A Paddler’s Guide to the Champlain Valley

Exploring the Rivers, Creeks, Wetlands and Ponds

by Margaret Holden and Catherine Frank

(authors of A Kayaker’s Guide to Lake Champlain)

foreword by Bill Howland, Director, Lake Champlain Basin Program

trade paperback, 6 x 9, 416 pages,

130 color photographs, 55 maps

isbn: 9781883789794

$25.95

42 guided paddling adventures along the rivers and through the wetlands and wildlife refuges of the Champlain Valley reveal the ecology, geology, history, plants & wildlife of this region’s uniquely beautiful natural environment.

This excellent book … should be essential reading for anyone with an interest in the waterways, the landscape, the heritage and the future of Lake Champlain and its watershed. Bill Howland, Director, Lake Champlain Basin Program

In their regional bestseller, A Kayaker’s Guide to Lake Champlain, now in its 3^rd printing, Catherine Frank and Margaret Holden offered detailed paddling tours circumnavigating America’s “other great lake.” Now, in A Paddler’s Guide to the Champlain Valley, they explore the “interior,” the waters within the seven basins of the Champlain Valley—the Missisquoi/Pike, Lamoille, Winooski, Otter/Lewis, Saranac/Chazy, Boquet/Ausable, and Poultney-Mettawee South Lake—with 42 guided adventures, supplemented by 28 sidebars and over 60 pages of introductory background on the history, geology, botany, wildlife biology, and ecology of the region and the environment challenges it faces. The result is a well-rounded primer and field guide for kayakers and canoeists on a remarkably rich and diverse watershed that connects Vermont, New York and Quebec.

The authors of this paddler’s guide to the Champlain Valley deserve thanks and gratitude from all of us who care about Lake Champlain and its tributaries. They offer not only a book paddlers will carry as a basic reference on outings throughout the region, but also a broad overview of the natural history and ecology of our watershed. Most important, they help us understand how to better protect our waterways. John Davis, wildways trekker and author of Big, Wild, and Connected

The beauty of such a comprehensive book as A Paddler’s Guide to the Champlain Valley is that it may entice you to try some trips you’d never thought about before, or perhaps thought beyond your ability. Margy and Cathy have paddled all the locations they describe, and they throw in some natural and political history, as well, to help us appreciate what we’re looking at. They’ve got me thinking about a couple of places that all of a sudden I really need to see. Willem Lange, Author, columnist, VPR commentator and host of NHPTV's Windows to the Wild

Reading this book is quite a lot like paddling down a river in the Lake Champlain basin from its headwaters to its delta; all of it is fascinating, the text moves constantly, and the writing is beautiful. However, the authors have written far more than a paddlers’ guide might imply—this is a very well researched and carefully pre­sented array of coordinated guidance to enable an explorer to really see the nature, the landscapes and the history, in addition to enjoying the immediate views along the way. Bill Howland

About the Authors

Catherine Frank is a former, long-time instructor at the Community College of Vermont and currently is an independent Web site designer. She has been a member and chairperson of numerous nonprofit boards on the local and regional level. A long-time summer resident of the Champlain Islands, she is an avid biker, hiker, swimmer, and cross-country skier. She kayaks daily in the summer and has hiked the length of Vermont’s Long Trail.

 Margaret Holden has worked for nonprofit and for-profit corporations, and as an organizational development and career consultant. She has provided leadership on nonprofit boards. She writes occasional articles and coauthored the Women’s Job Search Handbook. Happiest when she is outdoors, Margy gardens, hikes, bikes, paddles, and swims in the Champlain Islands in the summer and the Bahamas in the winter.

 Margy’s and Cathy’s travels on Lake Champlain led to their first book, A Kayaker’s Guide to Lake Champlain. They have given presentations before numerous organizations and have been featured on television and in the local press. Both women are committed to promoting a heightened awareness of the Lake Champlain region, its strengths, and its vulnerabilities.