In their regional bestseller, A Kayaker’s Guide to Lake Champlain, now in its 3rd printing, Catherine Frank and Margaret Holden offered detailed paddling tours circumnavigating America’s “other great lake.”

Now, in A Paddler’s Guide to the Champlain Valley: Exploring the Rivers, Creeks, Wetlands and Ponds (Black Dome Press, 2015), they explore the “interior,” the waters within the seven basins of the Champlain Valley — the Missisquoi/Pike, Lamoille, Winooski, Otter/Lewis, Saranac/Chazy, Boquet/Ausable, and Poultney-Mettawee South Lake.

This new guide features 42 adventures, supplemented by 28 sidebars and over 60 pages of introductory background on the history, geology, botany, wildlife biology, and ecology of the region and the environmental challenges it faces. The result is a  field guide for kayakers and canoeists to a remarkably rich and diverse watershed that connects Vermont, New York and Quebec.

Cathy Frank is a long-time summer resident of the Champlain Islands, an avid biker, hiker, swimmer, and cross-country skier. She kayaks daily in the summer and has hiked the length of Vermont’s Long Trail.

Margy Holden writes occasionally, but is happiest when she is outdoors. Holden gardens, hikes, bikes, paddles, and swims in the Champlain Islands in the summer and the Bahamas in the winter.

Books noticed on The Adirondack Almanack have been provided by their publishers.