Day 274 Vergennes, VT Lake Champlain 6/14

Last lock going up the Champlain Canal - highest level 140'





Is this 2 inches or 6 inches?





Champlain Memorial Light House below Fort Ticonderoga





Adriondack Mtns of New York.






Waterfalls at Vergennes, VT





It rained all day and evening traveling to Fort Edwards. NO WAIT... it would quit until I went to the bow to lock through and then it would start up again!

The communities along Champlain Canal have built and provided free City Docks for overnight tie ups some complete with electricity and water. Generally they are park like environments, close to stores, restaurants, post offices, ATM's ETC. This was a very nice facility right below lock 7 and half mile off of the Champlain Canal, very protected and clean, and close to amenities that a small town has to offer.

Sunday we started out at 7:15 with a cloudy and misty morning. We knew we had 4 locks left to finish the canal route and 17 bridges to get under in the 17' range. It seemed every time we went around a bend in the river there was another bridge! Tom had removed the crane to get our height down to 16’ 10". Good thing I’m still agile as I would climb up on the hardtop and try to determine if we were going to clear or not. The least amount of clearance was 2", and never more than 6-8" of clearance. If a bridge was supposed to be 18’, I wouldn’t bother to climb up to check and we’d hold our breath until we passed under it. We don’t know how much rain the area has had and since it had rained all day and night was the water up? The bridges here do not have measurement markings like we’re used to seeing. The last thing we need is another $2000.00 expense with knocking off the radar.

When we reached Lake Champlain the clouds disappeared and the Adirondack Mountains on the New York side and the Green Mountains on the Vermont border were spectacular. The average depth of the lake is 96’ but we saw as deep at 392’. It is 109 miles long and sometimes as wide as 9 miles. Instead of stopping at our planned anchorage in Bulwagga Bay ( MM 70) we continued to Vergennes, VT. This was 7 Miles up Otter Creek which was more like a river; 10'-18' deep and wide. The dock is free for 48 hours with 300' of dock space on the north and south shore complete with electricity and city water. There is a beautiful waterfall within site of the docks and after dark the falls were illuminated with colored lights. We attempted to ride up the very steep hill to town but ended up pushing our bikes most of the way. We had an excellent dinner on the patio of the well known Black Sheep Restaurant. Vergennes is known the oldest city in Vermont.

Lake Champlain had a role in our country’s history with the British against the American Colonists during the Revolutionary War. Fort Ticonderoga was built in 1755 by the French, captured in 1775 by the English and taken in 1776 by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold and the Green Mountain Boys. It was retaken in 1777 by the British.