Arctic Songbird Adventures

We departed Ft Edward after a late start this morning and decided to stay in Whitehall. We walked a couple miles in the burning heat and the only thing we could find that was open was the ice cream shop! It was disappointing and the town is basically dying like so many historic towns in these parts. At 4:30p we decided to go through the last lock on the Champlain Canal. Of course once we departed the wall the lockmaster informed us the lock was broken. Finally at 5:40p she got it working and off we went to find Lake Champlain before dark. We made it to Pt. Chipman Marina, which had dates on the buildings of 1810 and 1824! We met some nice folks from Vermont that own acres of farmland from many generations passed on. This is beautiful country and we are looking forward to cooler weather and more adventure around the lake this week.

We are back in some beautiful rural scenery in upstate NY as we cruise the Champlain Canal. We passed the Saratoga Battlefields and many historic sites but it has just been too hot to explore with temperatures in the mid 90's. Today is the peak of the heat wave with a forecast of 96F and tomorrow cooling into the 80's. I sure hope the forecasters are correct for once! We got off to a late start yesterday after church and reprovisioning. There were several slow spots in the canal and we had to wait for a barge on two of the four locks we transited. The locals were out in force due to the warm weekend day and the jet skiers were enjoying the wake we made. We are finding more and more bugs growing larger and larger as we venture onward, and at this rate, I am expecting to see spiders the size of my hand soon! We continue to find ticks in the boat so there are now multiple tick checks daily of the dogs. Today is our 24th anniversary! We need to get going and hopefully I will have e...