The view of the Adirondacks from Bridport is like a landscape painting.(Photos by the author)
Entombed in this gray rock beneath my motorcycle boots lies the oldest-known coral reef on the planet, yet this island is far from tropical seas. Life flourished here 480 million years ago, but the first European explorer?s boot didn?t stand on this spot until the intrepid French explorer, Samuel de Champlain, arrived in 1609.
Even in 1685, cartographers weren?t quite sure where Lake Champlain was located. On this map it is placed east of the Connecticut River.
Lake Champlain is the 8th-largest naturally occurring lake in the United States, but its historical importance comes from its geographic position. Maps of the late 17th century appear uncertain where to place this great inland lake, but both British and French military strategists knew exactly where it was located. Squeezed between the Adirondack Mountains of New York and the Green Mountains of Vermont, the widest point of the lake is a mere 12 miles, but it stretches for 120 miles from Canada to Whitehall, New York. An example of the highly prized ?Black Marble? with white cephalopod fossils from Isle La Motte.
Passing Fort Ticonderoga?originally built by the French in 1755-57 as Fort Carillon?I reach the ferry that takes me across this very narrow part of the lake to Larrabees Point, Vermont. While the Lower Champlain Valley may look flat on maps, the terrain, compressed between mountain ranges, is rippled and every rise a...