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Rochester, NY → Ticonderoga, NY → Hartford, VT 414.0 mi (666.3 km) |
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Howdy, everyone!
I’m back in the States and ever adventuring! My good friends, Ben & Gina, were getting married in Rochester, New York, so of course I went to visit them! The wedding was only a night long, though, so the next morning, I hopped on an eastbound Amtrak train for the first time since COVID-19 began, and headed off to a new adventure, stopping first in Albany before redirecting north to a historic site I’ve wanted to visit since my last trip through upstate New York: Fort Ticonderoga!
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Not just a popular brand of pencil, Ticonderoga is a corruption of the Mohawk word, tekotaro:ke, which means “a place between two waters, specifically, the land between Lake Champlain (Kaniatarakwà:ronte) and Lake George (Kaniá:taro’kte)! By the time the first fort was built here in 1755, during the French and Indian War, this area had already been the crossroads of combat for 100 years! This first fort was designed by Michel Chartier de Lothiniere and called Carillon. It repelled British attacks for four whole years! It changed hands in 1759 when a full-blown attack on Quebec took troops away from Fort Carillon, and the victorious Brits renamed it Ticonderoga!
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The British Army held Fort Ticonderoga all the way until May 10, 1775 when the Green Mountain Boys, led by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, took over what had essentially become a sleepy outpost but nevertheless gave the rebels their first real victory of the Revolution! The Americans kept it as their own waystation during the doomed invasion of Canada, but when that campaign failed, the British Army under General Burgoyne retook Fort Ticonderoga on July 6, 1777 and held it until their defeat at Saratoga!
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The Fort Ticonderoga I visited on this day wasn’t exactly the same as Fort Carillon, though. In fact, the original walls were built of wood, rather than masonry! Why’s that? Well, masonry doesn’t last well in the rough elements of the Adirondacks. Since none of the three armies who occupied the site took the time to stabilize its structures, they all fell into disrepair, leaving future restorers with their best guesses! After a long time wasting away as very artistic ruins, the fort saw new life with the commissioning of English architect, Alfred Bossom, to restore the site as a tourist attraction in 1909! However, the restorers misinterpreted some of the ruins and rebuilt the fort with masonry, which, to this day, has been plagued by water and ice!
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The outside may not be entirely period-authentic, but inside, there were lots of neat original artifacts, like this 18th Century level, used to keep things even during construction! There was also a gripping exhibit on the smallpox outbreak that the American troops picked up during their siege of Montreal in winter of 1776! The disease took out almost half of the troops, which pushed General Arnold to begin inoculating them with small bits of infected sores, a really gross practice that nonetheless made cases gradually milder and the soldiers much more likely to recover!
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Outside and atop the walls were some amazing, authentic cannons, twenty-four in total! These cannons had been cast in England out of Spanish and French bronze but never saw combat themselves! Instead, these period-authentic cannons give visitors a look back at the kinds of defenses this fort had at its disposal! I wondered what inspired the sculpted Green Man on the cannon on the right!
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Sadly, after spending most of the day getting here, I only had two hours to explore this famous fort before the park began to close! There were hints of a storm coming up, so I headed out to the Ticonderoga Ferry, which claims to be America’s oldest ferry crossing, circa 1759! Like in 1759, the modern fare is cash only, which meant, after riding across, this beaver had to dash five miles to an ATM in town then back again to catch the ferry at the right moment in its 7-minute crossing! It wasn’t the kind of detour I was hoping for, but integrity in these kinds of things is super, super important! Pay your fares and tips, folks!
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And then I was off into the Green Mountain State of Vermont for the first time, winding through country roads and one heck of a gully washer crossing those Green Mountains! It’s been so long since I’ve encountered a major storm like that one, and it was both exciting and super scary at the same time! But it all let up as I coasted into the town of Quechee to check in at a very lovely AirBNB. After traveling in India and Thailand, where luxury hotels were under $100 a night, booking New York and Vermont was a real shocker! But this AirBNB, hosted by Lucille, was something else, with a yard full of fireflies and all the peace and tranquility of a country abode!
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And wow what a space! This was no hotel room but practically a whole house! There was a kitchenette and coffee maker, a living room with a TV, and a really lovely bedroom with a super clean bathroom, all looking out into the quiet woods at night! I don’t get a ton of relaxation time on my adventures, but this was a place where I planned to spend at least a few slow mornings.
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Tomorrow, I’ve got some national park sites to explore criss-crossing state lines, so stay tuned for my first adventures in Vermont and New Hampshire, coming up next!
Good night!
More 2022 Adventures |
Total Ground Covered: 414.0 mi (666.3 km) |
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