Thursday, June 03, 2010

Fish Creek Pond Campground











Fish Creek Pond Campground is a State of New York facility. I stayed here six years ago when Gopher & I drove up to Burlington for a Lazy Daze rally. Carol was still teaching and flew to Burlington.
There are 355 campsites in the park. Almost all are on either Square Pond or Fish Creek Pond. There is wildlife everywhere. We watched a turtle dig a hole and lay eggs, saw hummingbirds, ducks, geese,loons and the usual chipmunks. The ducks and chipmunks, as expected, have learned campers are a great source of food. They have no fear of people. Except for the chipmunks, Gopher doesn't bother the animals at all. Bugs. This place does have it's share of biting bugs. Black flies during the day; mosquitoes at night. Lots of bug spray.
Our initial plan was to stay here tonight and Thursday but we liked it so much, Gopher & I walked to the office and extended our stay for Friday and Saturday night as well. This site, 143, was reserved for Friday/Saturday so we took 144. Another wonderful site.
Thursday: Grey & gloomy. Rained most of last night.
Friday & Saturday. Friday was a nice, sunny day. We took some walks around the campground. Saturday it rained, on and off, all day.
On Sunday we left for the St. Lawrence Seaway area. we would certainy come back to Fish Creek Pond.

Leaving Burlington





On Tuesday, June 1st we left the campground in the rain. Did laundry and grocery shopping. Carol wanted more of those great cookies from the market place so we stopped by on the way out of town. Really stocked up. We were looking for a park to stop at for lunch. The City of Burlington had a nice one nearby. When we got there, it turns out there is a $10/day parking fee for non-residents. Said no thank you and continued to another park under the control of the city of South Burlington; no parking fee. Turns out it was an off-leash dog park. Gopher enjoyed a run in the rain. She's an all weather dog. Being wet and muddy doesn't phase her in the least. We have a "dog towel" we keep just for times like this.
Our "camping" plan for the night is the parking lot of Pete's Rv Center in Williston. The toilet doesn't hold water so I made an appointment to have it repaired first thimg tomorrow. They allow overnight parking for appointments. We found a nice park not far from Pete's. It was just jammed with kids practicing soccer, La Cross & T-Ball. We stayed there until about 7 then went to Pete's parking lot for the night.
All in all, a very enjoyable day.
On Wednesday the toilet was repaired. We were on the road by 9:30am. Took the ferry from Kent,VT to Essex, NY. The ferry we were on is the oldest operating ferry in America. Built in 1913. On the way to our campground near Saranac Lake, Ny we drove through Lake Placid; the home of the 1928 and 1980 Winter Olympics. We saw the ski jump. Never realized just how high they were; that thing was huge.
We arrived at the Fish Creek Pond Campground about 2:00. I found a web site devoted to this campground. The author had spent considerable time coming up with a list oof the very best campsites of the 355 total. We got the very best site for Wednesday & Thursday. The site is directly on the lake and is just huge. It has an unobstructed view of the wide part of the lake and White Face Mountain on the other side. We can't recall a prettier campsite. Some were as nice; but none better. I don't think there are a dozen campers in the entire campground right now. Gopher is enjoying her freedom.