Lake Champlain to Montreal CANADA !
The Hudson River took us straight northward almost 150 miles
from NYC to upstate NY, headed towards Lake Champlain, as the Hudson began to
narrow, threatening to choke off our route; The Champlain Canal appeared,
providing us with a man-made linkage (using locks) into Lake Champlain.
Lake Champlain is a beautiful body of water that spreads north and south over 100 miles,
giving us a beautiful ride through rural
New York and Vermont- NY shoreline on the west side of the lake and VT shoreline
on the eastern shore. We spotted a cute
little town in Vermont, called Vergennes, which offered free dockage (with
water and electricity) for visiting boaters, so we couldn’t resist. It was very rainy, and the trip to Vergennnes
required a rather long side trip up
Otter Creek, so we had a quiet and enjoyable 12 mile putt up
the creek, a narrow but deep creek, flowing fast with all the rain that had
fallen, to a delightful Vermont town.
We had a nice evening walking through Vergennes- it played
an historic part in the naval battles of our wars of 1776 and 1812 against the
British- and a welcome break.
The next stop was Burlington, Vermont, where we visited with
Mary, Bob and Tess. We stayed several
days, had a little more rain and even some sun, took our hosts boating on the
Lake, and explored some of Burlington.
Patty took to Burlington quick, it wasn’t long before she was twisting
Mary’s arm, asking when we could have a house exchange, our house in Ashland
for their house in Burlington, I had very little I could add other than- only
if we swapped in the summer.
We spent two nights ashore with Mary and Bob, did laundry,
biked about a bit, Bob took Geoff sailing (they have a sweet Catalina 25 on a
sheltered bay of Lake Burlington) and Patty and Mary headed out to a wild
flower hike. For anyone that wants to
visit a larger version of Ashland OR, Burlington is the place.
We left Burlington listening to a Coast Guard radio warning
that high winds were forecast for the Lake, so we headed to a sheltered cove on
Valcor Island for a night on the anchor- we had been warned that when the Lake
kicks up, the swell has an annoying tendency to “work” around points of land
and make a normally perfect anchorage rolly.
Studying the chart, we couldn’t see how a NW wind could ever push swell
into the tight little cove we had chosen for the night. Wrong, the swell, although not terrible, kept
us rocking all night. We finally hauled
anchor the next morning, even though the Lake was still angry (wind was still
up in the 20’s) and headed into more sheltered waters. Our next night’s anchorage was what we sought,
serene.
Throughout the trip north along the Hudson River and Lake
Champlain and adjoining waters we were constantly reminded of the War of
Independence in 1776 and the War of 1812, both fought against the British with
many battles fought in this territory. The US Navy had its beginnings right here
along the Champlain Canal. It was here
that Benedict Arnold led the fledging US Navy against the British. In fact,
Benedict Arnold play a featured role in much of the fighting in these parts, if
anyone has a book about Mr. Arnold and the story of his slide from hero to
villain, Geoff would like to read it.
As we headed further north, we were forced to leave Lake
Champlain behind and enter the Richelieu River and the Province of Quebec,Canada
! The Richelieu River and the Chambly
Canal take boaters straight north from the northern reaches of Lake Champlain
to the junction with the St Lawrence River at Sorel, where a left turn allows
an upstream visit to Montreal or a right turn to a downstream visit to Quebec. The clock was ticking for us, the side trip
to Quebec was very tempting but summer is short this far north so we made the
left turn towards Montreal and a two day trek of about 45 miles against the
current of the St Lawrence River. The St Lawrence River carries ocean going
traffic from the Atlantic to all of the Great Lakes, so we had to dodge a few
large, and fast moving, ships as we headed west towards Montreal.
Montreal was a marvelous treat, we stayed in a marina just
across the river from Old Montreal, which we visited by bicycle the day after
our arrival. The city and surrounding
area is very bike friendly, so we had no trouble (except that we couldn’t speak
or read a word of French) riding the big bridge across the St Lawrence River
into Old Montreal. For those of you that
have never visited Montreal, you might consider adding it to your list of
cities worth visiting. I would add that we thoroughly enjoyed all of Quebec
Province, the rural areas were beautiful, the roads very friendly for bicycle
exploration, the small villages very quaint (without being even a bit touristy),
and the cities very flavorful and clean.
Quebec (the city) is definitely on our list “for next time”.
