Second Connecticut Lake

Wood duck house in Scott Bog.

Squam. Chesuncook. Moosehead. Newfound. Winnipesaukee. Sunapee. Champlain. George. Saranac. Lows. Bog. Those are the evocative names of lakes we’ve covered in our annual “Lakes of October” issue.
Initially, it was a novel concept for sea kayakers to paddle on lakes, but bright foliage, distant mountains, and tamer water conditions in the off season were the draw.
One set of interconnecting lakes we cover for the first time in this October issue. I became familiar with them last year when looking up the details on a race called the Endurance Challenge, which includes kayaking across two lakes, mountain biking, and mountain running, over hundred of miles of wilderness up and down. The race takes place in the Connecticut Lakes, high in northern New Hampshire on the Quebec border. The Fourth Connecticut Lake is the origin of the 410-mile Connecticut River. You can take a steep up and down climb, past Canadian customs, to see this tiny beaver pond where the longest river in New England starts.
We highly recommend this semi-wilderness kingdom high up in New England, well known to fishermen for the brookies and rainbow trout and to birders for the migrations, but less well known to kayakers. We researched the lakes in August when everything was still green, but it should be gorgeous up there now…