South Bay Watch: Lake Memphremagog, Newport and Coventry, Vt.
AMC Outdoors, March 2006
The Trip: A wildlife-filled paddle on Lake Memphremagog’s South Bay
Length and Intensity: Easy to moderate
Best Time To Go: Spring
At the northern end of Lake Memphremagog (Abenaki for “beautiful waters”), in the city of Newport, Vt., South Bay feels almost urban. You can hear sirens, trucks, heavy equipment, and cars on the nearby streets. But as you paddle south a few miles down a long, sinuous canal, most of that noise fades away.
You can paddle up the meandering Black River, which flows into South Bay about a quarter-mile below the primary fishing access, or paddle it down from Airport Road. Silver maple and willow dipping their lowest branches into the water line parts of the shore, while other stretches are marshy.
As you paddle farther south on South Bay, the open water disappears into thick marshes of pickerelweed, waterlily, water shield, rush, sedge, grass, and cattail. Spring is the time to explore here as most of the southern part of the bay is not even paddleable by midsummer. Wending your way through marshy islands, you may find yourself in the winding, slow-moving Barton River, lined with silver maple.
Follow the Barton River through the South Bay State Wildlife Management Area (a portion protected by the Vermont Nature Conservancy), one of the few sites in Vermont where black terns nest, and a great haven for wood ducks. We have not explored much of the Barton, but we have paddled all the way down the more eastern unnamed channel, which is more predictably navigable.
To get to this channel from the Barton River, you may have to paddle back to the main lake and then north a bit; the marshes vary so much that it is hard to give precise directions. But you should recognize this wide and relatively deep channel when you get to it. We found it lined with marsh plants and home to a wide assortment of water birds.
Fairly soon after getting into the channel you will pass under a railroad bridge. Some of the cut-off older wooden posts lurk just below water level, so travel carefully through here. From the railroad bridge, you can paddle several miles south through increasingly beautiful country. We rarely have seen as many wood ducks in one place—maybe 100, mostly in groups of a half-dozen or so.
Look for bitterns, black ducks, kingfishers, great blue herons, northern harrier, painted turtles, and a few snapping turtles—just the triangular noses stick up above the water. Feathery larch mix with silver maple, white birch, and spruce, along the shores, nearly as unspoiled by development as they were 100 years ago.
—By John Hayes and Alex Wilson
DIRECTIONS From Exit 27 off I-91, take Route 191 west to Route 5 south. After crossing the bridge between South Bay and Lake Memphremagog, turn left onto Coventry Street, and follow the water for 0.5 mile to the access on the left.
RESOURCES Excerpted from Quiet Water: New Hampshire & Vermont by Alex Wilson and John Hayes from AMC Books ($15.95). Available at www.outdoors.org or by calling 800-262-4455.
LOCAL WISDOM Several witnesses over the years have spied what they believe to be a sea serpent, dubbed “Memphre,” in these waters. Natives are believed to have told early European settlers that they would not even bathe in the lake because they feared encountering the “large, dark and whale-like” creature. Read more at www.memphre.com.
Related Links:
Print version
