Hey Dopers!
My true blave and I are leaving next Saturday for a week of west and wewaxation at wong wast. We really really want to rent a canoe for four or five days and paddle down some lazy river. (No rapids or whitewater – this is ostensibly her first ‘real’ camping experience). But where?!
I’ve made a few trips in the Delaware Water Gap area, but would like to head to upstate New York, maybe the Adirondacks or such. My uncle owns a B&B in the Hudson River Valley, so we may hit them on the way back. But we are also up for Vermont or New Hampshire, or out to Virginia, Penn, West Virginia…. wherever we find the right place (though more northerly destinations will have less bugs). We’re renting a car Friday night, so basically anywhere within ten or so hours of Washington, DC is reachable. All we need is a canoe, some maps and shuttle service. We have all the camping equipment we need.
So any suggestions? Any good stories, scuttlebutt, or horrific tales? Good Deliverencesque anecdotes? No, wait, skip the Deliverance stories until after we get back. Anyone know where we can go?* To sweeten the pot, if we take you up on your suggestion (and we survive) I’ll send you the SD T-shirt or Mug of your choice as long as I get to pick them out. *
Lookin’ forward to hearing from you!
Rhythmdvl
PS well, where to put this? GQ or MPSIMS? Or the new IMHO? Well, it is a question, but could quickly devolve into an MP/IMH. I’ll stick it here and promise Manny a postcard if he thinks I chose wrong.
Almost anywhere up in that area is going to be nice this summer. Of course, there’s a bumper crop of rattlesnakes and coral snakes this year because of the millions of rats carrying lyme diseased ticks. Alien abduction reports in that area are still coming in. And a higher than normal incidence of bear attacks, but if you can outrun your true blave, you ought to be safe from the bears. Take lab quality raingear. The rain up there is almost pure sulphuric acid, but this is good because it keeps most of the psychotic paramilitary groups busy cleaining their automatic weapons instead of tending their man-traps which will probably be rusty by the time you hike through.
Have a great trip. Write if you survive.
Aloha
Tom’s travel agency
“paranoid travel service since 1989”
I grew up in the Adirondacks, but never did much camping, so I’ll go with the simple suggestions.
I’m not sure if you’re looking for one long river that you can paddle up and down over the course of several days, but if you are, you’re probably out of luck. Most of the rivers up there drain from the mountains into Lake Champlain, and thus do not offer rapids-free navigation for long stretches. There may be segments of the Ausable or Saranac Rivers that would be ok for you for a day’s paddling, but not much more than that.
My suggestion is to do some paddling around Lake Champlain. The southern half, near Whitehall, NY, has a number of small bays and coves that would make for good exploring. The lake narrows significantly down there, so boat traffic shouldn’t be too significant, and it’s a pretty sleepy area, even in the summer. I don’t know how prevalent state campgrounds are there, but a few minutes of research on the internet should yield good results. I wouldn’t plan too much on doing wilderness camping along the lake shore. There shore is mostly rocky, not sand, so pitching a tent is not going to be easy, and most of the waterfront land is privately owned.
Other possibilities-- Boat traffic in and around Plattsburgh, NY is likely to be too annoying. Just north of Plattsburgh, near the Canadian border, the lake will quiet down again, although I’m not really sure how much there is to see up there. However, I found an interesting link for the “Paddler’s Trail” that seems to point out several campsites in Vermont for the northern half of the lake.
The Saranac Lake/Lake Placid area is nice, but liable to be quite crowded during the peak of summer. You might also consider checking around some of the smaller lakes in the area-- Schroon Lake near Pottersville, NY seems to be a nice, quiet area and big enough to support a few days of exploring, but I don’t know how practical camping there is.
Hope this helps.
You might want to try the New River…which ironically is one of the oldest rivers in America. It offers several differant styles of rafting. The New runs from West Virginia to Virginia and into Carolina.
Here is a canoeing company link in Carolina
http://www.canoethenew.com/
You just keep believing that. As the mosquites pick you up and bear you and your love off to their mountain hideaway, just keep repeating, “At least we’re up north where there aren’t so many bugs.” In my experience, the farther north you go, the worse the mosquitoes will be.
I’ve gotta agree with Asmodeus–the New River is awesome. The canoeing beginning just up the river from Blacksburg, VA is incredibly pretty, and the river is, by and large, tame. There are a few small rapids that you’ll need minimal piloting skills to get through. As the New exits the mountains of West Virginia, the terrain becomes less extreme, so everything downriver from there can only be considered somewhat of a challenge for those with NO experience in a canoe–like your blave. If it gets too tough, just portage around the rapids you don’t think you can handle.
One note of caution, though–there is a flood control dam about 26 miles upriver from Blacksburg that opens its gates at 3 o’clock every day. In Blacksburg, the river rises by about a foot and can get pretty intense around 4 o’clock–so be out of the water by then.
Hope your trip is a happy and un(bad)eventful one.
May I recommend the Tinnerman River, in Ontario, emptying into (I believe) St. George Bay? I’m not sure how to arrange the trip if you’re not a Boy Scout (the major canoe base is owned by the BSA), but it’s beautiful scenery, clean water, and easy going, if you plan your trip right-- My troop did just over 50 miles in a week, and it wasn’t too tough, although you’ll have strong arms by the end of it. The only caution I would add is that if you go, bring a sealed tent that you can zip up completely-- If you’re not inside between about 8 PM and dawn, you’ll get eaten alive. During the day, though, you’ll only see two or three skeeters a day.
Oh, yeah, and wherever you go for it, bring a camp stool with a hole cut in the middle, or some similar improvisation. You’ll be glad you did.