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November 28, 2009

Authors circumnavigated Lake Champlain in kayaks

Authors helpful in planning Lake Champlain kayak trips

By JERRY McGOVERN

DID YOU KNOW?


You can now view Calendars of Events for today and upcoming weeks? A complete and up-to-date list of local events is now available on every section of PressRepublican.com.

It's time to put the kayak away.

The thermometer is dropping, the leaves have fallen, the ice is coming. It will be 2010 before it's safe and pleasant to paddle Lake Champlain again.

What's a kayaker — veteran or novice — to do during the dark winter when the paddles are stowed and the craft is in the garage?

Plan next year's trips. Sit near a fire and ask yourself, "What parts of the lake do I want to explore next year? What familiar areas do I want to visit again?"

Catherine Frank and Margaret Holden, authors of "A Kayaker's Guide to Lake Champlain: Exploring the New York, Vermont & Quebec Shores," can help you find the answers. They list 50 trips, 16 that originate on the New York shore, 34 that begin in Vermont. Each trip has an eight-item summary: launch site; distance; take-out; alternative launch sites; places to stop; highlights; route; comments.

Following the summary, the authors provide a description — with photos — of the day they did that trip, as well as the history and geological and/or ecological idiosyncrasies of the route. They are practical, clever and scholarly. For example, the nine-mile voyage in South Bay, near Whitehall, describes not only the cliffs that are visible, but even a bit of the sex lives of turtles that inhabit the area.

The writing is clear, the observations intelligent, the research impressive. Each description gives readers the necessary information to decide if they would enjoy the trip and what they would encounter along the way. Comparing their descriptions to my memory of trips we've shared, I wish I'd read Frank and Holden's accounts before I started out.

There's also an excellent bibliography, glossary and listing of launch sites on Lake Champlain.

"A Kayaker's Guide" is the product of the authors' circumnavigation of Lake Champlain, accomplished over three summers. What they learned in those 750 miles and additional research makes for a wonderful book. What they've written will help the shore-bound paddler get through the winter and have a better season on Lake Champlain next year.

E-mail Jerry McGovern at: jmcgovern@pressrepublican.com

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