June 21-22 Valcour Island

We spent most of the day hiking around Valcour Island on June 21.  The island is 2mi long by 1 mile wide, and by hiking the perimeter we were able to get ample exercise. The island is part of the NY State Park system.  The theme of the day was bird watching and plant identification.  Several of the coves had beautiful pebble beaches that provided entertainment for Becky and Grover, who are rock collectors.  The lake is freckled with islands that are large rock outcrops that have been covered with plants and trees over the years.  The island next to Valcour had hundreds of gulls -- it looked like every inch of the island had a bird on it. We even took the dinghy over to get a good close look at it.  On June 22, we wanted to visit Burton Island State Park in Vermont, but it was closed due to flooding.  Instead, we took the dinghy for a 5 mile ride to Plattsburg, NY and toured the town.  It was the site of the battle of Plattsburgh during the war of 1812.  The first pic shows the gulls on what we call bird island.  The next pic shows a view of the many rock outcrop type islands throughout the lake.   The last two pics show us on Valcour, that day was designated the "on land nature day"