July 6, 2016
Crown Point, NY
I awoke this morning a bit later than usual. That’s because I was shaded from Sunrise, which wakes me up, plus we were up a bit late the night before. I made breakfast, broke camp and worked on the blog as I awaited my hosts, Ralph and Amy to wake up as well. I wanted to be sure to say goodbye after the wonderful evening we had.
We wished each other goodbye and they said I might see them again in Daytona Beach. If that happens, that will make three Lake Champlain connections that I will see again on the trip. I hit the water and paddled away from shore toward the point in the distance.
Today’s weather greeted me with light surf and a nice breeze. Still blowing on my nose, but as least it was no longer stagnant like yesterday. Since I was a good distance off shore and I had a late start, I decided to eat lunch in the kayak as I paddled. If the wind was blowing any harder, that would not have been possible.
Paddling on I passed a dock that had a large canopy on it. Looked like it was set up for a wedding. Next to that was some kind of camp or resort, but there were a lot of people having fun on the water. I paddled into the little harbor because I spotted a seaplane docked and I had been curious as to why there were not more people using them on the rather large lake. Leaving there I continued south along the Vermont Coast as the wind began to die down. On more than one occasion, I was moving faster than the sail boats out there.
I finally reached a beach I was planning on stopping at to cool off, but when I got there the water was stagnant and smelly. I met some folks on the shore who were complaining of the same thing. Oddly, not two hundred feet off shore, it was clear, but I decided to skip swimming and just paddle on south.
I reached my goal for the day, Elm Point so I began looking for a place to camp. One, two, three strikes. Everyone directed me to this beach around the next bay. DAR State Park was it’s name and so I headed there, but upon arriving, I saw that the campsites were very far from the beach. This means, I’d have to leave all my gear and the kayak while I hiked up the cliffs and camped well out of site of the kayak. That wasn’t happening, so I continued on.
Rounding the next point I saw her. Crown Point Bridge. I had watched the original one get blown up on TV years ago. Lexie and I had crossed the new one shortly after it had opened and now there it was in front of me. I’m nearing the end of Champlain.
As I got closer to it I saw a fisherman on Crane Point so I headed up to him to ask. He didn’t live there, but his fiancée’s parents did so he took me up to meet them. They were nice folks and we even shared some short stories, but they directed me to the campground under the bridge so I paddled on. Like the earlier campground, this one also did not provide for boats. Again, I’d have to leave it all at a busy boat ramp and camp out of view of it. I asked a camper if he knew of anyplace else, preferably one with cleaner water that I could swim in and not the muck at the launch ramp. He told me about a sandy beach back north and around the bend so I headed there. It was perfect. It was also illegal. I guess it’s time for some stealth camping. OK, perhaps I wasn’t too stealth about it, but I beached the kayak, washed up in the lake and then made dinner as I waited for night to fall so I could set up the tent and not attract attention. I struck out there because this was the spot to take sunset pictures so everyone came out here for that, but no one complained. I even got a few sunset shots myself and took pictures of a nice couple who were struggling with trying to take a selfie of them both. My tent set up, dinner done, laundry done. I guess its time to sleep. The weather is changing tomorrow and my dry spell will be over. Since this also means I might not see people sitting on their docks, I may have to switch to hitting marinas for camping these next couple of stormy days/nights.
Day five done.
Enjoy the pictures
