Champlain Continued

Lock opening onto Lake Champlain

I forgot to mention in my last post, that we had to go through 12 locks to get to Lake Champlain - 9 lifted us up into the Adirondack Mountains, and 3 lowered us down to the lake.

5 O' Clock on Lake Champlain

Mary Beth and Tom Hodson met us part way up the lake at Basin Harbor Club. Tom grew up in the summers there and was a great tour guide for the next two days. We visited the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, which is on the grounds of Basin Harbor Club, then cruised up the lake to beautiful and secluded Button Bay where we anchored for the night.

Lake Champlain is amazing. It is over 120 miles long and deep - our depth meter read over 400 feet several times. It is also unusually beautiful because it's bounded by the Adirondack Mountains on one side, and the  Green Mountains on the other. There's supposed to be a monster named "Champ" living in it, but we didn't see him.

                 

Loon on Button Bay

Tom is nuts - 46 degree water!

Tom took a post breakfast swim, then we departed for the 7-mile trip up the Otter Creek to Vergennes, VT. Vergennes is a lovely town with a beautiful water fall, great restaurants and a free dock for boaters, but the Otter River is a lot like the river in the movie Deliverance.

Vergennes Falls & Free Dock