(Authors note: This trip report is a bit belated given the time that has passed since. But it's a neat area and I gathered so much firsthand experience in addition to the photos I took that it seemed worthwhile finally putting together a trip report that might aid others planning their own future trips here.)
For years I've been eying a return visit to Valcour Island, part of the DEC's Lake Champlain Islands Complex unit of the Adirondack Forest Preserve. Valcour is a location that is somewhat important to me as it was the site of my very first primitive camping experience, away from any developed car-camping campground. As a teenager, I'd paddled out to the island and spent several nights camped the west shore with my father and a family friend. That trip was primarily a caving expedition- we spent the time exploring sea caves on the island's south and west shores. The bulk of the island remained unknown to my perception, and in the decades since that trip I've often thought about making a return visit to explore the island more fully on foot.
In September of 2020 I finally had the opportunity to make such a trip work. I planned my visit for mid-week with the goal of minimizing the number of other users I'd encounter, so that I could especially check out (and photograph) as many of the 25+ designated tent sites as possible on the island. (Depending on which "official" DEC source of info is to be believed, there's somewhere between 25 and 29 designated tent sites on the island.)
I was a bit concerned about wind- I'd heard horror stories of groups getting caught in big waves on Lake Champlain, and even during my initial visit as a teenager I remember we had to battle some significant waves ourselves just to get back to the boat launch at the conclusion of our trip. I'd be paddling solo so this was even more of a pressing concern. The forecast called for similar wind speeds on both the day I planned to paddle out to the island, and the day I planned to return, so I figured I'd be pretty safe by at least going to the boat launch, evaluating the conditions in person, and making a go/no go call on the spot.
And when I showed up, it wasn't too bad at all. Moderate waves but nothing that couldn't be easily handled with a strong stroke. I loaded up my canoe and set off on the roughly half-mile paddle to the island.
Bluff Point is the obvious prominence on the west side of the island that dominates the view from the mainland, and this is where I landed first, on rocky shoreline adjacent to site #25. This is an open and mostly grassy site surrounded by cedars, with excellent views across the straight that separates Valcour Island from the mainland. This was once the site of the Raboff Great Camp, which included a main house, a guest house, and an ice house.
From this site it was a short walk up to the lighthouse atop Bluff Point. When I first visited the island as a teenager, the lighthouse was decommissioned- it had been replaced with a beacon atop a metal tower nearby. At the time, plans to restore the lighthouse had been announced but much of the work had not yet been undertaken. It was nice to see, 20+ years later, that the restoration had been complete and the lighthouse was once again in service. Now, the metal tower stood unused, except as a nesting spot by a local avian.
I was also delighted to note that Valcour Island has its very own DEC trail markers. How come the other management units don't get their own unique markers? (Apart, I suppose, from the CL50 and the NPT. Perhaps the North Country Trail will also get unique DEC markers? Although I have also noted that NPT markers especially are prime targets for theft by souvenir seekers.)
I briefly contemplated setting up for my stay in site #25, but there was a bit of daylight still and I instead elected to paddle south down the west shore of the island and look for space in one of the sites down there. So back down to the rocky shoreline I went to hop back into my canoe and continue onward.
It was immediately apparent upon arrival that site #4 at Indian Point was prime real estate- tons of flat ground both in a grassy clearing adjacent to the water, and in a sheltered grove of cedars set a bit further back from the shore. There was also ample camp furniture here, including several tables.
There was even a bar, with a post overhead to hang a lantern from, and a peg on the end to hang your empties bag from too. Apart from the fact that it seems likely that several trees were forced to die to make it happen, it certainly feels like high class camping.
As the sun had just about sunk to the horizon I elected to set up camp here. I enjoyed a beautiful sunset while I made myself comfortable for the evening.
My goal for the next day was to see as much of the island as possible on foot, so I was up early. While working on breakfast I took a few moments to wander about the vicinity of the campsite. Site #4 was very obviously once the location of a camp- I learned after my trip through research that it was Camp Penn, a summer camp for boys. The clearing in the cedars where I'd chosen to pitch my tend was clearly once a building; it was difficult to be certain but based on the online description of the site I think it was the former dining hall.
Designated sites #3 and #5 were both in close proximity to site #4. Site #3 especially was essentially on the opposite end of the clearing occupied by site #4. It was difficult to see it by any definition as a distinct, separate site- and I image often is the occasion when a single large group occupies both sites.
Site #5 at least was far enough away that there was a solid wall of vegetative screening separating it from site #4. This was a nice site in a stand of evergreens.
I also found some old foundations nearby in the woods- presumably remnants of that same summer boys camp.
While poking around in the vicinity some more, I stumbled across designated tent site #2 maybe about a tenth of a mile along the shore to the south. I wasn't sure how obvious the site I'd stayed in on my first visit decades prior would be upon my return visit- or whether it was even still an established and/or designated site. As soon as I set foot in site #2, however, the memories came flooding back- this was definitely the one. I remembered the south facing aspect of the site, and the short but steep rocky scramble up from the shore to the site itself.
I also noticed some confusing markers with respect to the stretch of the perimeter trail that runs between sites #3, 4, and 5 and site #2. At one point I observed two parallel trails, both marked with DEC markers, both running along the shoreline but following separate courses several hundred feet apart. At first, I thought maybe the interior of the two paths was part of the Nomad Trail, the southern-most of the two trails that traverses the interior of the island from west to east. But I soon located the junction with the actual Nomad Trail and determined that this was not the case. More likely it appears that one of these trails started out as a herd path that somehow got marked by a confused DEC employee at some point during a visit to undertake trail maintenance.
Satisfied with my explorations of the immediate vicinity, I returned to camp, put together a day pack, secured my food in my bear canister, and set out for the day. As both of the interior trails (the aforementioned Nomad Trail and the Royal Savage Trail to the north) were also on my itinerary for the day, I elected to get the Nomad Trail out of the way first. At just over a mile in length, this trail leads through mixed and evergreen stands to Smuggler Harbor on the east shore of the island, where I snapped a quick photo of Lake Champlain before retracing my steps back to the west shore. The trail was in decent shape but clearly gets little use.
Back on the west shore, I was ready to set out on my proper circumnavigation around the island. I'd decided to hike counter-clockwise, visiting the south end of the island first. I made quick time south along the shore, soon passing site #2 again and continuing onward. Valcour Island is a rare example of karst topography in the Adirondacks- topography marked by subterranean dissolution of soluble rocks- in this case, limestone. Stretches of the trail crossed rocky outcrops and small pock marks were visible- the very beginnings of solutional caves that will slowly expand over centuries.
Valcour Island unfortunately is also home to some healthy and thriving populations of invasive plants. Buckthorn is especially pervasive in some areas of the island- particularly those spots that were once cleared for camps and/or homesteads.
Soon, I'd arrived at designated tent site #1, located on a broad spur of the shoreline named Cedar Point. This was an open, grassy site located next to an embankment of bedrock that slowly sloped down into the lake.
Continued in next post…
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