Pontoons one of recommended measures
By DENNIS APRILL, Outdoors Columnist
Lake Champlain may not be one of the Great Lakes by definition, but it is still a big body of water, one that can become quite rough very quickly, as my son Colin and I found out.
Needless to say, life jackets should be carried along at all times and worn at the slightest hint of rough water. We did have ours close by on the paddle over to Valcour, the water being generally placid with easy rollers. On the way back, however, we put them on before we set out in the white-capped lake.
The pontoons I use are manufactured by Spring Creek, Mt. Iron, MN (www.canoegear.com). They are the most practical floatation devices I have ever seen.
Basically, what you get is a universal bar to which 6-inch cylinders, 27 inches long, snap in to each side. The pontoons are adjustable in and out, up and down; they are lightweight and render the canoe nearly impossible to tip. They do add a little wind resistance, but the safety factors outweigh the extra amount of muscle power needed to paddle the canoe. I also find them very handy when I am fishing alone.
Additional gear carried by Spring Creek can be snapped to this universal bar — portage wheels, moveable leeboard, sailing rigs and rowing apparatus — making for a very versatile piece of equipment.
Spring Creek also makes an optional seat/yoke that flips to one side for comfortable portaging, then back over for a middle seat. It costs $69, another useful gadget I intend to add to my canoe outfit soon.
A cheap bailing can, the one important thing I forgot on this trip, can be made by cutting out the bottom of a one-gallon milk container (the kind with the screw-on top, not the snap-on kind). I like this bailer because it is flexible and conforms to the bottom of the canoe better. The jug handle makes for a good scoop.
No matter how much safety gear you have and precautions you take, it is still better, when in doubt, to wait out big seas. Although there were no Coast Guard or U.S. Weather Service warnings the day Colin and I crossed, and the seas, in retrospect, were probably not as rough as I remember them to be, I certainly will be more aware of how changeable conditions can become on big water next time.