Isle LaMotte

Isle La Motte is an island in Lake Champlain. Sam Champlain camped here for a while in July 1609 (watch out for quadracentennial celebrants!), and it is the site of Vermont's first permanent European settlement. Teddy Roosevelt was here addressing the fish and game league when he learned president McKinley had been shot.

Isle La Motte is also home to the world's oldest known coral reef, ~450 million years. The reef is hundreds of miles long, but here's where it outcrops and is visible.

Last but not least, we paddled around it yesterday. It's about 15 miles around, with just a few hundred people, so being the first town didn't lead to being biggest.


Here at the put in we see I still have Mr. Twitchy the paddle. As you can see, it appears to be wrapped around my old Greenland Paddle... maybe that's got something to do with it's mysterious properties?


We landed to check out this statue of Samuel Champlain at his camping spot.


A couple of people had to confer on the route


Typical shoreline:


Sam from the local kayak dealer announced he was having a sail.


We lunched on Cloak Island, just off the south end of Isle La Motte. Much of the greenery is poison Ivy, so stay on the beach.

Fort Cassin

Over the years the Otter Creek has pushed enough sediment to form what looks like a canal with a levy on either side sticking out close to a mile from the shore of Lake Champlain.


Yesterday we launched at the Fort Cassin boat ramp, located at the base of this extension.


Fort Cassin was located out on the end, named for a navy Lt. Cassin in the war of 1812. Cassin commanded the fort with only 7 light cannon in a battle with British ships which were trying to prevent new American ships built upstream in Vergennes from entering the lake.
"The rapid discharge of the guns was repeated in echoes from the rugged steeps of Split Rock Mountain till it became a continuous roar." (I'd guess echos were from the Palisades cliffs) The engagement lasted about an hour, then the British withdrew.
The new ships were able to participate in the pivotal Battle of Plattsburgh. Between that and his role in the later battle Cassin was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor.

Our trip was a little less exciting, but had it's moments. Phelps brought a bunch of his paddles for us to try out. I got one I've named "Mr. Twitchy." The first stroke I took it dove and capsized me. Compared to my old paddle, it has a fine balance of enough cant to keep it from fluttering but not enough to make it slice down under the boat. It seems pretty fast though, and the white cedar has a nice look.

Jane and Phelps at a rest (& rolling) break with a couple of his paddles.

The diving mask on Phelps's boat was brought in case we went by Thompson's Point, where a bike he was riding fell through the ice last winter. I'm not sure if he had a plan to retrieve the bike and carry it on the kayak, or just look for it.

John and Frank


On the way back from the NY side, a group of large powerboats went flying by heading south. A few minutes later we could hear the wakes crashing against the palisades. Not quite like cannon fire, but pretty loud for being over a mile away. A few minutes after that the east bound wakes hit us for a little boost.

Quad cent

All up and down the Hudson Champlain corridor the buzz is on for the 400th anniversary of, well, Hudson and Champlain (up the river and down the lake, respectively). Champlain made so many trips to the new world (57 by one count) that local 400 celebrations are going to run for many years.

One event is an end to end paddle of Lake Champlain, 110 miles over 8 days. It looks like only 2 are going the whole distance, with others joining for 1 or more days as time allows.

4 of us locals joined in on Tuesday from Charlotte to Kingsland Bay.
The voyageurs approach. They spent the night camped at Shelburne Farm.


There was a slight delay because someone had locked his boat to a tree during the car shuttle, then left the key at the other end.

A bolt cutter made quick work of that. Actually the last bit of plastic sheath took longer to sever than the steel core.

The through-paddlers were more interested in shortest-distance than exploring every cove along the way.


At Kingsland park, Dave Miskell brought out lunch. An organic localvore's dream with Dave's lettuce, carrots, and peaches, local turkey, bread, 3 cheeses. The lemonade's not local... Vermont's citrus crop isn't doing well this year.


There was a voyage logbook that I think started in Quebec city in which we were all supposed to make entries. My glasses were back in Charlotte, so I couldn't read any of the early entries, but could see that many were in French.
It was accompanied by a replica of Champlain's astrolabe.

With the weather we've had, there haven't been much of any celestial sightings made with this lately.

After lunch us day-trippers went home and the rest continued to their next overnight camp at the Maritime Museum.

Call my kayak Adam

I've been using the skin on frame exclusively for a month or so. One thing that was a bit tight on the fit was getting my heel over a particular rib while getting in or out.
Building and rolling gurus Cheri and Turner said cut it out, one missing rib is no big deal. So I did.

I guess the Adam name is only appropriate if I use the cut out rib to build another boat. Anyway, exit and entry no longer require any chinese puzzle box tricks with ankle and foot.


A lot of people hoist their boats from the water when not in use, either with a frame mounted on a dock or the bottom. This hand crank used an old truck rear end and is hanging over the edge of a short cliff. Not rigged now, maybe it was replaced by the electric one nearby.

Charlie's Boathouse

Wednesday we started at Charlie's boathouse, a venerable institution at the northernmost point of Burlington's lakefront, it is at the end of a dirt road.
It was also at the end of the bikepath, before the bike bridge over the Winooski River was built. Many a parent has urged his kids on with a promise of a snack from Charlie's.



We were supposed to meet the rest of the club trip (9 boats) at the river mouth as they were launching from the state boat ramp a few hundred yards upstream. We were headed that way and saw them turn around and head back up the river. Later report was the lake looked too rough. Does it look rough in the picture? Some waves, but no whitecaps.

Tom called today suggesting a nooner trip. We headed into Shelburne bay and did some playing. Tom does a hand roll in his Turner-built SOF:


Then I worked on my upside down paddling.


That's actually one of the standard items for Greenland kayaking competitions.

CKC annual meet, signs of summer

Yesterday marked our annual Champlain Kayak Club meeting. For many members it is also their first time out paddling for the year as the water is finally warm enough that you don't need a wetsuit.

The afternoon started with tons of kayaks ready for launch.


Options at this point were a trip around Knight Island, or a strokes class from Todd Wright, who teaches kayaking (and other outdoorsey stuff) at a local college. He also brought their inventory of the new P&H boats for people to try out.

There was lots of "home made goodness." Here is Phelps with his Night Heron (white), and Paul with his stitch & glue boat.


In the last week Tom has been using the "Famed Zipper Boat." At least the references to this boat I've seen on the net all include the adjective "famed" so I'll use it too for consistency. It's a one-off with a carbon hull and a soft deck that uses drysuit zippers to access the front and back compartments.


Here North Hero Island narrows down to the width of the roadway, with this culvert allowing us access to the other side. I'm too tall to sit upright, and not enough width to paddle, but if you start with some speed you can coast through.



On return there was some time for roll-playing, swimming, etc, then the Coast Guard gave a general talk on water (& cold water) safety. People had a chance to set off their expired flares (sorry Bonnie, no pictures!) They were pretty visible in the daylight, but mostly useful to help someone find you if they are already looking for you. They are short lived enough (maybe 10-15 seconds) that they aren't too useful to attract potential rescuers if you're in trouble.

It was a dark and stormy morning.... didn't seem like a great day for the low volume SOF. Not that it isn't stable in waves, but it doesn't have enough volume to surf well and it's a bit discouraging to just be paddling downwind when the others are zooming into the distance.

Arriving at Kingsland Bay the sun is breaking out and temp up into the 70's. The plan is to head south, cross over to New York, keep going south to Barn Rock for lunch. THen go north along the New York shore to Split Rock and surf home on the wind predicted to shift to NW by afternoon.



Lunch was at the lean to across from Basin Harbor.


No sign of the Ol' Philosophizer who was supposed to be around this weekend. He might have done this stretch on Saturday.

On the short trail from the landing up to the lean to was this knee high orchid overlooking the lake. Anyone know the variety? (edit: lady slipper)



Heading north, the Palisades are as impressive as usual.


We ended up taking a beach break on the far side of Split Rock. I tried a few minutes of swimming to see how well the drysuit with just shorts and tee shirt inside protects from mid-40's water. The drysuit kept me dry, and the personal flotation device kept me flotated.. pretty comfortable overall, but if I was swimming from the middle of the lake to shore some gloves would be nice.

On the "surf" back from Split Rock we went by a couple of sailboats with their sails hanging limp, and as you can see, not much waves.


We got back to shore around 5:30 and could see the sailboats had started to move out on the broad lake. The Diamond Island weather station showed the wind kicked up from zero (when we were out there) to 15 knots by 6. Next time...