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NORTHEAST: LAKE CHAMPLAIN LOOPSki
Magazine May/June 2001 Details Drive Length: Around 60 miles Drive Time:
About three hours, plus stops Don’t Miss: The chance to feed the goats and milk the cows at
Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, VT (802) 985-8686 Try to Avoid: Route 7 during rush hour, and the bomb-dropping
gulls at the Burlington waterfront. Don’t
sit under a roof’s edge. Contact:
Lake Champlain Transportation Company for ferry info: (802) 864-9804; http://www.ferries.com
How to improve
a mountain view? Paint a wind-tossed lake
into the foreground. Vermont and New York are
lucky to have just that in Lake Champlain, a needle of blue stretching 100 miles south
from the Canadian border. This deep
inland sea – visible from the slopes of Bolton Valley and Sugarbush, VT., as well as
Whiteface, NY – sits between New York’s rugged Adirondacks and their Appalachian
cousins, Vermont’s Green Mountains. The
setting suggests Lake Como in Northern Italy, but with clapboard barns instead of stuccoed
villas. The drive takes
advantage of two of the lake’s ferry crossings, and shows off all its scenic
personalities. Start and finish in
Burlington, on the Vermont side. Burlington
(pop. 40,000) is a college town ascending from the lakeshore. Avenues lined with lumber-baron mansions stretch
to the Church Street Marketplace, a pedestrian way dotted with shops, bars and outdoor
dining. Try Leunig’s for upscale bistro
fare or Sweetwater’s for a family meal in a handsome converted bank. Once one of the
busiest shores in the Colonies, Burlington’s waterfront is re-emerging as the city’s
front yard. Stroll on the boardwalk, roll on
the rec path (it’s a mile to North Beach), throw a Frisbee or just sit in the grass. At Perkins
Pier, board the ferry (about $12.75) to New York, a 30-minute ride with unmatched views. History buffs know Champlain as a Revolutionary
War battleground (and later, a rum-runner’s super highway). Divers prize the wrecks that litter its depths,
and film crews have come from as far as Japan seeking footage of Champ, a water monster or
overgrown lake sturgeon, depending on who you believe. From the ferry
landing in Port Kent, NY, drive three miles to Au Sable Chasm on Route 9. This natural wonder attracts 60,000 visitors
annually to see the cliffs and waterfalls, which have been featured in several silent
films. From there it’s
a scenic drive down Champlain’s western shore, past Adirondack-style camps and
graceful farmland. Have time for a side trip? Lake Placid – and its Olympic wonderland
– is 40 minutes west, in Adirondack State Park. Finish your New
York meanderings in Essex, a village with classic New England inns, restaurants, shops and
an ice cream parlor. The Essex Ferry takes
you back east across the lake and terminates in Charlotte, VT. It’s a five-mile drive north on Route 7 to
Shelburne. There, the 1906 steamship
Ticonderoga lies hove-to in a meadow. The
892-ton Lake Champlain passenger ship is the centerpiece of Shelburne Museum, an important
depository of Americana amassed by former resident Electra Havemeyer Webb. West of the
village on Bay Shore is Shelburne Farms, the Webb family’s 1,400-acre Gilded Age
summer estate. Today it’s a model farm
and agricultural center, with tractor rides, cheese-making and an irresistible petting
zoo. The grounds include three extraordinary
buildings: the mansion, the enormous Farm
Barn and the truly vast Breeding Barn. The “Big
House” is now an exquisite inn and restaurant, both requiring reservations. Or just stroll its formal garden, then drive 10
minutes back to Burlington. There, Church
Street bustles well into the evening. - Molly Walsh This trip could easily be converted to a two-day bike trip.
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