Kayaking Honeoye Creek

I often look over area maps and aerial footage – looking for places to explore that are accessible, yet still as off-the-beaten-path as possible. From this, I thought I might be able to kayak the 3 miles or so from Old Shelter Rd (Co Rd 15) down to Honeoye Lake. My original plan was to follow Honeoye Creek through the Honeoye Wildlife Management Area, into Honeoye Lake. It is late April after a wet month…my thinking was that the creek should currently be as passable as it gets. Looking at the map below, this seems like an awesome, and fairly viable idea, right?

Launching under the bridge at Old Shelter Road was easy enough, and I paddled south, going against the mild current, heading up-creek. I have a light kayak, and purposely packed a light dry bag, expecting a need to portage my kayak around logs, etc. However, I underestimated how blocked the creek would be. After about a 1/4 mile, I realized that I could well end up carrying and dragging my kayak through 3 miles of woods to reach the lake. Additionally, the creek bed was also soaked and difficult to walk along – especially while carrying a kayak. After two difficult portages, and no sign of open water, I turned around, and considered a plan B.

My next idea was to drive down to Honeoye Lake, launch my kayak into Honeoye Creek from that end, and see how far north I could go into the wildlife area. Lol….The answer was, “about a half mile”. Before even reaching Main Street in Honeoye, I got caught up in some creek current, and quickly beached my kayak on the side of the creek. After getting out to survey, I couldn’t see how far the current went, and didn’t see any good way to portage around it. The creek was deep enough that I wasn’t convinced I could walk my kayak back upstream through the creek if I pressed on.

In the end, I ended up paddling around the very south end of Honeoye Creek, which was quite pretty, but still a bit of a disappointment. The topography map shows the Honeoye Wildlife Management area as being fairly flat…I felt like I should be able to have a peaceful kayak through most of it, but I was out of ideas on how to get to it. Looking at the map again now, I see another parking area just north of Main Street in Honeoye….I wonder if I could launch a kayak there, and if the creek is more navigable at that point?

If anyone has been able to explore any parts of Honeoye Creek within the wildlife management area, please let me know!

The pictures below are all from the south end of Honeoye Creek – which was quite pretty, and a nice place to drift, take pictures, and eat my peanut butter and jelly lunch that I packed.