Thursday, August 21, 2014

Paddlin' Some Chazy Waters

This past Saturday I met up with Capt'n and Mrs. Dangerous for some paddling and camping in Chazy and Champlain, NY, the last two townships before the Canadian border.  Champlain, like the lake, is named for Samuel de Champlain who paddled up the Richelieu River from the Saint Lawrence in 1609.  Chazy is said to be named for Captain de Chazy of the French regiment Carignan-Salieres who was killed in a skirmish with the Mohawks near the mouth of the Little Chazy River in 1666.  He'd been stationed at the French fort Sainte Anne on nearby Isle La Motte which is named for, yet another, French Captain Pierre la Motte.

The area is at Lake Champlain's northwestern end and near to where it transitions into the Richelieu River before flowing north into Canada. 

We launched at the mouth of the Great Chazy River where several marinas are located nearby.  With the cloud-laden sky and occasional showers most of the boats in the marinas remained tied-up for the day.  No complaints from us...

Heading up the Great Chazy we saw the tree-lined banks give way to rolling fields of corn.  Along the way we encountered blue herons, belted kingfishers, a green heron, an osprey, tree swallows, and a few cedar waxwings.  After traveling a little over 5 miles we reached the hamlet of Champlain and this distinctive building hard by its side...

It was once the First National Bank built in 1880 and today serves as...

Beyond the building there's an island where the river becomes too shallow for paddling.

Once back at the river's mouth we loaded up our boats and assembled the trash we'd recovered from the Great Chazy...

Then with the rain getting steadier we headed off for some local vittles before camping on the shore
of Lake Champlain's Monty Bay...
 
The family of Mrs. Capt'n Dangerous has maintained a camp here for several generations.

On Sunday morning, with peeks of blue sky finally appearing, the Capt'n and I paddled out on the lake from Monty Bay south to Treadwell Bay, rounding Point Au Roche State Park in the process...

 Once around North Point we enjoyed the view to the south...

The Point Au Roche Lighthouse is obviously no longer on the job...

A peaceful cove provided this mysterious structure which the Capt'n investigates...


Some rugged Point Au Roche shoreline...

At the conclusion of the paddle the sun had almost restored the feel of summer and a post-paddle swim in Monty Bay was enjoyed by all.

After a little hemming and hawing I elected to take the long way home via Champlain and Rouses Point, the latter being a railroad hot spot I'd long hoped to visit.

Driving through Champlain I stopped at the Elm Street Bridge and drank in a last view of the Great Chazy River under sunny conditions...
At Rouses Point the Delaware and Hudson RR station has been restored to reflect its 1889 design...
These days it contains a museum and serves as an Amtrak stop for the Adirondack which runs between New York City and Montreal.
Another adjacent station may possibly have once served the Rutland Railroad (long abandoned)...
 I noticed red signals to the south and a Canadian Pacific powered freight waiting 'in the hole'...
Within another 20 minutes I heard the approach of the northbound Adirondack and watched as it made its last stop in the USA before heading into Canada...
Once the Adirondack had cleared the station, the Canadian Pacific locomotive began moving in a southward direction...
...and I watched as the longest single commodity freight train I've ever seen slowly stretched out from behind the station...
Tank car after tank car of Bakken crude oil possibly bound for the Port of Albany.  There were so many cars that I began to doubt how one locomotive could possibly pull so many.  That's when I saw there was a second locomotive bringing up the rear...

Once calm had been restored I drove across the top of Lake Champlain into Vermont where Route 89 brought me back home.

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