The alarm went off at 4am to roll out of bed, eat a quick breakfast, break camp, and be on the water of Lake Champlain by 5:10am. Knowing that the lake can get rough, we planned to be out early. Any way we mapped it, it was going to be a long day of paddling. There were two different routes we could take and we opted to cut between the north and south islands.
The water at 5am was more choppy than it had been the previous night. I thought for sure we were in for a rough paddle. It remained fairly calm for our ferry crossing. The going was seemed easy. We cruised between the islands. There was supposed to be a culvert that we could use to cross back into the Alburg Passage, but as we stopped on the beach near it, it was clear that we were not going to paddle through it.
So much of Lake Champlain is private that it is hard to find a place to stop and rest. The beach we chose was not far from a house. A woman from the nearby cottage came over and greeted us. I thought she would tell us to leave, but instead she offered us her driveway to use to cross the road since the culvert was full.
Lake Champlain had only gotten calmer throughout the day and we decided instead to paddle along the shore and head for Swanton town beach. This meant that we would miss part of the Missisquoi, but we wanted to be sure that we made it across the lake safely. Weather like this was too good to be true.
It was a push for the last few miles. In total it was about 24 miles for the day. Visually everything looked so close on the lake, but it wasn’t. Mind tricks. I can’t wait to have my replacement paddle soon. A friend will bring it to us in Vermont. In the meantime, we have our spare wooden paddle that Calvin made, but nothing compares to 11 ounces of carbon.
(Calvin swapped with me often).
We wanted to portage into Swanton to get a room for the night, but the only motel was $135 a night. No other campsites were nearby either. Even though we arrived there at 12:30 and in theory could have paddled longer, we were pooped. We chose to stay and camp at the beach and enjoy a lazy afternoon.
