Crossing Champlain… Or Not 🌊

June 13, 2024 Zero Day #3

Welllll we woke up at 8. I felt like absolute trash, I slept terribly for maybe 5 hours, put earplugs in to try to drown out the birds and cars and people and woke up with a scratchy throat and a headache.

I stumbled over to the showerhouse and took a hot 15 minute shower, taking my time and washing my hair. I felt much better afterwards and walked back to the site to pack up with my hair wrapped in my towel.

On our way to the campground office to pay for our site for the night we caught a glimpse of the water and let out some nervous laughter. I could see whitecap waves and knew that wasn’t good… we took a detour and headed towards the beach to check it out. The waves and wind were terrible, if we attempted to paddle out I had no doubt we’d be swamped within 100 yards of shore. We tossed around our options, debating whether to try it, whether to portage to the north side of the bay and try to put in there and ultimately decided to zero today and try again tomorrow- but much earlier.

We were both pretty bummed because it would’ve been great to sleep in this morning and just chill but oh well. We picked another site and reserved it, walked back and unloaded everything once more.

We had both been pretty pumped up to cross and sitting around at the picnic table didn’t sound appealing. Henry set up the tarp perfectly using canoe paddles and fixed some gear with flextape and I set up my hammock, washed some clothes in the sink of the bathroom and hung everything out to dry.

Henry walked back to DG for some more resupply while I caught up on my posts.

While he was gone a nice camping neighbor came over and told me we should come over and take as much of their firewood as we wanted- her husband brought a trailer load and she would love for us to have some. We talked for awhile, they’re locals and regulars and she had met some other NFCT paddlers in years past.

Henry and I had Chipotle delivered by DoorDash and ate it fireside.

It felt so good to prop my feet up on a log, stretch out on my foam pad and let the heat from the fire soak into my bones. I really hope I can sleep tonight because we have a big day and an early start tomorrow. Went to bed with my hair smelling of woodsmoke 🪵