Exploring New Waters in the Greater Saratoga Area

By Alan Mapes

It’s fun to paddle familiar waters, but even better is the charge I get from exploring new paddling spots. A recent move from Delmar to the Saratoga Springs area gave me the perfect opportunity to check out new paddling opportunities. I am now nearly an hour closer to the Adirondack Park, but the current health situation has kept me closer to home. Here are some local places I’ve explored this spring and summer, some for the first time, a couple of them for the first time in a long time. Directions to these places are readily gotten though a map app or an internet search, so I will leave that mostly to the reader.

Hudson Crossing Park – Just north of Schuylerville village on the Hudson River, this launch is next to Lock 5 of the Champlain Canal. As you pass the lock buildings watch on your right for the kayak launch sign. Parking is not so well marked, but the short launch trail itself is quite nice. If you use a set of wheels to get your boat to the water, they should work nicely here. The launch puts you into a stretch of the Hudson River below the Lock 5 dam, and you can paddle without a barrier all the way to Lock 4 at Stillwater, 14 miles away.

Right across the river from the launch is the mouth of the Battenkill and it’s worth a paddle up that tributary the short way until you come to shallows and a dam. Returning to the Hudson, we went south past the village. The river is split by an island where NY Route 29 crosses, and we took the western channel and found another launch with a nice low kayak dock (Schuyler’s Canal Park just off Route 29). Opposite the downstream end of the island, Fish Creek joins the river from the west. This is the outlet of Saratoga Lake and offers a short paddle upstream until you find a pretty falls. Swift water enthusiasts will have fun playing in the current below the falls.

At about three miles downstream from the launch, we found a nice island with a picnic spot on the upstream end. We took advantage of a nice picnic table to have our sandwiches. As we landed, we found a sign warning against digging in the soils of the island. This reminded us that we were not far downstream from Fort Edward, the source of PCB pollution. Dredging was done on this stretch of the river to remove hot spots of the chemical. These signs were the only real clue we found to history, however. The chemical legacy that keeps people from eating any fish from this area of the river is otherwise hidden beneath the beautiful scenery.

The waters were quite clear on this stretch of the river – a change from the tidal Hudson that I’m used to, where suspended clays make the river quite brown. The current was slow, and we had no trouble when it came time to turn back upstream. We paddled about eight miles total. Post-paddle, you’re near Amigos Cantina in Schuylerville; they’re open for outdoor dining and takeout – refueling athletes since 2007!

Waterfront Park to Kayaderosseras Creek and Lake Lonely – This Saratoga Springs city park provides free launching for human powered boats. The park can be busy and you may not get one of the parking spots down by the water. If they are full, drop off your gear and park in the bigger lot up the hill. A series of stairs lead back down to the water. Port-a-johns and a few picnic tables are available. During spring and early summer, peek over the fence on the western corner of the shoreline and check for purple martins. They nest in the neighbor’s martin house. This is the only reliable spot I know to find them in our area.

Going south (to the right from the park) along the north shore of the lake for about one-mile, you come to the mouth of the Kayaderosseras Creek, the main inlet of the lake. The current is usually quite slow in the creek, but take care around fallen trees in the water. These deadfalls, or “strainers” often have a good current of water going over, under and through them, posing an entrapment hazard. It’s hard to predict how many such deadfalls you may find, as they wash away during high water and new ones fall each year. This year, I found the stream pretty clear all the way up to the Lake Lonely outlet, and that smaller stream was also quite passable up to that small lake, a nice quiet place to paddle. If you’d like a shorter paddle trip, you can launch right at that lake. Lake Lonely Watersports, 378 Crescent Avenue, Saratoga charges a small fee to park and launch.

Fish Creek, Saratoga – From Waterfront Park, you can paddle north (left) along the shore a short distance and go under the NY Route 9P bridge into the mouth of Fish Creek. Stay well to the side to avoid the numerous motor boats. From the bridge, it is about six miles down the creek to the dam near Grangerville. The current is very slow near the lake, but gets a bit stronger the farther down you go. Paddling back against it is usually not hard, and you can turn around at any point. Motor boats become less evident the further down the creek you go. 

Nice wetlands border the creek along much of its path. Muskrats, beaver and waterfowl can be found here. There are several alternate launching spots for Fish Creek. The NYS Parks boat launch is on the south side of the creek, right by the Route 9P bridge. Be sure to pay your fee at the parking kiosk. The Kayak Shak at Stafford Bridge Road is one mile down the creek, and rents kayaks and standup paddleboards. You can launch your own here for $10. Mountainman Outdoor Supply Company has a paddling shop at this same location, with boats and all sorts of paddle gear. Also, at this same spot, be sure to sample the wood-fired pizza at Harvest & Hearth – it’s the best!

Archer Vly – For a quieter experience, try this small impoundment in northwestern Saratoga County. Part of Lake Desolation Road Conservation Easement Tract, the lands are private, but open to the public. There is a parking area on the south end of the lake with a sign-in register, hand launch and access to trails. Four designated campsites are on the lake – these are primitive sites with level pads for tents and a “thunder box” for sanitation (basically an outhouse without the walls or roof). When we paddled on the Thursday, only one campsite was in use, but I expect they may all be taken on summer weekends. This year we found signs of beavers and got quite close to a female hooded merganser.

Dunham Bay Marsh – For a taste of the Lake George without the motorboats, I recently paddled this marsh inlet to Dunham Bay on the big lake’s southeast end. The launch is near the intersection of Bay Road and NY Route 9L, and is at a small private marina. A $10 fee gives you a secure place to park and launching at a small ramp with nice low docks on the sides. From there, you can go under Route 9L and into the bay, with access to the outer lake.

We paddled the other way, exploring the stream as it winds through a large peat marsh. The vegetation is lush in summer, with water lilies and pickerel weed in bloom. Some online articles refer to dead end channels along the stream that may lead you astray, but we did not find any. Perhaps they are further upstream. In early August, the underwater weed growth limited how far upstream we could go – we made it just under two miles before turning around.

It was a satisfying two miles, though. Great blue herons and eastern kingbirds were active along the way. Our best birds of the trip were two young merlins, members of the falcon family and a little smaller than a pigeon. They were zipping around the marsh, chasing nothing in particular that we could see (they feed on smaller birds). We found one perched in a small tree and sat in our canoes watching it preen its feathers for a good 20 minutes. Merlins were not known to nest in our state until around the late 1980s. Now they are quite widespread, especially in the Adirondacks.

Moreau Lake – A nice paddle spot for beginners, Moreau Lake State Park offers a small lake with no motor boats. You may have to share the lake with a good number of other visitors, but the park has nice amenities – a launch area, good parking, restrooms and picnic area. When we last visited in early July, the beach and picnic area were modestly busy, and we found a dozen kayaks out on the lake. A late-lingering common loon was also enjoying the lake.

Carters Pond – For a short paddle with lots of wildlife, try this NYSDEC Wildlife Management Area near Greenwich. The small lake has a winding outlet channel on the south end that’s open all season. On the north end are marsh channels that can be explored in spring and fall, but fill with weed growth during summer. Fishing looks like it should be good here – I constantly had fish swirl away from near the surface as I paddled. I followed the perimeter of the pond and down the south channel to another landing by the dam. Bird life included osprey, common raven, pied-billed grebe, American bittern, belted kingfisher, tree swallow and great blue heron. Plants were colorful around the edges of the pond, with white and yellow water lilies and loads of water willow in full bloom with small pink flowers. An osprey nest was visible in the swamp woods to the north.

That wraps up my Saratoga area paddling list for the season so far, but there are many more places on my list. I hope that readers will share their favorite places to canoe or kayak. See you on the water!

Alan Mapes (alanmapes@gmail.com) is a kayak instructor and guide, certified by the American Canoe Association. He lives near Saratoga Springs and offers kayak instruction through Capital District Kayakers Meetup.