"Meet at whites Beach at 10:30 am for circumnavigation of Valcour. Plan on a strong 4 hour paddle."
Note it doesn't mention a day. That was in the subject line, but one guy didn't notice that, showed up on Saturday instead of Sunday and ended up doing the paddle alone.... then came again and did it with us.
The stretch between White's beach and Valcour Island in New York is often the windiest part of the lake, and if it is southerly, nearly a hundred miles of fetch (so great waves!)
This time, not so much.. What wind there was, we were headed into. It shifted though and by the time we got to Valcour, it was downwind. As we progressed around the island, it was ALWAYS headed towards the island. A thermal sea breeze!
The east side of the island has a lot of small caves. The waves wash over the openings making a very bassy gurgling that I can only describe as whale belches.
Lunch break, looking back at the start, with Mt. Mansfield (aka Stowe ski area) in back.
West to New York (Peru and Keeseville)
After lunch, we continued around up the NY side
and decided to check out Crab Island.
Crab Island is named for the marine fossils in its limestone. I guess trilobites look kind of like crabs.
Crab Island's place in history is that there was a field hospital there in the war of 1812. There were also a few cannons placed there to defend Plattsburgh, manned entirely by invalids. ON the island now is a memorial for the battle of Plattsburgh, in which the invalids captured one of the British ships.
That battle pretty much marked the end of the war as it left the US dominating the lake so the British couldn't use the water highway from Montreal to NY (Lake Champlain to Lake George to the Hudson River) to transport troops and supplies.
After the historic tour, it was time to head home, upwind. Again, that was a thermal that died out once we got a ways from shore.
No comments:
Post a Comment