Paddlers: Bill, Bob, Bob, Stu
The day started at 5:30 so that I could leave my house in Cambridge, and meet my friends Bob Lindeman, Bill Green and Stu Lindsey at the Larrabees Point Fishing Access (Note: the access is public but is reserved for fishing people first, we did not catch anything the first day :( To reach the Access you get on Rt 22 in Vergennes, VT and head south to Shoreham, VT. Take a right onto Rt 74 and head towards the lake. Make a left onto Rt 73 south for a short ways .4 miles (there is a sign) to the fishing access rd on the right. It takes about 35 minutes from Vergennes (about 26.5 miles) to get to the fishing access parking lot.
Here we left one car and carpooled the kayaks in two cars down to the put in Whitehall, NY (about 31 miles). Take Rt 73 further south (right onto Rt 73 from access rd) to Rt 22a south to Fairhaven, VT. Get on Rt 4 West (right turn) and head towards Whitehall, NY. In Whitehall (after you drive over the canal) make a right at the light onto NY Rt 22 North and drive a mile or so (I forgot to measure it) to the fishing access. You will drive over a bridge spanning South Bay. There is a large sign for the parking lot entrance a bit down the road past bridge. It is about a 45-minute drive from Larrabees Pt.
Wohoo we are finally paddling about 9 am! We are starting on the first and longest paddle of the trip. Since all of us life farther north we wanted to make use of our driving time and paddle as much as possible today. The water in south bay is a bit murky, the air is humid and thundershowers are in the forecast but we are in all in good spirits. We are on the water for only a few minutes before we see our first of many great blue herons :) The lake at its southern end is narrow, only a few hundred feet across (300 - 500) and not very deep (15 - 20 feet). The Vermont shore is a wildlife sanctuary and we see many birds (we need a birder to help us identify them). We did positively identify an Eastern Kingbird. For the birds we did not identify by name it does not matter as I still enjoyed seeing them. Since the weather forecast was grim large boat traffic was down and we did not see many boats on the water (a dozen or so is all I remember). I found the scenery to be enjoyable and could easily spend hours in the evening hours taking photos of the wetland landscape. There were several signs of beavers and one very large beaver house along the way. The most interesting point was the Dresden Narrows, where the lake is very narrow only about 200 feet.
The weather has remained overcast, hot, humid and calm waters. We made our way to Bensons Landing where we stopped for lunch (about 10 miles). There is not much parking at this access point but would make for a shorter day if you could have someone pick you up. Here we all devoured our lunch and stretched our legs. I even worked on eating some of Bill's pretzels (from last year) in an effort to stretch my jaw muscles. Just offshore was a clump of cattail's with a great blue heron just hiding in them perfectly for a picture. I almost got a picture before he flew away but such is the nature of photography sometimes, I still enjoy the view in my mind.
The lake opens up a bit more at this point (only to narrow again in a few places) and we were all laughing and paddling away when a cool breeze blew in. It felt good but we knew it brought rain and waves with it. To stay out of the increasing headwind we all paddled over to the NY shore where it was a little bit more protected. This is when the north bound train came by, looks pretty neat from the lake, I assume the person waving at me in the window like the view they had. Of course it was starting to rain a bit at this point. Luckily there was open water next to the shore where there no weeds and we all scooted up the shore. If you see the GPS map I made you will see just how close to shore we were (only about 10 feet)! It is amazing how a simple point of land can block so much wind and as we reached the point we all thought it would be a good idea to dress for rain in the protection of the little point.
After rounding the point the wind did indeed pick up and down came the rain as if it waited just for us to put our gear on. However it did not last long and kind of came and went for the rest of the day. Luckily the thundershowers never happened so we never had to abandon the lake. The history of this part of the lake is fascinating and I will have to reread it myself. I have never been to Mt. Defiance, Mt Independence or Fort Ticonderoga but I am going to have to go back and visit them all. The fort especially looks neat from the lake, since they were all built to defend the lake to begin with. Bob pointed out the cliffs at Mt Independence where the shipbuilders would lower the masts down the cliff and fit them to the boat in the water. Back then the land was all cleared but now has all re-grown back to forest. We stopped for a quick snack before the last mile crossing of the bay to Larrabees Pt. Day One was a long 21 mile paddle and we all slept well that night :) Of course we are all looking to the next chance we get to do the next stretch. Till then happy paddling.