Icy Adventures

It’s been three days since the Essex-Charlotte ferry service was suspended due to ice in McNeil Cove. The Plattsburgh-Grand-Isle crossing is still operating, and the Lake Champlain Bridge between Crown Point, New York, and Chimney Point, Vermont is open. So interstate travel is still viable but notably removed from Essex at present. And while one might note the diminished convenience, it’s worth balancing practical grumbles with the resultant calm and quiet, the almost mystical sense of remoteness, and the prospect of icy adventures.

Most winters, the ferry boat manages to keep up with ice formation, opening and reopening a watery ferry channel (aka the Essex-Charlotte Canal) between Essex and Charlotte. This past Monday operations ceased. As I understand it, rapid and significant ice formation at the pier across the lake from us where the ferries slumber overnight prevented the crew from undocking. Frozen in. Hull and pilings icebound. The gallows stood tall, and the bridge spanned the gap from dock-to-boat. But winter’s fierce determination arrested all hopes of breaking away, breaking free, ice breaking the cove’s embrace, reconnecting two sister towns separated by Lake Champlain.

And so we wait. 

We wait for a warming spell. We wait for news that our beloved ferryboats have untethered once again. We wait for essential transportation to resume.

But we also wait for icy adventures. 

The photographs in this post are 10 years old today. A decade ago the lake froze more consistently. Recent years have evidenced a changing climate in many ways. Now the “broad lake” rarely freezes beyond the bays and coves. Perhaps this year will be different. Perhaps we will be able to go out on the ice exploring, skating, cross-country skiing, bumping into neighbors on a great white plane as our dogs race hither and yon. 

There’s so much to see when the lake freezes, such an engrossing shift in perspective. These images were taken close to home, but they reveal views of our Essex waterfront, unfamiliar to summer swimmers and voters. The stillness and remove our evident, and the wonder — invigorating and revitalizing — inevitable.

So, yes, our ferry “will remain closed until further notice“, but I invite you and I encourage you to undertake icy escapades if/when the opportunity arises. Just be safe!

XXX