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Published: June 19th 2008
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The Jewett General Store
Jane Jewett, Us and the Talbot Family! They rock and are indeed something very special in Perkins Vale. This may be another quick post here as we are enjoying a day off and a resupply in Glover, VT (home of the Bread and Puppet festivals) with Uncle Bob Townsend (Brett's Uncle). The day of rest in Plattsburgh went well and we actually missed some very nasty weather on the lake that sadly claimed the life of a young canoeist celebrating his 21st birthday. The following day we took the ferry across from Plattsburgh to Grand Island and started paddling north up to the top of North Hero Island. We stayed at the North Hero State Park (mosquito headquarters of Vermont) and headed out fairly early the next day to try to beat any wind that might come up. The wind was breezy and the waves were big (around 15 inches). But with some skill and some muscle power we crossed over the two miles to the east side of Champlain and started our way up. Because the wind and waves were so formidable, by the time we got to the Missisquoi Bay bridge, we were pooped and decided to put the old vehicle on wheels and walk the road to Louies Landing (a short three mile jaunt), but man
this is a fairly busy road and it was a hair raising walk. We were glad to put into the slow moving Missisquoi and definitely took note of it's very brown and muddy color (due both naturally and because of agricultural run off -ick).
I would like to say that it is very difficult to go upstream of a river at times and at others it isn't so bad. The closer we got to Canada the tougher the Missisquoi became, especially after all the rain and thunder storms we have been getting in the afternoons. We were in luck in the sense that there is a Vermont Rail Trail that follows a good chunk of the river and when we got tired of wadding and pulling the canoe through the fast and shallow, and sometimes not so shallow water we could take a break on the rail trail (which goes from St. Albans to Richford, VT). It was on parts of the rail trail where we met some very nice and helpful people and had a nice chit chat with some old Psychology professor, a hippie from Montgomery, and two wonderful math teachers who told us where all the
Ennosburg Falls
Old Electric Building good eats were in East Berkshire and Richford (and gave us some helpful directions back to the water).
From Richford up to the border the struggle was tough and arduous. Lots of slippery rocks, lots of rips and a couple of intense rapids made for an interesting couple of days. Once we got up to Glenn Sutton, QC the river had really flattened out and we ran into the good fortune on meeting Francois Tourcollet of Canoe and Co where he let us camp on his lawn and told us what to expect on the rest of the Missisquoi river (which believe it or not, was a lot of slow water which we were thankful for). As a matter of fact the following day we would finish the rest of the Missisquoi and with Brett's guidance I would get some practice paddling UP some rapids (it's actually kind of cool to paddle up hill!).
After the Missisquoi came the GRAND Portage. It is 5.7 miles long and uphill most of the way. I'm not kidding, you actually climb over a mountain with your canoe to change watersheds, phew, and what a trek it was. First and foremost it
is very difficult to get up to the road as the north side of the bridge is covered with private property signs and we ended up having to go up the south side of the bridge (both did not look very pleasant to do). Once we got on the road the rain started and didn't stop until we reached Perkins Vale on the other side, which is where we ran into Jane Jewett and the Talbot clan at Jewetts general store! We had a great time telling them about our trip and learning a thing or two about lake Memphremagog (has a large land locked Salmon population, and a lot of fisherman and the winds can pick up in the afternoon). Also we bought some Jean Dam (probably spelled that wrong) which is a french sausage that is delicious (at least Uncle Bob's dog Champ liked it when he got into it!)
So yesterday we paddled down lake Memphremegog and back into the US, had a nice talk with a game warden and met Uncle Bob at the Marina. Today we are resupplying and tomorrow it is onto the Clyde to paddle upstream once more to the Connecticut and
Camp
Right next to the Interstate. Can you see it in the background? the Nullhegan and then into New Hampshire.
Once more sorry if this seems rushed, but there is quite a bit to do and I'll go back over these entries once I'm back in Maine and resettled in. Tried to put some pictures up today, but I don't think it worked.
OH Thanks to the Northern Forest Canoe Trail for putting a link to this blog on their website! A couple of things to let them know to add to the Errata:
The General Store on the VT side of the border near Richford is closed and doesn't look like it is going to reopen according to one of the Border Patrol officers. Also the Border Patrol has no way to refill water as their sinks and water fountains have a do not drink sign on them.
Canoe and Co is a great place to camp just a couple of miles past Glen Sutton and actually there is a nice stone stair case off river right to get to their nice back yard.
I think that's everything for now and we'll see you all down river!
Luke and Brett
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Jen
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Holy Cow
Glad you guys are making it. I hope you are being careful; it would be a sorry world if it were suddenly shorter by two wonderful mathematicians. Speaking of which, did you talk to the math teachers about Euclid or Lobachevsky, Riemann or Fermat? Or was it all rapids here, camp there? I hope you are both having fun amidst all that treachory, whatever you are discussing!