Lake Champlain

Lake Champlain has been on my list of places to kayak for a few years now. I was excited about paddling on this fresh water lake that is over seventy miles long and as much as 15 miles wide. Lisa and I headed up on a Friday evening and arrived at a hotel a little after dark just south of Burlington VT. We were planning on paddling the next day from St Albans to the “Cottonwood” site on Knights Island. The 185 acre island has only seven sites on it, all spread out on the shore.

We paddled the 6 miles from Kill Kare Point by Woods Island to our little private site on the Northern most point of the island. The winds were light and the boat traffic was light relative to what I would expect on Narragansett Bay for the same weekend. It was a very pleasant crossing

Upon arrival we set our tent up facing west on the pea-gravel beach. We could swim and sunbath “very casualy dressed” with the warm fresh water and the pleasant air temperatures. We were so relaxed we were thinking about staying a second night on the island. We walked a half mile of shoreline to the Ranger’s Station to try and pay for our site and inquire about it’s availiability for an additional night but there was no one to be found. We walked back by a trail down the center of the island. Our pace was quick as there was a preponderance of mosquitoes given the significant wetland acreage on the island.

We swam some more and cooked a lovely dinner on the camp stove. The sunset was beautiful and the stars were plentiful. I was awake to see a large and bright shooting star. It was part of the Perseid Meteor showers.

The next morning we woke to a stiff breeze. Our site was on the lee side of the island so it didn’t look like much. We made coffee and cooked breakfast (boiling water twice because some uninvited guests had slipped into the first pan of water). We hiked a 1.5 mile loop to the other side of the island and saw that the exposed side was experiencing a short wavelength 2 foot chop (and some more wonderful views from the thirty foot high cliffs).

We loaded the boats and paddled in the protection of the island as long as we could. We stopped and paid the ranger and talked with him and his family for a while. We decided to make the 5 mile crossing directly to Burton Island so that we’d take on the seas more directly with our bows. The loaded boats have the advantage of mass that keeps them from being knocked off coarse by the wind and the waves. I was extra careful to load them with the weight low to keep them uber-stable. We had chosen to head out early to avoid the seas building any more but as it turns out we would have been better off waiting as the breeze subsided a bit as the day went on.

We landed on Burton Island and relaxed and ate lunch. We were entertained by dozens of small frogs hopping around on the shore. One more mile of paddling got us back to the launch point in the mid afternoon.

The section of the lake we visited is a beautiful place to paddle. (It’s the only section we explored.) If you can get reservations through the Vermont state campground system to one of the islands (Knight or Woods) you’ll be delighted. Membership in the Lake Champlain Trails Association ($35) will get you information about a number of other first come first serve sites. We did not visit any of these but I’d be leary of these on a summer week-end.

Air 80, water 75. Sat winds light. Sunday winds 15+