in July, had a floating late lunch, turned around and paddled back. There were more turtles on the log on the way back. It would not be until the evening that I would notice how much my car smelled of manure!

(9/20/2004) Burlington, Juniper Island, Shelburne Bay (11 miles) New - This was perhaps the most glorious day either of us can ever remember being out on the water. The sky was blue, the wind calm, and the air warm and we had the lake to ourselves, it being a Monday in late September. After a quick look around Burlington Harbor, where we were dwarfed by the incoming ferry and outgoing tour boat, the Ethan Allen III, we headed straight our to Juniper. We were a little disappointed that the Lois McClure was not in port, as we pasted by her dock at Perkins Pier. We are still hopeful that we will catch up with her before the season is over. Despite it's checkered history, Juniper is a beautiful island with layers of "paint can" rock comprising its steep shoreline. "Paint Can" rock is my less than elegant but very function name for the gray slate rock drizzled with white calcite that one sees in great abundance along the Vermont side of the lake. Juniper is privately owned and there were people at the boathouse on the southeast shore so we did not stop dispute the fact that it was time for lunch. "Let's have lunch on Rock Dunder" said I naively!! It was impossible to get within 100 yards of Rock Dunder without being offended by its stench. Indian gods not withstanding, the gulls and cormorants had taken over and we were not going to challenge their habitat. So we had yet another floating lunch sharing Margy's lunch because mine was securely stashed away in the front waterproof hatch of my kayak. How useful! It was still so calm that the ferry far to the north looked like it was floating above the water and the distant northern horizon was hard to distinguish because the blue gray of the water matched exactly the blue gray of the sky. The contrails of the jets flying overheat reflected perfectly in the water. Burlington was spectacular from this distance and depending on where you were, you could frame it with Mt. Mansfield, or Camel's Hump in the background. We could have floated out there all day but we did have miles ahead of us and a deadline with which to get Margy back in time to go to work. As we approached Red Rocks I was wondering what the big deal was about this point of land. It was not until we got within 10-20 yards of the shore that I begin to appreciate the sheer beauty of the rocks. Despite many visits to Red Rocks Park by land I had never really seen the rocks for which the place is named. They are beautiful and we now have far more than enough pictures to prove it. As we paddled down Shelburne Bay hugging the west facing shore we passed the opening to the now infamous Potash Brook. There was a fairly large flock of Canada geese hanging out there, at least until we arrived, probably because of the nutrients flowing from the brook. LIkewise there was another group of geese at the opening to Monroe Brook further down the shoreline. Clouds suddenly appeared from nowhere although the wind did not pick up and we ended this beautiful day under the cover of gray sky but the memory of the incredible beauty of the morning will get us through many a dark winter day. (Back)

(9/22/2004) Missisquoi Bay to HIghgate Springs (18 miles) New - We went to Missisquoi Bay expecting to find the remnants of the toxic algae bloom that had kept humans and pets out of the water for most of August. Much to our surprise and delight the water was not covered with green goo. Now we need to learn what makes algae blooms go away. We saw the infamous and protected spiny soft shell turtles sitting on their specially built platform giving them a place to bask in the sun while the long delayed and much needed new Missisquoi bridge is being built. The day was spectacular, with lots of fall color displayed by trees close to the water. We saw many herons. There is a large rockery in the Missisquoi delta, but we saw no Canada geese or ducks to speak of. Perhaps the ducks noticed the duck blinds being put in place in preparation for duck hunting season. We saw one small group of cormorants, 5 to 10 birds in total. There were also a fair number of bass fisherman taking advantage of the incredible weather, although according to their reports, the bass were not cooperating. The lake level is so high that the shoreline appeared "squishy". It was impossible to tell where the water stopped and land started in the wide band of water reeds that buffer the shore. Margy played a game with the illusive shore, trying to paddle through as many reeds, and cutting as many corners as possible without running aground. Sometimes she would disappear out of sight only to pop out again down the shoreline. As a result of the water level, there were not many places to get out so we had a floating lunch, our lunches having been placed in an easily accessible place in our cockpits before we set off. No more locking them in an inaccessible kayak hatch! We have learned that lesson well! Margy noted that the last time she had been in this area the water level was lower and there were lots of exposed sandy beaches and sandbars. We paddled back from Highgate up Dead Creek to the Missisquoi River and then down the river to where we had left our car, a nice change of pace from paddling on the lake. (Back)

(9/30/2004) Arnold Bay, Panton to Kingsland Bay (15 miles) New - There are spectacular pockets of fall color on the lakeshore and the birds are migrating south in great numbers. We saw about 14 loons today as we paddled from Arnold Bay to Kingsland Bay. As we paddled around Button Bay, wave upon wave of Canada geese flew in, honking loudly, until there were perhaps a thousand of them feeding in the bay. Further north we saw an equal number of cormorants. We also spotted an otter, a mink, a mole and one kayaker going the other way. We shared a special unspoken camaraderie with the kayaker that we three alone were out enjoying this most incredible fall day on the lake, in a way no one in a larger boat could appreciate. At the Maritime Museum we stopped to look at the gunboat Philadelphia and found ourselves directly in the line of sight of it's largest gun. When hailed by the gunboat guide and asked if we were "friend or foe" , we quickly answered "friend", realizing the vulnerability of our position. It is clear that the sun is making its arc further south in the sky, the days are getting shorter, the water is clearly getting colder but we are hoping for at least one more week, perhaps two, of paddling. Tomorrow we head to Cumberland Head. (Back)

(10/1/2004) Cumberland Head Ferry to Plattsburgh Beach and back (10 miles) New - Another day of "light and variable" winds predicted for this short 10 miles round trip to complete the south and east facing shores of the Cumberland Head peninsula. The trip from the ferry to the beach was relaxing, with a freshening tail wind most of the way and punctuated by the presence of a large flock of Canada geese and snow geese on the beach and swimming in the shallow water. They flew away when we approached, about 500 of them, with the snow geese, about a third of the flock, flying above the canada geese. Is there a pecking order here or just self imposed segregation? The wind picked up dramatically from the SE as we headed back 4 miles directly into it. The closer we got to rounding the point of Cumberland Head the stronger the wind became. White caps abounded and most waves were 2 feet or greater -" light and variable" indeed! The wind is a witch! It was clearly time to make us pay for those three days of glorious clear, calm days of fall paddling. Rounding the point placed us before the wind and it was a wild ride the half mile back to the ferry dock. Several times, independently, we both thought we were going to take an unplanned swim. The water temperature is now 61 and we are both wearing old windsurfing wetsuits. I kept looking back at Margy to make sure she was upright. She could more easily see if I was or was not upright but I am not sure what either of us could have done to help the other, short of meeting on whatever shore we washed up on. By 2:30 that afternoon Margy reported from her vantage point on the shore of Grand Isle that the wind had subsided and there were no whitecaps in sight. Did we imagine that rough ride? The pile of wet kayaking clothing and gear in the back of my car says "No Way ". Note: I just learned from reading the Cruising Guide to the Hudson River, Lake Champlain & the St. Lawrence River, that "in a southerly blow, the maxi um wave height will be encountered near Cumberland Head." I don't think either of us will argue with that statement. (Back)

(10/7/2004) Crown Point Bridge to Putnam Creek and back (14 miles) We leap frogged over some shoreline we have not paddled yet, choosing a loop route, starting on the New York side of the Crown Point Bridge and paddling south to Putman Creek, east across the lake where it is only half a mile wide, then north along the Vermont shore back to the Crown Point Bridge. There were a lot of advantages to this strategy, the most enticing being that we did not have to drive two cars and spot one at the end of our route. We also wanted to see if the snow geese and Canada geese were congregating just off VT Route 17 around the Dead Creek area as they do each October on their way south. We saw only one large flock of snow geese in the field as we drove by both coming and going. Today's trip was interesting and very different from what we had become accustom to. The lake is not only narrow below the bridge, it is also quite shallow. The channel is 20-27 feet deep and only half a mile wide at its widest point. We stayed close to the shoreline which was quite shallow (2-10 ft deep), and filled with eurasian milfoil in most places. Also the water was quite murky. In the northern part of the lake it is murky after a heavy rain particularly around the mouths of major rivers and of course if there is an algae bloom but rarely so other times. There had been no recent rain to cause this murkiness. However this part of the lake is surrounded by rich farm land, and good size farms. Indeed there was a faint, and sometimes not so faint, smell of manure everywhere. Margy said she could also smell the arid odor of the paper plant at Ticonderoga, about 7 miles south. I did not smell it until I could see it. As with our last paddling day of forecasted "light and variable winds", this day also presented us with a 15 MPH south wind just as we were starting out. As with our Cumberland Head trip the wind eventually diminished and then died down, after, of course we had stopped paddling into it and turned north hoping for a significant boast and free ride. The wind is still a witch. The west shore has many little unnamed points of land, points that provided us a short respite from the south wind. We stopped briefly in the lee of each for a short rest and to complain about the added resistance of paddling through the eurasian milfoil. It was like paddling through sticky spagetti. (OK, so I have never paddled through sticky spagetti, so I don't really know. But I have a good imagination.) We did discover that there was sometimes a 10 yard band directly off from shore where the milfoil was not as thick. We are not sure why but we took advantage of it. Thanks to the milfoil there was no cutting corners this day! WE followed that clear band where ever it led us. We saw three flocks of geese flying north. We wanted to tell them that they were going the wrong way but they seemed to know what they were doing even if we didn't. We saw 6 or 7 heron along the along the shore, and many ducks. We passed two people filling their small boat with duck hunting equipment. They asked where we were going ( Putnam Creek) and commented that there were lots of duck hunters down that way but then reflected that we would probably not encounter them midday. It made me stop to wonder if paddling in duck hunting season presented any dangers to us, as their statement had implied. We certainly didn't look like ducks even from a distance! But then again maybe we would prematurely flush out some ducks that the hunters were watching. In the end we decided that if the weather holds for us one more week we will paddle the deep west shore between the Essex ferry and Westport where ducks will probably not abound, and stay out of the way of the duck hunters. They deserve their turn too. The color was still spectacular. We shared the lake with only three other boats; one duck hunting boat , one sailboat, mast un-stepped, heading south for warmer winter waters, I suspect, and one intrepid sailor enjoying, as we were, the beauties of Lake Champlain in the fall. It is a special time to be paddling. (Back)

(10/20/2004) Despite two glorious days last week and now this wonderful, warm, calm Wednesday, we have not been able to get back out on the water. We are very frustrated, but the real world keeps intruding on one or the other of us. The water temperature is now 55 F and the nights are consistently in the 30s and we feel limited in our choices of where to paddle because of duck hunting season but we are determined to get one last kayak in this fall. Neither of us dreamed we would be kayaking this late in the season but I think part of us is drawn to the challenge of paddling in these colder conditions. The late October lake is different than the warm summer one but it still holds a spell on us we cannot seem to shake. Perhaps tomorrow!

(10/27/2004) South Hero, Crescent Bay (3 miles) We retraced our steps on this short trip but it felt so good to get back on the water after a two and a half week period of not being able to take advantage of many glorious fall days. The south facing shore protected us from a changeable 5-10 MPH NW, N, and NE wind for the most part, and the sun even tried to poke through the clouds as the late afternoon progressed. Margy arrived wearing rubber rain boots her granddaughters had given her, thinking they would keep her feet warm when we waded into the water. She looked more like Mary Poppins with a paddle then my kayaking partner. The west end of Crescent Bay, and Phelps Point have a good collection of fossils in the vertical rocks. There are even a few of the 460 million year old cabbage type fossils found at Goodsell Ridge in Isle La Motte. With no waves to worry about, we could really hug the rocky shore and look at the fossils. And with the water level now at the lowest point it has been all season (95.51ft.), almost 2 feet lower than it was in August and early September, we saw zebra mussels attached to exposed rocks and many more on the rocks just below the surface. As we rounded Phelps Point and headed north a short distance we came upon the largest duck blind we have ever seen on the lake. It is a permanent blind made of large rocks. There are even fossils in the rocks! It looks more like a WW II coastal fortress than a duck blind. As we headed back around Phelps Point and east along the sandy shore of Crescent Bay, my irrepressible 9 pound dog Sophie insisted on following us . She raced along the shore to keep up with our paddling progress. It reminded me of the people who exercise their dogs by allowing them to run along side their bikes. This was not exactly what we had in mind however and before we got to White's Beach where the road is close to the shore I paddled in and retrieved her. She was delighted to get in the kayak. She hates to be left behind as she has been so many times this summer, and for good reason. She likes to sit up tall in my lap and watch for birds and that puts her head in the way of my paddle, forcing me to hold my arms about a foot higher than is comfortable or efficient. And sometimes she gets over exuberant when she spies a duck or gull and I have to bribe her with a treat (always present in my life jacket pocket) to keep her from jumping into the water. The shore line was devoid of swim rafts and boats on hoists ( this shore has far too much wind exposure to simply anchor a boat in the water) and all the water lines had been taken in for the winter. We did passed one old waterline one end of which was floating on the surface. I tried to convince Margy it was a mini "Champ" but she was unwilling to stretch her imagination and instead accused me of being full of nonsense (well, actually she had a more descriptive term). It is amazing how different one location on the lake can look and feel in different seasons, or even different weather conditions. Each paddle we take is so different, even when we retrace our steps. It is proving hard for us to give up this paddling season up. I wonder if there is an "iceboat" equivalent for kayaks? Now that is an idea, a kayak that sits on blades, similar to an iceboat, and paddles that have spikes on the blade edges that could grip the ice. Then again cross country skiing or snowshoeing would probably be more efficient.(Back)

(11/6/2004) Alas, We Put the Kayaks Away today, a for a little while at least. Neither of us is willing to say we will not kayak again until May but we are able to agree that we will probably not get back into the water until after the first of the year. That does not mean we have abandoned "our" lake (we've taken ownership over the course of the summer.). Indeed neither of us can put it out of out minds. I still find myself checking the weather and Marine Forecast each morning before I read my email. And I still look at the lake each day with a kayaker's eye ( what is the wind doing today?) when I am able to grab a view at whatever distance. Yesterday as the wind gusted to 30 MPH from the NW , and snow squalls swept across the lake, with streaks of bright silver light shining in isolated areas on the water in between snow clouds, I thought the lake had never looked so beautiful and dynamic. I was very thankful I was not out on it however.

The other day I went back to Crescent Bay. It had been almost two weeks since we last kayaked there. The shoreline and water looked deserted at first glance but in fact life abounded. There were at least 2 dozen ducks feeding in the water along the shore. Further east the same number of Canada geese did the same although they immediately flew away when Sophie the fearless, raced down to let them know it was her beach they were intruding on. And almost as a buffer between the two flocks, there were about 100 gulls also feeding close to shore. Closer to White's Beach two wind surfers, raced up and down the shore. One can almost determine the strength of the wind by whether there are wind surfers present. They do not go out until the wind reaches 20 MPH. Despite their sturdy looking wetsuits I got cold looking at them. There was one lone kayak on the beach but far from the water's edge, implying its owner had not ventured out in several weeks, before the water level dropped still further. (Back)

The Winter Lake, Reflections and Travels - Continued on page 2.

Page: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7

Saving Our Lakeshore and Natural Areas
Lake Champlain Land Trust One Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401 802.862.4150 or info@LCLT.org