Quebec City, Vermont & Upstate New York

29 August – We spent some time planning the next couple of weeks before catching the shuttle into Quebec City. It took us thru the old city walls and into the old town. This is one of Canada’s oldest cities established in the 17^th century and the original parts are on a series of terraces leading down via some steep streets to the port on the St Lawrence Seaway. Most of the cobbled stoned streets are pedestrian only with great buildings all around now mainly bars, restaurants, arts galleries and clothing boutiques.

We wandered around really enjoying the atmosphere and the sights. Hunger took us into a French café where we had typical French lunch. We stopped to listen to a group singing French songs at a small square and walked up to the citadel where the last battle between the French and English was fought. After a glass of wine we caught the shuttle back to our camp. With dodgy internet we managed to skype both girls.

30 August – We crossed thru the city and over the St Lawrence Seaway into southern Quebec. This is the furthest east we will be this year and we are now headed S.W. back towards the USA border. The villages are still extremely “French”, each having a huge catholic church with high silver coloured spires. We stopped for the night at a Canadian National Park at Frontenac. We are not very impressed as the camp site was expensive, down a long gravel road, and on a not very impressive lake. This changes our plans and we will stay in a private camp tomorrow night!!

31 August – Back out the gravel road and on thru the towns of Sherbrooke and Magog where we found a nice private camp with power and internet so we booked a State Park camp in New York State for labour weekend. We even managed to skype Linley and Ron. This is our last day in Canada this year.

1 Sept – It was 15 miles to the USA/Canada border and we crossed into the state of Vermont. The agriculture lady at the border searched our fridge and took one spring onion and made me cut our tomatoes in half. (God knows why!) After filling up with petrol (much cheaper than in Canada) we drove south thru deciduous forest into the Groton Forest where we stopped at the Branbury State Park. Back to the US cheap state parks again. The New England tree colours of fall are just starting to show, red and gold.

We are a couple of weeks early for them at their best though. We had a swim in the lake and in the evening Andrew and Sienna ( a couple holidaying from just up the road) invited us to join their camp fire.

2 Sept – We had run our food stocks down so we had a huge shop at a Wal-Mart before heading into the Green Mountains of Vermont. Another great State Park in a botanical gardens-like setting and another great swimming beach. It’s still warm - around 32C.

3 Sept – We drove a short distance to a trail to the Falls of Lana. It was only a 1 ½ mile hike but uphill. It gave my back a bit of a try out. It is still a bit sore! The drive to the Vermont/New York State border was short but we stayed on the Vermont side of the large Champlain Lake. No swimming today as the lake is a bit weedy. Vermont is beautiful and we will visit the southern part next year.

4 Sept – Over the bridge and into New York State where we followed Lake Champlain before turning away from the lake and into the Adirondack Park. This is a huge area with many lakes and low mountains. It is very like the Muskoka area in Canada except that the holiday “cottages” are called “cabins” here. The State Park Camp we had booked for Labour Weekend was at Lake Raquette and we had a beaut site, level with a mixture of sun and shade. We even had a view of the lake. As most people had not arrived yet I gave us both a haircut. The beach was great, and the water was shallow but very warm. There was even a life guard on duty. Hard to imagine how you could drown though.

5 Sept – The weather is still perfect. We can not remember when we last saw rain or it was cool. We spent the morning cleaning everything in sight - toilet, shower, floors, cab, dashboard etc. We walked up to the office to buy firewood but were disappointed to find that at this camp there was none for sale. Never mind it only makes everything smell of smoke! The afternoon was spent on the beach swimming and sunbathing and sitting the shade. The camp is still filling up.

6 Sept – In the morning we went for a walk thru the camp, over the highway and up a trail to a waterfall with very little water in it. Another beautiful day but for some strange reason they closed the beach, the life guard disappeared and they even removed the swimming enclosure buoys. No seemed to mind and there were far more people swimming than yesterday, us included.

7 Sept – This is Labour Day here and most people packed up early and drove home. School starts tomorrow. We relaxed and waited for most people to go before heading off. Fortunately there is a dump station at the next camp as I reckon there was 1 ½ hours worth of campers and trailers lined up to dump here. We enjoyed another great drive thru the forests (colours getting better) and lakes of the Adirondacks to our next camp. It had been full but has emptied out. We had a nice site overlooking the lake and a boat ramp which kept us entertained. If anything it is getting hotter! Fortunately there was another swimming beach where we cooled off.

8 Sept – It was a long drive south and west today, out of the Adirondack Park and on thru rolling country and many towns to our camp in the Finger Lakes area at another State Park. It is very hot and humid but the lake here is weedy so we sat in the shade and read. This is the first time we have had power for ages so we have the aircon going in “Ernie”. Later in the day, when it was a little cooler, we found the swimming beach and had a swim much against New York State regulations!

 

9 Sept – A drive of 65 miles south and west to Letchworth State Park There is a gorge here that a camper told us not to miss. As we were checking in the skies opened and we had 20 minutes of torrential rain. We drove to a lookout and had lunch waiting for the rain to clear before walking a trail passed the best views of the gorge and the waterfalls. This gorge is called the ‘Grand Canyon of the east’ and is very pretty but not in comparison with the real Grand Canyon. Still well worth the stop.

10 Sept – It was a short drive, with a stop for supplies, to a camp near the city of Buffalo from where we will visit the Niagara Falls tomorrow. We have seen the falls from the Canadian side and are looking forward to the view from the USA side. We crossed the busy road to a restaurant where we had dinner.

11 Sept – A 10 mile drive to the Niagara Falls but we had trouble finding parking as there were many road works confusing our GPS. Eventually we parked in the Aquarium carpark which had been the suggestion of a couple we spoke to two nights ago. It was a bit of a walk along the gorge edge to the main viewing points on the USA side of the falls. The weather was perfect and there were not too many tourists around. From the observation gallery we had a great view of both the USA Falls and the Horseshoe Falls. A lift took us down to the bottom of the USA Falls where you can really appreciate the power and the roar of the water.

Back up the top we walked the rim for a close up view of the USA Falls. We when walked onto Goat Island and Luna Island for more spectacular views over the edge of both the USA Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls. Unfortunately they are working on the viewing point for the Horseshoe Falls so our view was not as good. We then retraced our steps back to the carpark and “Ernie”. We must have walked about 5 miles. Viewing the Niagara Falls (the term given to the three waterfalls) from the USA was quite different from the one we had seen from the Canadian side a few years ago. On the USA side you get closer to the edge at the top but you are viewing the falls from side on where as on the Canadian side you look straight into them. Most people carry their passports with them and go to both areas. Great internet at this camp so we will publish this blog and skype our girls.