Thursday August 4: Back in the USA - Lake Champlain

Well, it's now official - Steve lowered our Canadian courtesy flag yesterday after we cleared the US customs. After a relatively short 3 weeks, we're back in home waters. Cell phones again and most of all internet! Leaving Montreal in the early morning under cloudy skies was fine. It was cooler which made for a nicer travel day. It was a long day of 60 miles but we helped by the 3 mph current in the very wide (quite boring really) St. Lawrence Seaway!

Finally - the beginning of the Richelieu River This takes us almost straight south to Lake Champlain which forms part of the border of New York and Vermont. Even though there were freighters around we really one passed one on the two days spent traveling the Seaway. And the clouds decided to let go of the rain - just in time for us to be locking through the St. Ours lock. Steve was on the back and I was nicely dry under the flybridge - sorry about that Steve :-)

The Richelieu River is not terribly wide and is very built up with modest homes lining the first 10 miles or so. Then it opens up and every once in a while a small town appears on the side of the river. What every small town seemed to have in common was a large church with a tall steeple and built right on the river. Seemed strange to me -- but we're still in Quebec so I guess that's just how it was done. The churches were all quite ornate.

Given what we'd seen along the river so far I was surprised to see a mountain peeking around the bend in the river! It seemed oddly out of place and was the only one around. Very strange.

Luck was with us again - we pulled right up to the 3 flight locks that begin the Chambly canal. 9 locks in 9 miles. I think just 3 will be enough for today! So we stayed above the lock, rode around and checked out the fort (lots of forts along these waterways built by the French to keep the British out and then the British used them to keep the Americans out). War of 1812. The rapids that made the canal necessary are some of the most intense we have seen. Chambly has gone overboard to make the city bike friendly as has Parks Canada. A bike trail ran along the canal for the 10 mile length of it - and it was well used! In thinking about it, we could have ridden our bikes faster than taking the boat!

Out early the next morning for the last 6 locks. They were challenging because we traveled through them with JimKat (couple from Cincinnati) - a 50 foot 15 foot wide DeFever. We barely fit both boats in the lock!

Continued tomorrow .... a visit with Christopher, Teresa and Owen!!