We close the loop on our summer travels, cruising down Lake Champlain and the Champlain Canal back to where we started the Erie Canal in Waterford NY. First, though, we take a short pause for a Minnesota visit. Continuing south, when the port engine suddenly quits working we learn how much a $25 part can actually cost. Ah, such is boat life…
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When we crossed back into the US after the Chambly Canal, we were on Lake Champlain. A long lake running north-south with New York on the west side and Vermont to the east, it is also a hidden gem for fresh water cruising. There are pristine anchorages, small towns and bigger towns, tons of Revolutionary War and War of 1812 history, and miles and miles of natural beauty. After Labor Day is some of the best cruising, with milder days, less crowded towns, and fewer boats plying the waters. We were still trying to stay north during the peak hurricane season, and after the many locks of the waterways in Canada, we looked forward to the relatively open water and relaxed pace of a month on Champlain, the final leg of our summer ‘triangle loop’ that would take us back to the Hudson River.
We also planned a road trip back to Minnesota for a short visit with family and friends and a couple days at our favorite Gooseberry State Park. This drive would end up being along parts of previous cruising grounds along Lake Erie and the Great Loop, routes both familiar and yet different when viewed through our new lens of recent experience.
Plattsburgh, NY
Aug 20 – Sep 2, 2024
Our first stop once back in the States was Plattsburgh, where we planned on leaving the boat for a bit to make a quick road trip to Minnesota. But before that Dave had an appointment with a dermatologist in Albany to get a lesion on his lip removed. There’s a long story beginning all the way back in May before we left Norfolk, but suffice it to say that in early June I spent a lot of time calling dermatologists along our route, and the soonest we could get an appointment was August 22 in Albany. (Don’t even get me started on why this couldn’t be done earlier.) That date was then our endpoint for the summer schedule in order to be in rental car range.
So once settled at Treadwell Bay Marina (where we had a huge snapping turtle swim by our slip as a welcome) we picked up a rental car. This allowed us to explore downtown Plattsburgh a bit, most famous for the Battle of Lake Champlain that led to the end of the War of 1812. The town is now a mix of historic and college vibe, with SUNY Plattsburgh ramping up for the new academic year. The following day we drove two hours to Albany for Dave’s appointment. It was quick, easy, painless, and he’s fine – issue resolved with this simple procedure – and we were back at the boat by 1800.
The second item of business we had in Plattsburgh was to replace the inverter. As you might recall, in Ottawa our inverter went kapooey and trying to order a new one to be delivered in Canada when you are a tourist was quite a challenge, so we had it sent to Plattsburgh. The idea was for it to be waiting for us when we arrived but of course it got complicated and delayed, which we’ve pretty much learned to expect. So we decided to head to MN early, and hastily prepared the boat and us to be gone for 10 days, departing the next morning.
Road Trip to Minnesota
Aug 23 – Sep 1
The drive across the Adirondacks was absolutely beautiful along the state highway rather than the interstate, winding through trees and small towns and along rivers. It was also a study in quirkiness, passing things like a large rock painted to look like the head of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, a picket fence made of skis, and town with the cool name of Speculator. We felt like we were globe trotting as we passed through the towns of Rome, Russia, and Poland. Farmland and vineyards through four states was the predominant view as we made it to our overnight stop of Cleveland. I was the unlucky one to draw the dreaded loop-around-Chicago shift the next day. Soon Wisconsin welcomed us and we stopped in La Crosse, with a downtown dominated by the University and breweries and the World’s Largest Six-Pack. Taking the state route north along the Mississippi, farmland alternated with small vintage river towns and the occasional Army Corps of Engineers lock; we see the river towns and locks from a forever-changed perspective after these past three years of cruising.
We stayed with our good friend Colleen, and it was a busy three days there visiting family and friends, a trip to our favorite Pine Tree Apple Orchard, lunch with some of my former HealthPartners colleagues, and a day at the Minnesota State Fair with friends Colleen and Joe. Then we spent two days up at the North Shore of Lake Superior in Two Harbors and Gooseberry State Park, a Ratte favorite summer destination going back to when Dave’s mom was a young girl. Dave’s brother Jim and his wife Tammy were camping there, and niece Shannon had come up from Virginia with her twins. One of the best parts was introducing a fourth generation to all the favorite family spots and activities. It’s a beautiful, very special place.
On the return drive we headed across Wisconsin and into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Stopping in Ashland, WI to find a post office (because I realized I had forgotten to return the hotel key) we took a brief timeout at their weekly farmers market across the street. Crossing over the Mackinac Bridge was a little nostalgic as almost exactly two years ago we passed under it on our Loop. We did a very long second day to get back to the boat late, driving through the Adirondacks as the shadows got long and then the last hour on the interstate in the dark and rain.
The boat was still afloat, and the new inverter was waiting for us! The next day was busy as Dave changed out the inverter while I used the final hours of our rental car to hastily reprovision. We also had to do a major boat cleaning, as the spider webs and spider poop were unbelievable. Time to get back to cruising.
Valcour Island
Sep 2
First stop after Plattsburgh was Valcour Island, a New York State Park only accessible by private boat and has lots of short hiking trails. One took us past an old lighthouse and around a point to the small bay where a contingent of Rebel ships lay in wait for the British in one of the first battles of the Revolutionary War on Oct 11, 1776. The Americans were beaten pretty badly, but it was considered a success because they inflicted enough damage to the British vessels to make them turn around because winter was approaching. By the time they tried again after the ice melted the Americans were much more organized and we all know the rest of that story. (And who commanded the new Navy at Valcour? None other than Benedict Arnold. He has become so synonymous with traiter-hood that we forget he was a successful American leader before he became disillusioned and switched loyalties.)
Burlington VT
Sep 3-10
Burlington quickly became one of our Top 10 favorite cities. It’s got that college town vibe along with a historic pedigree starting with Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys. We stayed a week here so we could really get to know the town by going through the whole weekly rhythm.
Our goal was to find one fun thing to do in town each day. On the way to the big Saturday farmer’s market we stumbled upon a huge art festival that weekend! We did a trolley tour one day and a dinner train another night, where we met a lovely couple from TX. Burlington is famous for its microbrewery and coffee scene, and we found our usual share of bakeries. Of course, we had to try the signature maple black raspberry creemee (Vermont’s dairy-rich version of soft serve ice cream – it’s delicious). One day we scootered six miles along the Greenway Trail, stopping for a hike around Rock Point. We took the city bus to explore the former manufacturing town of Winooski, with its history back to pre-Revolutionary times and Ethan Allen. In between daily outings we just relaxed, read, puttered, and watched the tour boats of all sizes come and go. On many evenings we saw stunning sunsets of pinks, oranges, and reds over the layered shades of gray of the Adirondack Mountains across the lake.
Westport NY
Sep 11-15
We crossed the lake back to the NY side and the small town of Westport, almost entirely residential with a single block of ‘main drag.’ The homes are big, old, and in various states from well-kept and stately to disrepair. The marina’s owners, Larry and Lane, are hands-on, especially now that their summer student help was gone. Arriving midday on a Wednesday, no one answered our several hails. We finally just pulled up at an empty stretch of dock to find they had closed up at 10 to go to an appointment. In town, there was a lone coffee shop which we patronized. We learned about Westport Chairs, the 1909 precursor to Adirondack Chairs, and did the 2.6 mi walk around town to find the 10 themed chairs.
We had the lake pretty much to ourselves as we headed to Ticonderoga two days later on what was a perfect day on the water — calm, sunny, and glassy. And then…a ’check engine’ alarm and the port engine shuts down. It’s as if we ran out of gas. We sit out there and drift while Dave finds nothing obvious. Try starting up again, and it turns over but won’t catch, just like…we’re out of gas. I call back to Westport Marina, and turns out Larry is one of a very short list of mechanics on the lake (maybe the only) with the necessary device to read the Volvo error codes to help diagnose the problem. That’s a stroke of luck. So we return to Westport on one engine. Larry comes down with his Volvo gizmo and after a couple hours he and Dave determine the problem a stupid little relay switch on the fuel system that has failed, cutting off the fuel supply so the engine thought… we ran out of gas. Good news is it’s a simple plug-in part to replace. Bad news is it’s Friday evening and the part has to be ordered. So this $25 part is going to cost us about $500 in dockage fees as we await its arrival. (We would have been anchoring or staying at free walls otherwise). It’s a boat – ‘nuf said. But we had a beautiful view of the lake, simple but decent facilities, and gorgeous weather – so the glass was really half full.
As tiny a town as Westport is, we still explored a little more. The nearest grocery store was miles away, but we scootered up to two different ‘self-serve’ establishments that sold local meats, dairy, vegetables, and miscellaneous other stuff. You selected your items and did self-checkout – they even had a cash drawer just sitting out in the open to make your own change. Nothing was cheap, but it was an interesting concept.
Then late on our third day of Boat Part Captivity, Dave has an epiphany: our fire suppression system uses the exact same relays! He could take a good one from the suppression system and use it on the fuel line. The port suppression system would be inoperable until we got the new part in Albany, but since it hadn’t worked on either side for six years with the previous owner because it had been hooked up wrong, as Dave discovered shortly after we bought the boat (and why he knew it had the same relay), we figured it was worth the risk. Dave changed it out, started the engine, and declared TOMORROW WE RIDE!
Champlain Canal
Sept 16 – 19
Whitehall
Ft. Edward
Mechanicville
Waterford
Because epiphanies come slower at our age, the delay in Westport meant we had to cut out a couple planned stops/anchorages on the Lake. After Dave made arrangements with Larry to forward the ordered relay to Albany, we were off — again. It was just us and some water fowl on the lake as it gradually narrowed heading south, the Green Mountains of Vermont on our port side and the Adirondacks of NY to starboard. We passed historic Ft. Ticonderoga high up on the bluff. Once through ‘the narrows,’ the shoreline became marsh grass against a background of rocky palisades. Almost every buoy or navigational aid had an osprey nest, and we were frequently subjected to a chirpy scolding.
We arrived at the start of the Champlain Canal, locking through C-12 at Whitehall and tying up to the free wall. Whitehall was a town in decline two years ago, but it has indeed declined further. It was very sad to see the almost completely empty and falling apart downtown buildings. Once a busy industrial port with shipbuilding that earned it the distinction of being the birthplace of the US Navy, it is now best known for the annual Bigfoot Festival, which we missed by one weekend. Oh darn.
While the Champlain Canal was built during the same time period as all the other canals for the same purpose of increasing commerce, it has been modernized by the NY Canal System. Joining Lake Champlain to the Hudson River, it is a combination of straight man-made sections and other stretches that are part of the Hudson River.
Departing Whitehall, we did four locks to get to Ft. Edwards and the free town dock. The town had much more life to it than Whitehall, but still was a bit worn. Once again, we were the only boat on the wall that night enjoying a beautiful sunset.
We had four more locks the following day on the way to Mechanicville, the third of which was C-4 Stillwater! It is in Washington County (NY) and has a bridge that looks very similar to the Lift Bridge in Stillwater MN but it doesn’t lift – it just stays put. Coincidence, or …? It was also at C4 that we began the ‘double flush’ of the remaining locks to help prevent the spread of the dreaded invasive Round Gobi (a fish): the chamber is filled once, drained, then filled again before boats enter and lock through. They also were limiting the lockages to three a day at designated times, so we didn’t arrive at the empty Mechanicville free dock until later in the afternoon. The town was busy only because a major highway runs through it, but otherwise was similar to others with tired and empty structures. One thing of interest was a big and old public elementary school from an apparent era when boys and girls entered through separate entrances. Never knew that was even a thing.
After doing ten of the twelve Champlain locks, we had deduced that the apparent NY Canal System uniform is faded jeans and worn tshirt. And if you don’t have your own 12” beard they will issue you one. Several were what we started calling Silent Bob locks, because when Dave hailed them they would not respond. We would just see lock doors opening for us to enter a few minutes later.
From Mechanicville, we had just C-2 and C-1 the following morning – also both double flush and limited to specific times – and then we tied up in Waterford where we had started the Erie Canal back in June. Waterford is actually a nice stop, and seeing several other boats there was a refreshing change. It had a vintage feel with the Victorian and 19th century architecture in the homes and buildings, as well as an eclectic if not exactly modern downtown. They also had left the remnant of the old Erie Canal Lock as well as some of the original mule tow path when they built the new E-2.
Waterford is where we had started the Erie Canal back in June, so upon arrival we had officially finished the summer’s Triangle Loop! (Okay, looking at the map maybe it was more of a Trapezoid Loop.) From here on we will be in southern migration mode. We have one more lock to do – the Troy Federal Lock — when we leave Waterford, and I will be happy to be done with locks for quite some time. I’m actually looking forward to a thorough cleaning of the boat and putting away all the extra fenders and lines. Time to start thinking about tides and currents and salt water. And in Albany, a special guest is joining us for the trip down the Hudson!
Final Thoughts
This summer was exactly what we wanted and needed – a slow pace, enjoying the summer and being on the water, with time in both new and familiar places to just sit and absorb all that was around us. It gave us plenty of time to reflect on what we’ve accomplished over the last three plus years, and continue discussing what we want going forward. We’ve reached a few conclusions.
- We have learned a lot. We both laugh and cringe at some of the things we used to do.
- The two most rewarding aspects have been the people we’ve met and overcoming challenges.
- Doing the Great Loop two years ago came with a built-in social life and community of Loopers. This summer’s adventures did not have that, and it was missed.
- Future travel will involve family and friends more.
- We can’t imagine a future that doesn’t involve boating and being on the water somehow.
- Almost all of our Looper friends either no longer have a boat or are not doing extended cruising. Amongst our family, the number of boaters is zero.
- Fresh water cruising has much to offer.
- Fresh water cruising occurs in places that have long, cold winters.
- We are done with long, cold winters.
Seem like a mess of contradictory conclusions? Yeah, to us too. But not to fear, we’ve got some time to figure it out. And we do see a path through this tangled web.
For the immediate future, it’s time to get this boat cleaned up from the lock carnage and wage war on spiders and spider poop!
Pops’ Stats Corner*
This blog:
- No of Days: 31
- Travel Days: 8
- Days stuck because of a stupid $25 part: 3
- Days of MN Road Trip: 10
- Miles Traveled: 204.0 (177.4 nm)
- Locks: 11
Total Stats for our Trapezoid:
- Tot No Days: 93
- Tot Travel Days: 42
- Tot Miles Traveled: 935.8 (813.7 nm)
- Locks: 68
*Pops is the family’s affectionate name for Dave’s dad. He had a mind for sports statistics, earning him the nickname Numbers from the coaches of several Stillwater teams with whom he worked. This regular section of the blog is in his honor, because it’s the kind of thing he would love.
I’m guessing the “Glass half full’ philosophy does not apply to spider poop. Looking forward to more adventures