Lake St. Catherine Worth a Winter Visit
Jan 24th, 2009 by Jack
I’ve spent a few weekend afternoons this winter walking and/or snowshoeing at Lake St. Catherine State Park in Poultney, Vt. Starting around late December, but this varies year-by-year, the lake begins to freeze and usually by mid-January has completely frozen over. (PLEASE check and be sure that conditions are safe before venturing out onto the ice!)
When the lake freezes, ice shanties begin to sprout across the surface as ice fisherfolk enjoy their sport. I’ve been tempted but never actually gone ice fishing — I get that yin-yang of “what a great, relaxing, winter pasttime” followed by “who’d really want to sit in the cold and stare for hours at a hole in the ice”. Maybe someday my defenses will weaken. Nevertheless, strolling across the ice studying the many tippets and shanties can be calming, entertaining, and the fisherfolk are most willing to have you divert them with questions. If you go on ice-fishing derby weekends (typically mid-January & February) — when ice fisherfolk compete for prizes for largest fish and other categories that escape me — you’ll see plenty of action and a visit to the “winner board” can surprise you with the size of the fish that lurk beneath the ice (and in the water you swim in in summer)!
The lake gets a fair amount of action on weekends. You’ll also see numerous snowmobilers racing from end to end, a few 4-wheelers skidding around, and at least a couple of cross-country skiers. Depending on the snow cover, there may be a skater or two but frankly that’s pretty unusual. Snow-covered ice is not conducive to skating, and rarely does someone clear a section.
On land, the park offers nice rolling land for walking/snowshoeing, and you can wander throughout the campsite area on nicely wooded trails. There you’ll sometimes encounter other snowshoers or cross-country skiers, but really the area is underused in winter.
It seems that overnight camping (tents) is possible with ADVANCE permission of the park service, but I don’t have details on that. Again, I’m tempted but so far the yang is overpowering the yin on this too.
Lake St. Catherine is located off Route 30 in Poultney (half the lake is actually in Wells and there is a boat launch area in Wells, but the main park entrance is in Poultney). The park is not officially open in winter, but they do plow the main access road so you can drive in to the beach and lake access areas. 4-wheel drive is not essential unless conditions are particularly wintery. Parking is wherever you can pull off the road enough to leave the vehicle.