Destination Recreation: Paddler's Trail

JOHNSON, Vt. -

You've heard of hiking trails and biking trails, but what about a paddlers trail?

There's a new effort in Vermont to create them,with good reason!

We have great rivers and paddling is a sport that's popular in these parts.

According to the state's comprehensive recreation plan:

Two out of five people in Vermont participated in boating-related activities.

The preferred type of craft was the canoe, with over one in five people having canoed in the past year.

Noah Pollack and Seth Bosman are both very comfortable handling a canoe. This stretch along the Lamoille River, just off River Road in Johnson is a favorite spot for these avid paddlers!

"This is one of the more photogenic spots along the Lamoille. It's kind of the waterfall that many folks don't know about," says Pollack, of the Vermont River Conservancy.

That's a problem if you're a canoer or kayaker who doesn't know Sloping Falls is here.

This is a pretty dangerous spot. People have died here in the summer at low water," says Pollack

"In this area we built a portage trail around Sloping Falls where's there's a dangerous sieve so that enable people to do this stretch of river without doing the hard rapid," says volunteer Seth Bosman.

Seth says, a handful of volunteers did some heavy lifting to move the rocks that line this path. It was priority number one for the new Lamoille River Paddler's Trail being established and maintained by the Vermont River Conservancy.

They're putting up signs to mark the spots along the river where there are portage trails, including one farther up from here at Dogs Head Falls. You can find it on an interactive map on a new website that Seth helped make.

"For example, if you were to click on this location sloping falls, you would see that there's a nice portage trail here. You would see that there's a dangerous sieve that you need to portage around. So it tell you the safety information. The level of paddling it is and where it is," says Bosman.

You'll also find primitive campsites like Teeter Totter. It's the first one they built after getting the private landowners permission. Noah says, their goal is to have campsites every five miles along this 80 mile river.  

"There are so many wonderful places to paddle along the Lamoille River!," says Pollack.

Experienced paddlers are already starting to get out on the rivers. Noah says, if you're newer to the sport, you should stick to flat water and maybe even use a service to help.

Some of the most popular spots are near Cambridge. There are several outfitters including umiak outfitters and burt's boats that will provide shuttling services for people which is really convenient. And it's flat water and beautiful flood plain forrest and lots of sand banks to land on to swim or go fishing from," says Pollack.

Noah hopes, the new paddlers trail will give people a better chance to get out on the Lamoille River for multi day trips this summer.

This Wednesday, there's a volunteer opportunity and a celebration for the Lamoille River Paddlers' Trail.

You can help build a public river access at near Landmark Tavern in Johnson in the afternoon.

Then at five p.m. they'll be paddling a small portion of the river and ending back at the tavern for a party and presentation.

Please get in touch with Noah at the River Conservancy to let him know you're coming!

Source: Destination Recreation: Paddler's Trail