The Battenkill River Valley is a terrific place to explore. If you do some Googling you don't come up with a heck of a lot. Mostly trout fishing and a few canoe/kayak/camping outfitters.... but there's two days worth of paddling and possibly days of exploring local towns.

I've paddled the Battenkill twice now. Both times in the summer. The first time we stayed at Camping On The Battenkill near Arlington, VT. We rented our kayaks from Battenkill Canoe Limited. The camp ground was certainly nice enough, although there aren't many great campsites and the road gets quite close to your site. We ended up in a wooded site in eye shot of several other sites and the road. We could walk down to the river and that was nice. There is a small store and the bathrooms were decent but quite a hick. The guys at Battenkill Canoe were nice enough, but they're not really all that friendly. When I called ahead to ask some questions the fella was pretty short. I guess he's probably tired of answering the same old questions - but then again, that's his job, right? One thing about this outfitter - they run some spectacular looking canoe trips all over the place, like Newfoundland, France, Costa Rica, etc.

The second time we paddled the river was June 21st, 2008. This time I chose to stay on the other end of the river at Battenkill River Sports & Campground. This is one hell of a campground. It doesn't have that campgroundy feel so much. It had beautiful grounds that were well managed and had a very natural appeal. We stayed in one of the primitive sites on "the island". Site "I" is a very good one, as it is twice as big as the others. However, site "J" was as secluded as they come. Nearly invisible to the rest of the campground. All of the island sites are right out on the river. You have to park your car and hick about 20 yards which puts a nice grove of woods between you and any vehicles. I brought my own boat, but my comrades each neede to rent one. We asked to leave my boat by the office, and in the morning it was already loaded on a trailer along with the other two. The young lady who works the front desk was incredibly friendly (Ludwiga) and the van driver was really friendly too.

You can buy firewood along the road (rte22) on your way into town or there was a place right across from the campground where you could buy some. The bags of wood at the site are expensive ($7) and very small.

The nearby town of Cambridge is a fabulous turn-of-the-century town. There's a little restaurant/market on the way toward Greenwich that was amazing. Super place to have breakfast before a long day on the river. We had to go into Greenwich to get an SD card for my camera and it was quite nice too. I was very thankful they had a Radio Shack.

The river is a very pleasant one to float. It was less deep the last time I went as they haven't gotten much rain. My boat actually dragged a bit but nothing to worry about. Folks going in late July and August of this year might have trouble. The first time we went we didn't see a soul. This time there were quite a few folks out there. Most were very pleasant. Only a couple of groups of tubers were a little rowdy and loud. There's only a couple places where the water gets very exciting, specifically where the Roaring Branch enters. There's a Volkswagen sized rock in the river that causes an exciting stretch. Lots of covered bridges and good place sto pull over for a stretch or a snack. There's a rope swing at one of the covered bridges.

We saw a black bear come right down to the water in front of us and lots of other wildlife as well. You'll have a blast.