Lake Champlain is dotted with islands, and islands are best viewed from the water. This natural rock formation looms over paddlers on tiny Cloak Island.
My sweetheart Marilyn and I explored the islands of northern Lake Champlain, in late June seeking a relaxing mid-week getaway. We found it. If you look on a map, you’ll see why. The Champlain islands are nestled in a triangle with Montreal the northern point, Interstates 87 and 89 forming the two long sides with Plattsburgh and Burlington at the two southern points. Between, there’s quiet
My original plan was to paddle my 17-foot Aquaterra sea kayak from one comfortable inn to another in a large loop among the islands (Isle LaMott, Grand Isle, North Hero and Hog Island while Marilyn (who hadn’t yet discovered that she absolutely LOVES paddling) ) drove our car. We stayed one night each at the Tabor House Inn (802-868-7575;www.taborhouseinn.com) in Swanton, Thomas B. Mott B&B (800-348-0843; www.thomas-mott-bb.com) in Alburg, Ruthcliffe Lodge (802-928-3200; www.ruthcliffe.com) in Isle La Motte, and Shore Acres Inn (802-372-8722; www.shoreacres.com) in North Hero—each very different but all quiet, clean, comfortable and welcoming, with beautiful lake views. If you find these four inns on the map, you’ll see that paddling one to the next would make a wonderful adventure.
Alas, two days of howling north wind and large, choppy waves made travel by kayak on the big lake impossible. But I still got to paddle.
The Missisquoi River Delta on Lake Champlain is a beautiful place to hide from the north wind. That’s the town of Highgate Springs to the right on shore—straight ahead is Quebec, Canada.
One blustery morning, I met up with Catherine Frank and Margaret Holden, two adventurous women who are about to publish “A Kayaker’s Guide to Lake Champlain” (Black Dome Press;www.blackdomepress.com). They knew just where to go to avoid the tearing wind—the Missisquoi River delta, including the Missisquoi River and Dead Creek which flows through the Missisquoi Wildlife Refuge (www.fws.gov/refuges/profiles/index.cfm?id=53520) .
Despite its name—which comes from its lack of current, not from any lack of life along its banks—Dead Creek was very much alive on this early summer morning. Ospreys, eagles, terns and swallows galore soared overhead, herons hunted along the banks and birds sang in the trees. We saw frogs and turtles, large freshwater mussels inching long in muddy shallows, deer and raccoon tracks on the sandy shorelines. I can’t imagine a nicer place for a wildlife lover to paddle on a windy day.
When the loudest noise in your world is the call of a loon at sunrise, you know you’ve found a quiet place. This loon joined me for a paddle on Lake Champlain.
Another morning, after the wind finally blew itself out, I got to taste the deep, ancient silence of the lake itself. I’d paddled out from Isle La Motte to watch the sun rise over the Green Mountains. The human world was still asleep. Natural sounds were everywhere: the lap of waves on the shore, the whisper of the ever-present wind, the calls of loons, seagulls, ducks, geese and the songs of hundreds of land bird drifting out from the islands. The only man-made sounds were gurgle of water swirling off the blade of my paddle and the hiss of water against the hull. It was easy to imagine how quiet the lake must have been when Samuel De Champlain “discovered” Lake Champlain 400 years ago (the Native Americans knew it was there about 10,000 years before that). On this sunny Friday morning, I enjoyed nearly two hours alone before the first motorboat unleashed a flood of noise to drown the peace. I was ready for breakfast anyway . . .
Life isn’t a spectator sport. Get out and enjoy!
PADDLE OR PEDAL?
If you don’t happen to like paddling, be sure you bring your bikes if you visit Lake Champlain. Alburg and the Champlain Islands are laced with “official” bike routes but all the back roads are wonderful for a leisurely bike tour. Marilyn and I rode a complete circuit of Isle La Motte on our tandem bike in an easy hour and a half with stops along the way at the Fisk Farm (art gallery), the Chazy Reef (the oldest exposed coral reef in the world). You could, in fact bike from inn to inn (ask the innkeepers about possible luggage transfers if you don’t want to ride loaded.
There are also two absolutely spectacular rail trails in this area. The Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail (www.mvrailtrail.com), which I wrote about earlier, starts in St. Albans. From there it winds 26.4 miles northeast to the town of Richford, Vermont, right on the Canadian border. It’s perfect for an all-day outing with lunch in either Richford or Enosburg Falls.
The other great bike path in this neighborhood in the Island Line Rail Trail (www.localmotionvt.org/islandline) which runs 12 miles along the waterfront from Oakledge Park just south of Burlington north to Colchester and out, literally across the mouth of Malletts Bay on a causeway made of huge limestone blocks. The views are breathtaking
Most of the time, you have to stop at what’s called “The Cut” a 200-foot gap in the causeway. In August, on weekends, they run a bike ferry across the cut, which allows you to ride all the way into South Hero and farther on the Champlain Islands if you so desire. We’d already pedaled the Island Line from Burlington to The Cut a couple of times, once on solo bikes, once on our tandems. So we got up early one morning, pedaled out to The Cut from the South Hero side, then spent the rest of the morning exploring South Hero by bike—wonderful adventure!
PADDLE TRAILS
My intended paddle route among the Champlain Islands and the Missisquoi River are a part of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail (www.northernforestcanoetrail.org) a 740-mile-long canoe route which starts in Old Forge, New York and ends in Fort Kent, Maine. Champlain is a wonderful place to start section-paddling the trail, which enters the lake on the Saranac River at Plattsburg, New York and threads its way among the islands and up into the Missisquoi. The Trail committee publishes detailed, annotated and useful maps not only of the Champlain section, but also the entire route.
Since I was there, I’ve also discovered that there’s an official Lake Champlain Paddle Trail organized by the Lake Champlain Committee (802-658-1414; www.lakechamplaincommittee.org) a $40 membership get you a copy of their very detailed guidebook.
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Tim Jones, Founder and Executive Editor, started skiing at age 4 and hasn't stopped since. In the summer, he hikes, mountain bikes, paddles and fly fishes. In addition to his work at EasternSlopes.com, Tim also writes a pair of syndicated weekly newspaper columns, Active Outdoors and Eastern Slopes, and is Managing Editor of The Angling Report. He lives with his sweetheart Marilyn in New Hampshire with 25 ski hills within easy day-trip distance. 
