A Sight To See

We were exploring on Lake Champlain a couple of days ago, having launched the Sea Fox at Westport and traveled up to Split Rock Point (NY), Kingsland Bay (VT), and checked out all the moored boats at Point Bay Marina (the marina in VT that we found by land recently). On the way back to the launch ramp we spotted the 88 ft. Lois McClure heading south on the New York side of the lake, so we headed over to see it as it was being towed 'on the hip' by its tugboat, which is its only propulsion.

This full size replica of an1862 class sailing canal boat was built in Burlington, VT. We watched the progress over the years and were on hand when they launched her. It now travels throughout NY, VT and into Canada inviting the public onboard to learn the history of the boat, shipping during that period and the surrounding areas. What a great sighting, knowing we witnessed its launching along the Burlington waterfront way back in 2004. It is hard to believe it was that long ago. To read more about this canal boat click HERE for their website.

Park Hopping

When we go the Thousand Islands there are three different state parks that we like to frequent. From experience we found that we really like camping at Keewaydin, mainly for the gigantic pool that is so nice to jump in when we return from an outing. It is also a great place to walk and even has a few short hiking trails. Plus the launch ramp can always be used no matter what the river level is. However, unless you walk out to the marina or along the shore, there aren't many sites that have a view of the St. Lawrence. Grass Point State Park does have that view (and a few sites with power, which Keewaydin doesn't have), but with the water high, their launch ramp is barely usable, except the kayaking is really good. Our other spot we like is Kring Point, which is a bit to the north and set about 8 miles from Alexandria Bay. It too has electric and water hook ups, so even though it is removed from the tourist areas, the place is packed with campers. The surrounding islands are so much fun to paddle around though, and the coves that the islands make attracts loons. So, what we have discovered is that when we get a campsite at any of the parks, we have free day use at any other park in the area! Instead of moving our whole entourage to each park, we can stay at Keywaydin and bring the yaks to the other parks. We did this and it worked out perfectly, especially at Kring Point.

The loons were calling and I was able to get fairly close to one family of them...

Would you like to buy this island? You could put a house on the whole rock, like the one we saw near Grennell Island.

Or perhaps you could buy one of these trailers or modulars for a mere quarter of a million dollars...if you could get anyone to sell. Great view, but the river is wide here.

On these 2 islands, the homes were gorgeous, but we couldn't help to wonder how they got the gazebo on the boathouse roof.

The water seemed to have gone down a couple of inches during the 4 days that we were there, but it is still high and doing damage to boathouses. 

The 300 ft. from shore no wake zones are still posted, but few people pay attention to this. You can imagine the damage a wake from a large boat would do to places that are already flooded or close to flooded. These homeowners kept their sense of humor though... 

Now we have a routine as to where to go and what to do, all weather dependent of course. Although Dave will be going to the Antique Boat Museum's show and auction on Saturday in Clayton, I will sit this one out and stay in Ticonderoga for more kayaking. We will shoot for a nice few days to return in Gulliver to Alex Bay later in August, but you never know when that urge to see ships will take over and change our plans...

Island Hopping

One of our favorite things to do is to take the kayaks in the Sea Fox, find a place to anchor, put the yaks in the water, and go explore.  We did just that off of Grennell Island and circumnavigated a few of the surrounding islands.

The houses are quite large on this island and this one had its own water tower, along with a wooden boat hiding in the boathouse...

Many of the houses and boathouses look quite a bit like the ones in the Thousand Island Park, and that is because Grennell is very close by that community on Wellsley Island...

The large blow-up floats and tubes are trendy right now. We have seen flamingos and swans among others. This one was neither but made us really laugh...

I am not sure if this island is a house or the house is an island, because the house took up the whole island.

This Great Blue Heron didn't want to leave its feeding area.

Moose on the roof! You can also see how high the water still is.

After this exploration, we were still ready for more paddle time, so we loaded the yaks back up and headed towards Clayton and Washington Island. That is where we saw the swan family.

We were really impressed with the St. Lawrence Restoration Company, where the docks were filled with vintage wooden boats. Some day we will have to go back and visit by land.

What a great outing, but next time we do this I would like to have a sign made up to leave on the boat that says something like, "Gone kayaking. Be back shortly." Now that we seem to go so far away from the 'mothership', I get nervous that once we are out of sight of the boat that someone might wonder why there is an 'abandoned' boat anchored out and have it towed. It certainly doesn't stop us from padding though! 😉

Repeat Performance

Guess where we were for the past 4 days?

The weather was predicted to be perfect for another trip to the Thousand Islands, so we figured we better go while it was nice out. On the spur of the moment we headed north, and although we did have a few showers during our stay, it was actually one of our nicest times there. We camped in Gulliver for the three nights at Keewaydin State Park and what a treat to have only about half the campsites filled, which is the advantage of being able to go during the week. Yes, we did see lots of freighters and 'Lakers' this time around (they all seemed to be red for some reason 😉), and we tried to get as close as possible to read their names...

We also saw the unusual sight of a mega yacht. This one was named Grace and according to the St Lawrence Seaway website that shows the comings and goings of all the large vessels and ships, it spent the night in Cape Vincent after passing by us and going up current.

Plus the small cruise ship Victory 2 made its way down current towards Montreal, and it seems to be a regular now, plying the St. Lawrence.

We saw and heard more loons, one of which surfaced right next to the Sea Fox on an outing...

Then we saw a swan family near Clayton with this pair having 4 cygnets!

There are so many gorgeous houses and estates, but this one really caught our eye. I love the rounded door...

We had several wonderful kayak adventures too, but I will save those photos for the next couple of posts. Stay tuned!

Boondoggle?

We have followed the building of the new Frontier Town equestrian campground in North Hudson from its inception a few years ago. Built on 91 acres of land where the old Frontier Town western cowboy amusement park was located, we felt it was a must to go see what the NYS DEC had turned this land into. This is its first season open, so we knew it would be a good chance to explore it when the wind was blowing 25 mph and we couldn't get out on the lake. There was no better way to get there than the PT Cruiser with the top down on the 90 degree morning. It is only about an hour or less away and we were so glad we went! We were allowed to go in and check out the grounds without paying a day use charge, which was nice.

The place is gorgeous and new, but there was hardly anyone there. There are 91 campsites and maybe a dozen people camping...and it was the weekend, which is the busiest time.

Of those 91 campsites, 33 are equestrian sites, but there were no campers there at the moment. These sites weren't half as nice as the other campsites and looked to be all in a row in a parking lot. Hopefully you like your neighbor. The horse stalls were small and not separated by much, so your horse better be friendly with its next door neighbor too.

There are trails throughout the park that we read are shared by hikers, bicyclists and horseback riders (Dave said too bad it's not for dirt bikes). There are also pavilions for larger get-togethers.

I got a kick out of the saloon doors on the bathhouses...

There are playgrounds for the kids, and the campground is so expansive that it would be great for bicycles. However there is no pool and I saw one sign that said that Schroon River was a 2 1/2 mile hike away. You know us...we want water nearby!

I really hope that business gets better for them because right now, as Dave said, it's a boondoggle. If you look up the definition, it describes it best..."work or activity that is wasteful or pointless, but gives the appearance of having value." It all looks lovely, but it will take a long time to recoup the millions of dollars invested in this project, especially if so few people are taking advantage of the facility.

Plus the old entrance building is being turned into the Paradox Brewery! They too will need more than the dozen campers we saw to make a go of it, since there isn't much else out there in that part of the Adirondacks. 

Boondoggle? You be the judge and take a trip to visit the area. It may just bring back memories of when you were a kid and joined in the cowboy festivities. Some of the old buildings could even be hidden way back in the woods.

Staying Cool

Being in the water has been our way to stay cool the past couple of days. Yesterday we took Moxie down to our spot in the Mother Bunch Islands on Lake George. We left at 9:30 AM to beat the weekend crowds (it worked!) and didn't get home until 5 PM. We certainly got to see lots of boating and anchoring antics during that time. One boater almost ran Dave down while he was snorkeling with his dive flag up! Luckily he saw Dave at the last minute and then tried to go between Dave and the dive flag. Boy, was I yelling. Besides that though, the water is warm enough to be comfortable and yet cool enough to be refreshing. We couldn't stay in the sun and out of the water long though...

Perfect for building cairns! Everyone that came into our cove added to it.

Plus the view coming and going from our favorite anchorage can't be beat. This is Deer Leap at Tongue Mountain:

Today we spent the afternoon at the town beach with strong southerly winds kicking up enough waves to almost body surf in. That was a nice challenge, and even more challenging for most of the beach goers who were trying to stay out of the blowing sand. The lifeguards canopy tent even blew down. We however, know just the spots to be in to be protected from the wind but still enjoy Lake George's pristine water. We also took a short trip in the PT Cruiser Convertible, but I will leave that story for tomorrow's post. Here's a hint though...do you have a horse?