virtualDavis

Stiffer breeze than anticipated – better suited to windsurfing than cycling – but after double days of drizzle I’m due for a pedal along the Adirondack Coast.

Recently I’ve been recording my bike rides and uploading them to the interwebs. Why? Goals. Tracking. And, even for other cyclists to use. I’ve also been using my GoPro camera to get footage of the rides, and soon I’d like to post a collection of good Champlain Valley bike loops with video highlights, routes, distances, etc. Maybe a future feature for Essex on Lake Champlain? Would be nice to recycle the digital artifacts of my rides into a usable tool for others. Perhaps there’s a convenient way to share my Garmin Connect data? Contact me with suggestions.

Until then, a fuzzy image of an old tricycle rusting under the drip-line of the bike shop in Plattsburgh who keeps me rolling along. Thanks, guys!

Related articles

• Outdoor Adventures Along The Adirondacks (familytravel.answers.com)
• Biker Slights Adirondack Coast (essexonlakechamplain.com)
• Lake Champlain Windsurfing Festival 2013 (essexonlakechamplain.com)
• Essex Aerial View (rosslynredux.com)

A true North Country winter! The Champlain Valley is blanketed, no… quaint, but no. Rewind. The Champlain Valley is buried beneath another 15-18″ of fresh snow. Beautiful. Picturesque. Unless you’re pushing a shovel! (Or trying to get somewhere…)

Getting somewhere is the learning lesson topic of the day. Why get anywhere other than right here. Stop driving the desk and go out for a ski! Shortly I hope to do just that. But first a glimpse at the now mostly frozen lake. I shot the fuzzy video on my phone this morning to show that the Essex-Charlotte ferry is still managing despite the ice. This vessel is technically not an ice breaker and can only manage to navigate until the ice becomes thicker than 3″ thick. Which — I’m guessing now — isn’t too far off. In fact, it’s already well beyond that near our dockhouse. Then we’ll reallyhave to stay home and play in the snow!

One of my favorite experiences living in Essex, New York is watching the sun rise out of Vermont’s Green Mountains, reflecting across the surface of Lake Champlain. This morning, the dense cloud bank on the eastern side of the lake created a dramatic effect, a narrow glimpse of color and light, refracted on the bumpy water then gone, snuffed out almost as quickly as it began. Once the sun rose into the clouds the light flattened and the mood changed. An interesting start to this post-Labor Day week…

Video via YouTube.com

Ever wonder how Depot Theatre performers spend their off-stage time in the Adirondacks? What I hear again and again from the parade of professional actors, directors, musicians, etc. who grace us with their talents each summer is that they love to perform at the Depot Theatre because they love the Shami and Chris, they love the audience, the old train station, the community, the Champlain Valley.

Kelly Rypkema, who just wrapped up her performance of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” at the Depot Theatre took time out for a little Lake Champlain waterskiing. And wouldn’t you know, she’s almost as gifted on waterskies as she is on stage. Bravo, Kelly!

Four Horse Power (via Meandering Margaux Media)

While wandering the Champlain Valley this morning, I happened upon these five, Chad and four draft horses, cultivating an Essex Farm field located at “The Four Corners”. I stopped to watch. No video or still camera with me, so these blurry moments are captured by my mobile phone. Only wish I’d recorded my conversation with Chad. He was smiling ear-to-ear as he spoke, clearly loving his work. He said that the horses were working hard to drag this large implement, but that for him there’s little difference between driving a team of two and a team of four. By autumn, he said, he plans on stepping up to a team of six draft horses, three in front of three. The transition to six horse power will demand more complex harnessing and more complex driving skills. But he’s looking forward to it!

Photo: Getty Images

What exactly makes the production of Champlain Valley Creamery’s cream cheese distinct from its industrial counterparts? To start with, the organic milk used to make the cheese comes from Journey’s Hope Farm, a neighboring dairy. Using organic cow’s milk from crossbred Jerseys and Holsteins that yield milk with high butterfat produces a tastier milky flavor in the cheese; a slight tang that can also be enjoyed with the creamery’s other cheeses (try Champlain Valley Triple Cream). 

Since the production of cream cheese is, in fact, medieval, it’s illogical to assume that it must be synonymous with Philadelphia. Champlain Valley Creamery’s cream cheese is proof that this category of cheese can far surpass industrial.

Although Champlain Valley Creamery is located right across Lake Champlain from where I live, it took a Bostonian to set me onto this promising alternative to Philadelphia… Hat tip to Jeremy Krantz (@JeremyKrantz) for his insightful cream cheese twitter post! Read the full post at slashfood.com

Photograph via twitpic.com

This arresting photograph of two bicyclists riding across the frozen surface of Lake Champlain captures the North Country spirit quite elegantly. And who says we put away our bikes when the snowflakes begin to fall. I have a friend who commutes an hour plus to work and then repeats the ride in the evening on a mountain bike with steel studded tires throughout the winter. In snowstorms. On icy roads. Up and down hills. Makes this photo seem like a leisurely meander…

Good morning. Another sleepless night. And another spectacular morning. Just recompense. I’ve grabbed a brief video of the sun rising up out of the clouds above Vermont’s Green Mountains, above Lake Champlain that I’m adding to my Essex, New York flickr set. Nice that I couldn’t even remember what the date was…

Sorry that the quality is “poor”. I shot this on my Blackberry Storm2 through antique wavy glass. The result is a little bit dreamy.

The remains of what may be a French fort dating back to the 1730s has been found on the Vermont shore of Lake Champlain.

When engineers determined the old Lake Champlain Bridge was unsafe and needed to be replaced, it seemed like the regrettable end of a historic landmark. The project, though, has led to a major archaeological discovery.

Scientists have found what appears to be a nearly 300-year-old French fort. The fort’s discovery would be significant in its own right, but it would also represent the first physical evidence of a substantial French settlement known to have existed on the Vermont shore of Lake Champlain starting in the 1730s.

“It’s a hugely exciting find — one of the great and exciting finds of a lifetime really,” said Elsa Gilbertson, administrator for the Chimney Point State Historic Site, where the apparent fort was discovered.

“You would be hard pressed to find a more significant archaeological site in Vermont,” said John Crock, director of the University of Vermont’s Consulting Archaeology Program, which conducted the dig in cooperating with the Vermont Agency of Transportation and Division for Historic Preservation.

via ablogabouthistory.com

Exciting discovery just down the lake from us. One more reason to visit the Champlain Valley! Hat tip to @SaundraMitchell for tweeting the post.

Spent several hours at Shelburne Orchards yesterday with bride, dog and friends. Actually, we were supposed to be at Champlain Orchards for the Harvest Celebration with food and live music, but I botched the plans. Somehow had it in my head that the event was at Shelburne Orchards instead and had everyone ride across on the ferry and meet just up the road from Charlotte instead of heading down to Shoreham.

Needless to say, there was plenty of food, sunshine and fun to be had and we enjoyed ourselves despite my brain sabbatical. The eating was great! I had a pork sausage with grilled peppers and onions with cider and some of Susan’s pumpkin soup. And for dessert, a delicious twist on apple crisp called Apple Betty, and described to me by the girl carrying the pie in the photo as, “All the comfort, with none of the committment.” For some reason the name One-Eyed Betty lodged in my brain… And that pie? Enormous. A couple of feet across at least! With a nifty old pickup parading across the crust. (FYI, the red clad pie carrier is Nick Cowles, owner/operator of Shelburne Orchards.)