Entry Guidelines for Print Category

Submit | Writing Tips | Contest Overview

Champlain Area Trails (CATS) seeks the submission of travel articles featuring outdoor-recreation in New York’s central Champlain Valley for its inaugural CATS Travel Writing Contest.

The winning entrant will be awarded $500. The People’s Choice Winner—the entry with the most online votes—will earn $250. We are looking for real experiences by real people who have enjoyed their travels in the Champlain Valley and would like to share their story so that others will be inspired to follow in their footsteps.

New York’s Champlain Valley is a rich landscape of farms, forests, low mountains, wetlands, historic hamlets, and wide-angle views of Lake Champlain, the Adirondack High Peaks, and Vermont’s Green Mountains; yet it remains a relatively undiscovered tourism jewel. Here’s your chance to reveal what you’ve enjoyed doing in the region. Your article can include a variety of activities. For example, you might tell of hiking a CATS trail in the morning, riding bikes to the next town in the afternoon, eating dinner at a lakefront restaurant, and seeing a play in the evening. Or describe sailing on Lake Champlain, visiting a historical site, savoring food from a famer’s market. The Valley’s the limit, so start exploring!

The article can take place in any season. You could share your recent paddling adventures from this summer. If you’ve been here during winter, you might write about cross-country skiing through forests and farms. Of course, this contest is a great excuse to come here now in the fall to relish the kaleidoscopic colors and black-fly-free forests.

Your submission must include your experiences hiking, skiing, or snowshoeing on at least one of the official Champlain Area Trails. In addition, all contest entries must also include at least three of the following destination-guide ingredients described below. Please keep in mind, the suggestions for each “ingredient” are just examples. Feel free to include other sites and activities in the Champlain Valley:

Wildlife and Flora. What plants and creatures made your adventure more memorable? A winter excursion may have exposed you to a snowshoe hare in her winter whites or the tracks of a coyote. Maybe a springtime hike offered the glimpse of an exotic lady slipper or music of spring peepers. Or maybe a great blue heron swooped above you during a marsh walk.
Recreation. In addition to your trail experience, what other athletic activities did you enjoy during your adventure in the Champlain Valley? Perhaps you paddled on the Boquet River? Swam in Lake Champlain? Biked along a country road? Golfed with views of Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains? Rafted below the cliffs in Ausable Chasm?
Culture. The Champlain Valley offers a cornucopia of cultural experiences. Diversify your trail experience by incorporating a play or concert. Local theatre productions include the Depot Theatre, Essex Theatre Company, and Boquet River Theatre Festival. There’s music to be heard as well: The Meadowmount School of Music, Ballard Park Concert Series in Westport, Essex Community Concert Series, or perhaps just Open Mic Night at Toto’s or the Old Dock House. The Champlain Valley Film Society shows great movies and the Whallonsburg Grange offers a host of activities year-round.
History. Witness to dozens of historic battles, the Underground Railroad, old industries, and even shipwrecks, the Champlain Valley has no shortage of ways to step into the past. Museums and historic landmarks include 1812 Homestead, Fort Ticonderoga, Crown Point Historic Site, Penfield Homestead Museum, and the Adirondack History Center.
Lodging. Where did you rest your sleepy head at day’s end? Consider area inns, B&Bs, and campsites.
Dining. Capture the culinary highlights from your adventure by describing the campfire you cooked dinner around or the sandwiches and freshly baked cookies you picked up at the Dogwood Bakery in Wadhams. Review the sumptuous feast that was prepared for you at the Bistro du Lac in Westport or the hardy breakfast you ate at Willsboro’s Sportsmen’s Dinette.
Local Crafts and Handwork. Did you visit a farmer’s market, craft fair, or shop where you spied or splurged on a hand-turned bowl of black walnut, a finely sewn quilt, or handcrafted glass jewelry?