Grandma Goes to Essex

Did I have a great reason to drive a hundred miles north from Saratoga Springs to Essex, New York, last Saturday?  Oh, I sure did, because my darling granddaughter, Natalie Balter, had arranged to meet me there.  Natalie is in graduate school at the University of Vermont in Burlington, an easy half-hour drive to the ferry in Charlotte, Vermont, a ferry that carried her across Lake Champlain to meet me in Essex, one of the most charming villages on the shore of this beautiful lake.  Here she is, near the Essex ferry dock on one of the most pleasant days of the month.

We were lucky we'd planned to meet at 11:30 am on Saturday, for if we'd waited to meet until later that day, I'd probably have had to park quite a distance away from the ferry dock, because this was the biggest traffic day of the year for this tiny village.  It was the annual Haunted Hamlet festival, with many kinds of festive events drawing hundreds of participants from miles around.  (I took this photo of what would soon be the thronged main street later this day, as I was about to leave for home.)

The Halloween theme was already evident earlier in the day, as these little witches roaming the streets made clear.

Lucky for Natalie and me, we were early enough to not have to wait for a lunch-time table at this charming little cafe.  I have been visiting Essex for more than 25 years, and this was the first time I've found a dining spot open in town this late in the season, long after the summer residents and visitors  have left. And here's some great news: I learned that the proprietors of this cafe now plan to stay open and serve food all year around (except for a few days in November). This is a wonderful PLUS for year-round visitors to this delightfully scenic village, with its gorgeous old homes, lovely waterfront, and spectacular views across Lake Champlain. (P.S.: the ferry here runs all year, too.)

A featured item at this cafe are the delicious hand pies, filled with a variety of tasty meats and vegetarian offerings within a flaky crust.  I opted for one with a perfectly seasoned beef filling, accompanied by a generous mug of homemade squash soup. Natalie chose the same soup with a wonderfully flaky cheese scone.  

The desserts are terrific, too. Yum!!

On most visits to Essex, I like to walk around the village, admiring the splendid old brick and greystone homes, many built by wealthy shipping magnates during the 19th Century, when Lake Champlain was a major shipping route and Essex a major port.  When the railroads assumed much of that traffic and the prosperity of the village collapsed, sudden poverty prevented most of the residents in the following years from renovating these homes, so they remained in their original elegance.  Of course, they are now occupied and maintained by folks with adequate funds to maintain them in their original grandeur.

But Natalie and I had other plans today.  Natalie has trained and had substantial experience as an experiential nature educator, leading nature explorations across the U.S. for young people from toddlers to teens. Her work as a graduate student at University of Vermont is to obtain the credentials to teach in schools as well as in extramural programs. So of course, we wanted to explore the remarkable natural offerings along this stretch of Lake Champlain shore. And the perfect place to do that was just a few miles north of the village of Essex, at Noblewood Park, a natural area where the Boquet River runs into  Lake Champlain. This 69-acre forested property is owned by the Town of Willsboro and protected by a conservation easement held by The Nature Conservancy’s Adirondack Chapter.  The photo below shows  where the river joins the lake.  The view of Vermont's Green Mountains across the lake is spectacular from here!

 Among Noblewood's attractions is a beach on the lake, parts of it sandy, other parts very rocky. Natalie is shown here happily standing on the rocky stretch of the shore.

When we first arrived at this spot, we were amazed to see the masses of tiny striped mussel shells washed up on shore.  I fear, though, that these could be the shells of the very invasive Zebra Mussels infesting many of our northern lakes.  Our native lake mussels are quite a bit larger. At least these mussels were dead.

A much more welcome sight along the sandy stretches here were the rows of different colored sands.

Higher up on shore where the sand was dry, we found sparkly black sand, composed of magnetite, a magnetic form of iron ore.  The most likely source of this remarkable sand is the presence of iron mines in this region of New York.

Closer to the water we found stretches of dark-red sand, composed of pounded garnet. Large garnet mines also occur in this region, and some are still mined to provide grit for sandpaper.

I first noticed these multicolored sands on a visit to this shore four years ago. Intrigued, I searched  the internet for information that might explain the colors of these sands.  That's how I came across excerpts from Peter Kalm's account of his explorations of Lake Champlain in 1749. (Kalm was a protege of the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, who sent him to North America to collect botanical specimens.) Kalm determined that the black sand contained iron and was attracted to magnets, while the red sand was composed of pounded garnets.  Here's a link to the site where I found Kalm's account. It amazes me that I was possibly standing on the exact same spot where this famous botanist was puzzled by the same colors of sand, over 275 years ago.

We had to pick our way carefully along this rocky shore, which was lined by trees in the glorious colors of autumn, as well as by willow shrubs of vivid gold.

I wish I could find another link to a site that might tell me what could be the source of all these white threads that cover many of the rocks along this shore. Some kind of very slender waterplant or algae, whitened by dryness and sunbaking?  Many of the rocks looked like this:

At least I did know the name of this prolific leafy plant popping up amid the rocks and out in the sand.  It is Silverweed (Potentilla anserina), distinguished by the silvery color of the backs of its leaves. It will have a pretty yellow flower in the summer.  I have read that this native plant, common on sandy shores like this, has numerous culinary and medicinal uses, although I can not vouch for any of those uses myself. It is said that the root tastes like sweet potato, so maybe I should give it a try. I'd have to find another spot to harvest Silverweed though, since no plants may be removed from Nature Conservancy sites like this one.

Too soon, it was time for Natalie to catch the ferry back to Vermont. Graduate students always have studies to do.   I was sad to say good-bye, but I'm glad this was such a convenient way to visit my dear granddaughter, since the ferry takes only a half-hour to cross the lake, and crossings in either direction are offered every half hour. What a fine day we had together!

And the drive back to Saratoga was mighty nice as well, passing by grassy green meadows backed by hills displaying all of the crazy-quilt colors of autumn.