David Madison / Sunday, June 13, 2021

/ Categories: Activities

Canoe Trip at Camp Gorton

Great, easy, day trip, for your patrol or troop.

CANOE TRIP

Looking for a great 1 day trip on the water for your troop or patrol? Camp Gorton, on east bank of Waneta Lake in Central, New York, offers a beautiful opportunity for this.

Waneta Lake is a 3.5 mile lake in central New York which is south east of Keuka Lake. Being a smaller lake in the Finger Lakes, the waters tend to be calmer than larger lakes. So, it is great for an outing for your younger Scouts and first time canoers. Camp Gorton is equiped with a good quantiy of 2 person canoes and an array of life jackets to provide even larger troops a fun day on the water.

Get geared up at the waterfront, take some time for some instruction and practice. Then head out on your adventure.

At the southern tip of the lake, there is a nice channel that connects Waneta Lake to Lamoka Lake. If you adventure into Lamoka Lake, there is a small island at the north end. It is named Red Bank island, which has a nick-name of 'Masquito Island'. It is a nice place to target for a break in your trip. It is a privately owned island, yet many locals visit it for picnics, swimming and rope swing into the water fun.

1 DAY ESCURSION AGENDA

8:45am - Arrive at Camp Gorton
9:00am - Gear up
9:30am - Safety Talk and Instruction
9:45am - Get in water for practice session
10:00am - Head south on water
11:45am - Arrive at Masquito Island. Rest, Lunch, Swimming, Rope Swing
1:00pm - Rescue Rope Throw off Northern Bank
2:00pm - Leave island, Head north back to Camp Gorton
4:00pm - Arrive back at Gorton. Return equipment
4:30pm - Head home

COST

$85/Hour
6 Canoes, Paddles,PFDs

ADDRESS

Camp Gorton
4241 Co Rd 25
Dundee, New York 14837

CONTACT INFORMATION

Five Rivers Council, BSA
Website: https://fiveriversbsa.org
Phone: (607) 732-9047

WANETA LAKE

Waneta Lake is a small lake in the Finger Lakes region of the state of New York in the United States. The lake straddles the border of Schuyler County and Steuben County, and is within the towns of Tyrone and Wayne. Wikipedia
Length: 3.48 mi
Area: 1.245 mi²
Surface elevation: 1,099′
Shore length: 6.8 mi
Shore length¹: 6.8 miles (10.9 km)
Max. depth: 29 feet (8.8 m)

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Tags: Journey Canoeing adventures

Scouting Type	Scouting
Phone Number	607-732-9047
Website URL	fiveriversbsa.org/
Street	4241 Co Rd 25
City	Dundee
State	New York
Zipcode/Postal Code	14837
Country	United States
Location	Central, New York
Season/Time of Year	Spring, Summer, Fall

Documents to download

2021-2022-Canoe-Rental(.docx, 48.07 KB) - 68 download(s)
map_lamoka_lake_021236_d(.pdf, 1.48 MB) - 130 download(s)
map_waneta_lake_021239_d(.pdf, 1.28 MB) - 87 download(s)

2 comments on article "Canoe Trip at Camp Gorton"

David Madison

Our troop did this trip as a one day trip. We rented canoes from Camp Gorton for the day. We scheduled this trip for early June and were fortunate that the aquatics director for summer camp was there for the weekend. He took the time to go over safety and instructions on how to canoe.

We headed out around 10am and canoed south to the end of lake Waneta where there is a channel that connects Waneta lake to Lamoka lake. At the north end of Lamoka lake there was a nice small island where we stopped for lunch, swimming, water rescue techniques and fun.

The trip back took twice as long as the wind was pretty strong. It ended up being quite a challenge for the younger scouts. But were still back by 4pm.

All in all, this was a nice single day trip.

8/9/2021 8:07 PM

BernieSampson

Thanks to Dave Madison! Our troop combined the Canoe Trip with a weekend overnight at Camp Gorton from 5/13-5/15/22. We stayed in the Mohawk site and did the Canoe Trip on Saturday. We had great weather and limited winds, so the 18 scouts and 6 adults made it thru the channel and into Lamoka Lake to the Island in about one hour. They had lunch there and enjoyed the shallow water on the SW side of the lake. The way home only took 45 minutes, as there was a slight breeze at our backs. We were also luck to have the aquatics director "Tiny" on site, as there was a Saturday Cub Scout event at camp. He did give our scouts the safety tips and different canoeing stroke demonstrations prior to our departure. All in all, a GREAT adventure.

5/16/2022 11:27 AM

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