Rowing with Niece

Monday morning, sunny and warming steadily to 60°. We head down to the waterfront. Lake Champlain is flat and inviting as we uncover the boats and slide them across the beach and into the water. There’s no finer way to welcome the week than rowing with my niece.

She’s rowing the Vermont Dory. I’m rowing the Adirondack Guide Boat. It’s her first time rowing, but she immediately gets the hang of it. She’s strong and athletic. A quick study. At home on the water. And these lightweight Kevlar boats designed and built across the lake by Adirondack Guideboat, are at once responsive and user friendly. After the first few strokes you’re hooked. So smooth. So swift.

In the first photograph above Rosslyn’s boathouse and the Essex-Charlotte ferry dock are visible, but they soon slipped out of sight as we rowed northward, following the Adirondack Coast shoreline toward Willsboro. From time-to-time we talked as we rowed, but mostly we yielded to our spectacular surroundings and the mesmerizing rhythm of our exercise.

A breeze freshening out of the south-southeast began to whip up a little chop. I remembered Justin and Ian Martin at Adirondack Guideboat telling me that the dory manages rough water better than the guide boat because the latter’s low profile gunnels result in a wetter ride. Since this was my first foray in the newly acquired guide boat, I figured it prudent to abbreviate our outing short of the Boquet River delta to begin the return trip before the waves became too sloppy.

Returning to Essex from Willsboro, rowing became a little livelier, spray sometimes finding its way onto my arms, back, and neck. It was a refreshing reminder to plan future outings in the dory if any significant wind and wave action was anticipated. My niece remained energetic, her dory surging into the growing chop. I followed her now, back toward Rosslyn, toward Monday morning’s to-do list, enjoying the last lap of our excursion. This morning, I knew, would stick with me, a memory — rowing with niece — that I will replay again and again.