August 9

We woke early and snuck away from the Carothers’s hospitality to find our way back to Chimney Point to launch. Another perfect day as we headed straight up the lake past Crown Point and a huge International Paper Plant with droning machinery and tall stacks spewing the odor of sulphites.  This did act as a convenient stern mark to steer by, however. It gradually disappeared in the haze it produced and the smell was replaced by our concerns about the infestation of several invasive species of water plants that have practically ruined much of the shoreline of Lake Champlain. 

Water Chestnuts had been the predominant culprit south of Chipman’s point They were being harvested and taken ashore but apparently the traditional VT farmer was not accepting them as a soil amendment. We heard that they had been dumped in a cattle field in New York and the cows had come and devoured them with no ill effects but the dairy farmers had still not accepted them as a source of low cost cattle feed.  Either use looks like a solution to the problem they create.

Milfoil seems like a far worse problem as it is a perennial and fragments to reproduce. It is ugly, pervasive and ruins beaches and shoreline for use either for swimming or boating.  I saw miles of shoreline pass by with many nice houses on the waterfront looking out over the green slime extending several hundred yards off shore.  I strongly suspect that the septic systems of these houses are allowing nutrients into the lake that support its growth. More than likely these older houses have not changed their old five-gallon toilets to more efficient ones that would reduce the flow toward the lake. I thought about the reasons that got me into the business of promoting low consumption toilets resulting in my eventual career with TOTO USA. It was clear that the campaign has hardly begun to reduce the effects of our homes and camps on the water environment. I am proud to have been part of it but wonder if we can ever get mankind to come to its senses and make significant progress to restore what is already destroyed.

We kept passing possible take out places as shown on the chart until we finally came to a ramp at a place marked as Cedar Beach. I saw no beach. Neither did I see any “Private, Keep Out” signs on or near the ramp.  I was hot and exhausted after 17 miles. Heather’s mother and the friend she was staying with in Colchester were coming to pick us up here.  We took the boat out and carried all of the gear to a neat pile in the shade near the road and parking lot at the top of the ramp.  Being concerned that the ladies might not find us I walked up the small road coming down and met a fellow who was moving a boat. He said that although this was a private colony he thought no one would object to our taking out and getting picked up here. He pointed out that there was a public landing in the bay we had just passed a mile back. He offered to give me a ride to it to see if the ladies had ended up looking for us there.  There was no sign of them but I asked him to leave me there so that I could spot them coming in.  I waited five minutes and sure enough the appeared having been driving around looking for us. They drove me back to the boat and then left with Heather to go to Chimney Point to fetch our car.  I then fell asleep in the shade. Apparently some of the residents walked bay and saw this tired old man lying on the side of the road in their private surrounds and called the manager of the place. I was not aware of this until Heather came back and we were in the middle of loading up the boat and our gear. An older man approached and asked if we were associated in any way with the colony. We explained that we were not but we had seen the ramp on the NOAA chart and thought that it was OK to land.  He did not want to hear any more from us and told us residents had complained and we were to get our selves and our boat out immediately. This was rather obviously what we were doing. 

The feeling of unwelcome that we received was quite upsetting to both of us.  It raises in my mind the question of the rights of any distressed sea or lake farers traveling along a shore. Has our species become so possessive of the shoreline as to turn away travelers in distress?  I was not, to be sure, in distress. Rather I was in a stupor of blissful tiredness. But I was close to exhaustion when I landed. What if a storm had come up? What if I had been injured somehow?  I find it hard to believe that shoreline ownership justifies the exclusion of travelers in distress.  I was not arriving in some loud smoking offensive powerboat spilling a rainbow of fuel on their “beach”.  I guess I believe that property owners need to have the sense to distinguish between intruders in need and those simply in want.

We left Cedar Beach Colony with no interest in ever returning much less meeting any of its residents!  I do believe that the charts should remove their boat ramp and show the public ones only.

We went to the home of Betty Bahrenburg with whom Heather’s mother was staying while we are on our trip. She gave us a bed and we took them to dinner to repay for their efforts to retrieve us.  A laundry was done and we were asleep early.