Champlain Canal ... back to the Hudson

August 28 - 30:

At the southern end, Lake Champlain narrows and appears more like a river than a lake.  We cruise past Fort Ticonderog and promise ourselves we will come back and anchor here to tour the Fort next summer.  Granite cliffs appear off our port side and on starboard marshes; it is very beautiful and tranquil.

This boat house on the canal has seen better days!

We arrive at Whitehall, the very end of the Lake, beginning of the Champlain Canal and eleven more locks!

 Very tight squeeze,  Kaptain Karl amazed marina staff with his boat handling skills!

Looking at the entrance to Lock 12

A hundred years ago, the canal towns on the Erie and here on Champlain were thriving and pulsating with commerce.  After years of decline, a number of towns are beginning a renaissance based on tourism and increased interest from boaters.  Below are a couple of photos of Whitehall:

Our next stop, Schuylerville, near Saratoga and a good mid-point on the Canal. The owners, Judy and Phil, are legendary for their hospitality and they did not disappoint.

Judy suggested a scenic walk through town and along the old canal towpath.  Along the way, we saw this curiosity, a large wooden water pipe that feeds the town with fresh spring water from the mountains.

Spray from leaks in the pipe

August 31:  Reflections from Waterford, NY

We are back on the Hudson River. 

We have travelled 1,123 miles from the top of the Chesapeake Bay, up the New Jersey coast and the Hudson River to Waterford at the start of the Erie Canal; and then the loop of the Erie, Oswego, Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence Seaway to the Richelieu River, Chambly Canal, Lake Champlain and the Champlain Canal back to Waterford, NY.  (This does not include all the side trips on Lake Champlain.)

We transited a total of 58 locks (with one more to go back through the Troy Federal Lock).  The 23 Erie locks were the toughest with their slimy walls and ropes, and a number of them with a swift rise or fall of water causing turbulence.  The 7 locks on the Oswego came next, and then another 7 huge St Lawrence Seaway locks.  We found the giant Seaway locks, 2 in the U.S. and 5 Canadian were actually very easy to transit; lockmasters were friendly, handed the dry ropes to you and checked to make sure you were ready before filling or emptying the lock at a gentle rate.  This is quite amazing considering the locks hold 21M gallons of water, enough to fill 30 Olympic size swimming pools and that the total lift from first to last is 243 feet!  The Chambly Canal into Lake Champlain added another 10 locks through the Canadian Heritage Canal system, they are small and hand operated, require a tight squeeze, and are absolutely charming.  Lastly, leaving Lake Champlain, we travelled through 11 locks from the bottom of Lake Champlain back to Waterford, NY.  These were also small and easy to navigate.

“whew, 1123 miles and 58 locks, time to relax with my buddy”

It has been a wonderful trip and we do not regret the decision to leave the Saint Lawrence Seaway,  and our planned visit to Quebec City, in order to transit Lake Champlain.  It would have been a shame to miss this lovely cruising destination.  It seemed to us that the only cruisers who know about it are the Canadians and so the Lake waters are pristine and the landscape is unspoiled.  Upon further reflection, we realize that many boats are too tall to pass under the fixed bridges of the Champlain route.  We can clear under a 15’ bridge, which is ideal since Champlain bridges chart at a clearance of 17’ at normal lake levels and only 15.5’ at flood stage.  Ironically, most of the boats we saw on Lake Champlain were sailboats that had their masts stepped or taken down and put back up once through all the bridges and out on the Lake.