LEWEY LAKE & MIAMI RIVER paddling
Lewey Lake is on NY Route 30 between Speculator and the hamlet of Indian Lake. You can pay a day-use fee at the state campground and use the boat launch next to the swimming beach or put in on the lake’s outlet where it goes under Route 30. A long ridge of mountains is immediately across the lake; Lewey and Snowy mountains rise over 2,000 feet above the water. I like to cross over to the undeveloped west shore then head south. The campground and several houses and cabins occupy the east shore. Loons are usually seen (five on a recent trip in 2011 including at least one juvenile) and sometimes heard. The mouth of the Miami River is small but not too hard to find. Swamp maples growing in this wide wetland valley turn bright red and contrast with the green marsh grass. The river (actually more stream than river) twists and turns with very few straight sections of any length – I hope you have been practicing ...