August 7

We were up at 5:30 a.m. The unhappy campground was quiet. I boiled water for my coffee bag and ate the last yogurt in the cooler. We left the sleeping campers behind, quietly driving out through the maze of roads connecting the campsites. Far too crowded,  I thought. Why drive all the way out here to park next to someone? I began to be persuaded by Heather’s idea that one can always sleep in one’s car in a Wal-Mart or hospital parking lot!  What have I come to? My childhood memories of camping 20 miles from the nearest road out in the Wind River wilderness area guide my vision of ideal camping conditions. Now this.

We arrived at the boat ramp in Whitehall at a good hour. There was still some night time coolness in the air. The lower end of Lake Champlain is indistinguishable from a river. It was hardly wider than the canal. Making good time through a wildlife preserve with many ospreys and extensive marshes on the shores, we made it to Chipman’s point just short of Fort Ticonderoga by 2:30 p.m. This was our longest day so far covering 19.27 miles.  Here we found a small marina housed in a very old stone house dating back to the early 1800s.

I found the owners sitting outside at the end of their docks. We tied up the boat across the nearest slip and we were both given a ride back to Whitehall to fetch our car. Needless to say we stopped for an ice cream on the way back.  We also stopped to get salads to have for dinner back at Chipman’s Point Marina. It seems that rich ice cream has been the mainstay of my diet for the past few days. I am glad to say it has all been burned off quickly.  We ate our salads sitting on folding stools we had brought with a tablecloth covering the tailgate of our new Honda Element before going down to the old stone house to take showers.  It was to be a good night’s sleep.