Paddle The Nine-Mile Swamp

The best place to launch into the Nine-Mile Swamp is along side of Wickwire Road (off from State Route 12) not far beyond the RR Crossing. There is room here for about half a dozen cars. This is a great paddle for the whole family.

From the Wickwire Road launch, you will be paddling upstream as you follow many twists and turns until the swamp becomes too shallow to paddle, approximately 3-4 miles depending on how shallow the water is. The swamp is filled with wildlife including beavers, great blue herons, fish and a variety of other birds and wildflowers. It is a very quiet and relaxing area. There are some trees down towards the end of the swamp that you may have to navigate around (nothing very difficult) until you run out of water to paddle. At this point you will turn around and follow the winding swamp as you meander your way back to the parking area at Wickwire Road. Total round trip is between 6-8 miles.

For the History Buffs: Nine-Mile Swamp's rich history includes the escapades of the notorious Loomis Gang that operated in the Nine-Mile Swamp from the time of the patriarch of the Gang, George Washington Loomis's arrival in central New York in 1802 until the late 1860's, where he had run stolen horses in Vermont and fled before a posse across the New York State border, ending up in central New York where he married Rhoda Marie Mallet and raised a gang of outlaw children. The family of horse thieves, livestock rustlers and robbers lived on Loomis Hill nearby Nine-Mile Swamp where they used the Swamp to hide themselves and their horses from local vigilantes.