Lake Champlain

         We stayed in Fort Edward one night.  It’s a nice little town, but like so many of these canal towns, it features many empty buildings and very shabby-looking victorian houses.  It’s so sad to walk around and see the debris through the storefront windows and the peeling paint and rotten wood of the once elegant houses.  There was one restaurant open, and it was the grand opening, and nothing else beyond a corner gas station with a convenience store.  We decided to eat at the restaurant - great food, very friendly and welcoming staff (Dahlia’s on the Hudson, though it’s not on the river) - and we hope they make it as a business.  We explored the town on foot, and came across the older lock, behind some neighborhood houses, now a sort of park.  

Fort Edward, old Champlain canal lock.

From Fort Edward we continued through the Champlain Canal to Whitehall, NY, just before Lock 12, which is the last lock before Lake Champlain.  Whitehall has a beautiful free wall, with power and water, and nearby is a brand new building with restrooms and showers available for free on the second floor, which overlooks the canal.  There is a museum on the waterfront telling the history of the town, and the foundation and lumber of the USS Ticonderoga, and a magnificent mansion across the canal halfway up the mountain, but little else beyond the same empty downtown buildings and worn out-looking houses, and both the museum and mansion were closed.  The one restaurant we heard about was closed the night we were hoping for a meal.  We walked around this town on both sides of the canal the two days we spent there.  The views are gorgeous.

Skene Mansion - Whitehall was founded by Skene, originally called Skenesborough.

Whitehall, NY - almost all these buildings are empty.

Wednesday (June 7) we formally entered Lake Champlain.  We really had no idea how long and narrow it is in places.  The water is the border between Vermont and New York and we’ve been staying on the Vermont side as showers and smoke from the Canadian wildfires rumble over the Adirondacks.  (We’ve been lucky with regards to the smoke - the jet stream has been carrying it down from Canada to the west of use and then east to pool in New York City and spread down the east coast.  It’s a little hazy to the west of us, but the air is basically pretty clear where we are.)  Wednesday was drizzly and chilly much of the day.  We dropped anchor early in Button Bay, near the town of Rhode Island Corner in Vermont and just hunkered down thinking of things to bake in the oven to keep the salon warm.  (Biscuits, brownies, and muffins, if you’re wondering.)     

Today we traveled a few miles up the lake to temporarily drop anchor in a little cove where the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum is located.  This is a free museum/campus with several small buildings dedicated to the Maritime history and local history of this area.  A lot of the outdoor exhibits are geared for kids - how a block and tackle work, how to build a lean-to, how winches work, etc - and the indoor exhibits take you through the various strategies of the Revolutionary War military and navy to keep the Lake out of the hands of the British, as well as showing off a large number of different kinds of watercraft from canoes to ice boats.  The campus has a working boatbuilding shed and a working blacksmith shop as well, and offers hands-on learning courses to high school students.  We spent a couple of hours walking around on a self-tour (the place is free) before heading back to the Willie Dawes to push on.  

Lake Champlain Maritime Museum

We are settled in Converse Bay, just south of Burlington, with a beautiful view of the Adirondacks to the west.