R-2016-9-1
Start: Lawyer’s
Landing “Campsite”
End: Stealth
site near first Mill Rapids right out of Richford.
On the
Way:
Enosburg, Missiquoi River, Richford
Miles: IDK,
I’d have to look, but not very many…
Map: 5
Weather: Overcast,
then sunny!
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| Map 5: Enosburg Falls, VT, to Mansonville, Que. |
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| Trail Overview |
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| Some cute river-side mushrooms. The summer was ripe for mushrooms and, for some reason, spiders. Webs were strewn from nearly every tree. |
Stealth night #2—I’m having a rough string of campsite
luck! I know I should be saving my
stealth kharma for later on, when the official campsites will be few and
far-between, but I tried to make it
to the Coonses’—an NFCT-friendly family homesite. Honestly, I tried. It was just on the verge of getting dark, and
I was already kind of stumble-punchy from all the rapid-lining and
sandbar-dragging I did today. The
Missiquoi, it turns out, continues to be bony, swift, and going the opposite
direction from where I want to go. That’s
fine: it was here first.
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| In Richford, VT! Where the Missiquoi was once powerful enough to run a fleet of mills and factories. |
All the documentation and the nice NFCT rep I talked to on
the phone today (called in to let them know that the Richford kiosk was out of
sign-in sheets) made the Coons site seem super-obvious, but despite keeping a
sharp eye out, I missed it. I must have
stumbled up and down this half-mile of bank three times looking for it, with my
boat pulled up on a rocky shore. Maybe I’ll
look again in the light, just to be able to say I found it…
But yeah, lots of lining with more due ahead. It’s how one deals with rapids, plus water
moving too fast to paddle against, when going upstream, and there’s a lot of it
in our future through Vermont, Quebec, and New Hampshire. Then, in Maine, it’s sweet downstream. Not that things won’t also be bony, but at
least there will be no current to battle.
What’s more, they say campsites there are much more plentiful, meaning
you don’t have to squat like a fugitive in a hammock in a cornfield like I am
tonight. (It’s not so bad: I found a
little stand of trees that’s very in-grown from having all the fields around it
constantly shorn, so this little red oak has quite the umbrella shape.) Plus in Maine, the bodies of water are
larger, so you change less frequently, so fewer carries! All the guidebooks have got me anticipating
it like it’s the Big Rock Candy Mountain or something.
Teton was taking a long time getting started at Lawyer’s
Landing this morning, so I left. Sun’s
up, I’m paddling, as long as it’s warm enough.
I hope he isn’t feeling ditched.
I don’t want to make him feel bad, but we did both set out to do this
trail solo, and I don’t want to impose.
Solo paddling is nice, granted, but camping alone gets old. Which is why I’m so pissed about missing the
Coons! It would have been a nice change
to interact with a genuine Trail family.
Tomorrow, I venture into Canada for the first time!
Things
Learned:
+ Lining is a skill, like any other. I’m getting better at it, endurance-wise, but
it’s still a good idea to stop for the evening when I’m starting to feel stumble-drunk,
for safety’s sake.
+ Dieter das Boot WILL swamp if broadsided in a rapid, it
turns out.
+ People are bad at signage ‘round here. But they do try.
Trail
Magic:
+ Saw a ~14 inch snapping turtle on the muddy river bottom
in the farmlands right past Enosburg.
Made me feel real confident about trudging through the mud when the boat
gets stuck…
+ Took a long lunch when I got to the lovely Davis Park in
Richford. Spread out my soaked sleeping bag
and gear in the sunny grass and FINALLY got it all to dry! Gotta love space-age synthetics. Also got to have a nice chat with the owner
of the lovely Gray Gables B&B, who is a Boston native, a fine fellow, and a
friend of the Trail.
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| The Gray Gables. Some NFCT paddlers make a point to stay here. I was too smelly and unkempt at this point to even consider venturing into a house so nice. |
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| The Great Gear-drying Shakeout at Davis Park. |
+ Richford also had a supermarket, so I stocked up on olive
oil, noodles, boat snacks, and non-caffeinated tea so I can have a hot cuppa
before bed. I parked the kayak on its
wheels in one of the parking spaces and got lots of great side-glances.
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