Travel Day Along the St. Lawrence Seaway - Tuesday, July 30, 2019

On this trip, our timing seems to be impeccable. I don't know how we do it, but things work out for us.

First, our destination today is Wilmington, New York. This past weekend was the Ironman Triathlon in Lake Placid, one of the triathlons to qualify for the Ironman in Kona, Hawaii. The race was on Sunday. Many people stayed until yesterday to leave the area. We arrived today to a lot fewer crowds.

We had a couple of different routes we could take to Wilmington. One way was to take State Route 3 from Watertown through the Adirondack Mountains. The other way was along the St. Lawrence Seaway. We chose the latter in hopes of seeing a ship go through the locks at Dwight D. Eisenhower Lock. Bob had checked the shipping schedule, but he thought ships were about three hours away. We went anyway.

We left Clayton, New York at about 8:30 a.m. to drive along the St. Lawrence Seaway in New York. The highway had very little traffic, was mostly level, and had nice shoulders. But the best part of this drive is the scenery! Driving along the St. Lawrence Seaway is beautiful. We saw one big tanker heading upriver. There were bays and ponds and rivers all along the way. 

People we had talked to told us we needed to go under the lock in a tunnel to get to the north viewing area. So, when we drove up from the highway, we passed by the entrance to the Dwight D. Eisenhower Visitor Center and went through the tunnel. 

The entrance we missed. We didn't expect it
so quickly after we got on this road.

Through the 13' 6" tunnel (no problemo).

We got to the north viewing area and very quickly noticed that we could not get close to the lock, fences kept us out. A ship was at the entrance to the lock! 

We quickly took the 5th wheel back under the tunnel and made our way to the Eisenhower Visitor Center. As you can see in the photo below, the parking lot is almost completely empty. There were maybe five other vehicles there.

Rigamarole and Beauty in the Visitor Center lot.

When we walked up to the first building you see by the parking lot, the security guard came out and told us if the lot fills up we would have to move our rig. Bob said, "Oh, yes, of course." The guard told us a lot of times when people read that a ship is coming through the locks they race in and fill up the parking. But then he also said he doubted they'd get that many people on a weekday morning.

The guard was so concerned about our parking job, he didn't remember to check my bag. Crazy.

Anyway, Bob and I had a big laugh about the lot filling up. There were more birds in the lot than cars.

We made it to the viewing platform in time to see the ship pull into the lock. The ship would rise up 40 feet. It took about 30 minutes from the time the ship pulled in until it was raised up and left the lock heading upriver.

The ship nestled 40' down in the lock.

And here she is up at river level.

A close up showing how big this thing is.

The ship is the Algoma Harvester on a return trip to Canada to pick up iron ore. We saw some huge factories on the Canadian side of the river, but we don't know what was being made in them.

The ship is underway now.

In addition to watching the ship go through the lock, you could check out a couple of outside displays, and a Visitor Center with a 20-minute movie narrated by Walter Cronkite about how they made the St. Lawrence River navigable for large ships; however, the supertankers being built today will not fit through these locks. 

The valves that let water into the lock.

A map of the seaway system from the Great Lakes
to the Atlantic Ocean.

The display below is pretty interesting. The bottles contain samples of the 30 principal cargoes shipped via the seaway.

The shipping channel buoys and my boy.

After watching the movie, we checked out the gift shop (didn't buy anything). Then we had a lunch consisting of chicken salad sandwiches, macaroni salad, and cherries in the 5th wheel. We weren't fighting traffic in that parking lot! It was even emptier when we left.

Thunderstorms were brewing just west of us and it was time to skedaddle to Wilmington, New York. The roads through the mountains were fine; no steep grades or sharp curves. From Massena, New York, we took Hwy 37, to Hwy 30, to Hwy 86 through Saranac Lake and Lake Placid. We did get a really heavy downpour along our way. It didn't last too long.

It was pretty hairy hauling the 5th wheel through Lake Placid which was chock full of pedestrians, a long, narrow main street, semi delivery trucks blocking lanes, and people who didn't know how to parallel park their trucks and were sticking out into the street. But Bob navigated the truck-infested streets with aplomb. We made it safely through the maze.

The Lake Placid/Whiteface Mountain KOA is huge! We have a pull-through site in a grove of trees. There is no grass around, just lots of forest floor dirt/sand. At least it's dry and level.

Over the next three days, we plan to go to Ausable Chasm (waterfalls), High Falls Gorge, Roaring Brook Falls, Beaver Meadow Falls, Rainbow Falls, Stag Brook Falls, drive Veterans Highway to the top of Whiteface Mountain, and do a 10k Volksmarch in Lake Placid. 

Life is good.

A Walk Across the St. Lawrence Seaway - Monday, July 29, 2019

In the past week, a number of driving trips back and forth across the 1000 Islands Bridge over the St. Lawrence Seaway to our campsite at Wellesley Island State Park convinced us we needed to walk the bridge over the river. At 11:30 a.m. today, we parked at the North Country Welcome Center on the south side of the bridge. 

North Country Welcome Center

A quick stop in the Welcome Center and we knew it would be a one-half mile walk to the middle of the bridge and one mile, one way if we continued to the end of the bridge on Wellesley Island. It was easy to walk from our parking spot to the entrance of the bridge. 

Thousand Islands Bridge over the
St. Lawrence River

The government entity responsible for
inspecting and maintaining the bridge.

We have now entered the designated pedestrian/bike pathway over the bridge. The driving portion of the bridge is only one narrow lane in each direction with no room for pedestrians or bikes. This is the bridge we took our 5th wheel on to go to Wellesley Island State Park. This is I-81, the main highway to Canada from Watertown, NY. All the semis use this bridge as well.  

Pedestrian/bike path on the bridge.

Even though this looks steep, the climb is actually gradual. I didn't get out of breath at all. The views from the bridge are awesome.

Getting closer to the top.

The St. Lawrence Seaway...no salties or lakies
today. (Hint: Those are the types of ships,
saltwater or freshwater.)

Wow! Looking up at the top.

Checking the east for ships. 

Two jet skis below us.

As we looked down we saw some of the houses along the river near the base of the bridge. Does anyone else see a "face" on the tan house to the left of the blue-roofed house? The windows look like two eyes and a mouth.

Do you see the face on the tan house?

Jet ski on the river.

Looking west we saw pleasure boats, a lighthouse,
and some islands.

Bob at the top of the pedestrian path.

I made it too.

A nice yacht below us.

Zooming in farther west to see more islands.

When we were at the top of the pedestrian path, three guys climbed up from under the bridge. It must have been their lunchtime. I asked them if they work up there every day and they said they do. Their job entails scraping off old paint, putting on new paint, and checking for loose bolts. They help keep the bridge in good shape so it will last a long time. What a view they have from up there. They said they know most of the ships that come through back and forth and they wave at them.

We returned back to the car and went grocery shopping. Then we called it a day and headed back to our 5th wheel. 

Oh, except Bob went out again to fuel up the pick-up truck for our travel day tomorrow. He also walked up the bridge again to watch the sunset. He didn't see any big ships and he said the sunset wasn't all that great so I didn't miss anything by staying in the rig.

Tomorrow, we will have a long travel day to Lake Placid, New York. We will travel along the St. Lawrence Seaway and stop at Massena to see if any ships are going through the locks.

Travel bug out.

Cape Vincent Lighthouse Volksmarch - Sunday, July 28, 2019

Other Volksmarchers have reported favorably about the Cape Vincent Lighthouse walk. Today we drove from 1000 Islands Campground in Clayton to the small town of Cape Vincent, New York. Even though it's the weekend, we found on-street parking and lightly traveled streets.

We had already checked in via the OLSB (On-line Start Box at my.ava.org) and printed out our directions. It was easy to hop out of the car and start walking. The town is very cute and has a few homes and buildings that stand out architecturally. It was originally settled by the French.

The first unique building we passed was the Cape Vincent Fisheries Station. It is home to the Research Vessel (RV) Seth Green and an aquarium that highlights local fishes. I would have gone to the aquarium, but it is closed due to flooding.

Cape Vincent Fisheries Station (with Aquarium)

I liked the weird arch at the top and
the lintels over the windows.

Sackett house with sunken garden.

1870 - Erastus Burnham house. He owned a
thriving seed and lumber business.

In the photo below you can see the water washing over the dock and the blue police "do not cross" barricade. The locals say the water has come down a little from its high point.

Normally this is the public dock.

Speaking of flooding, if you aren't aware, all the Great Lakes are flooded due to the immense amounts of rain this spring. It is especially evident all around Lake Ontario and along the St. Lawrence Seaway. Docks are closed because they are covered in water. Some businesses built a taller dock on top of the dock that they had so they could get to their boats. [NOTE: We experienced that when we went on the boat tour to Boldt Castle. (That blog is yet to be written.)]

A mural welcoming travelers from Canada to
the U.S. at the Cape Vincent Ferry Terminal.

After walking a few blocks in town, we stopped to check out the Cape Vincent Historical Museum. Below is a Friendship Quilt. It helped raise money for St. John's Episcopal Church. People paid ten cents to have their name embroidered on the quilt. The quilt was then stitched together by the women of St. John's Guild at the rectory. It is recorded that this quilt made somewhere between $72.70 or $74.90 for the church between 1925 and 1928 (which was a tidy sum back then).

A Friendship fundraiser quilt.

The stove below was made in the Forsythe Foundry which was located in this building in the 1800s.

Stove made by the Forsythe Foundry in Cape
Vincent, New York in the 1800s.

The efficient Petit Godin Stove.

Description of Petit Godin Stove above.

Wooden shoes.

We then walked (thankfully not in wooden shoes) two miles to the lighthouse. We loved the view of the St. Lawrence Seaway and the beautiful homes lining the road. There was also a cool breeze coming off the water. 

And, we got caught in a downpour. The rain was driving sideways and it was impossible to keep the umbrella up. We took shelter on the down-wind side of a huge tree trunk. That worked to keep most of the rain off for the short duration of the cloudburst.

A piece of history we did not know: Napoleon Bonaparte had a refuge built for him in this town. The Cup and Saucer House was built by Count Pierre Francois Real in Cape Vincent. Of course, Napoleon never made it. The house burned in 1867.

The Stone House - built in 1815 by
J. D. le Ray du Chaumont to shelter Canadian
rebels during the Patriot War in 1838.

Maple Grove, established 1838.

These mansions all have views of
the St. Lawrence Seaway.

A pretty lighthouse gate in front of a home.

Entrance to Tibbetts Point Lighthouse. It seems
Tibbetts and Tibbits spellings are both correct.

Bob watching his ship come in.

On the lighthouse grounds are a Visitor Center, keeper's home, Fog Horn Building, and an International Hostel. 

Info about the Fog Horn Building.

Tibbetts Point Lighthouse.

Lake Ontario.

Bob walking along the St. Lawrence River.
You can see how high the river is splashing.

Canadian Steamship Line heading downriver.

Small car ferry heading from
Canada to Cape Vincent.

I zoomed in on the car ferry and the ship.

When we returned to town, the finish of our walk was through more city streets. There were a few cool things to see...

Patriotic birdhouse condo.

Below is an idea that has some merit, although it would have to be closely monitored for expiration dates, bulging cans, broken glass, ants, etc. It is a Food Bank "lending library" (for lack of a better term). It is sponsored by a church.

After the walk, we had lunch at Cape Vincent Brewing Company. It was popular but was just okay in our opinion. They did have funny signs on the wall. 

On the way out of town, we drove a different way and found a previous lighthouse which had been moved to this location to welcome people to Cape Vincent. This lighthouse stood on the Cape Vincent Breakwater from 1900 to 1951.

The previous lighthouse.

We called it a day and headed to the 5th wheel.

Many thanks to the Niagara Frontier Volkssport Club for this wonderful walk.