Southern New England Outdoor and Nature Site: Fort Ticonderoga

Laurie and I have been talking about going to Fort Ticonderoga for two years. It is just too far to do as a day trip at a 4.5 hour drive from the house. Finally, this year we decided to go. I got a camping reservation in the Adirondacks about a month back. We decided not to buy our tickets to the fort until we got there. This way, if it rained and the weather was bad we wouldn't be out $60 (tickets are $30/person)

All week we looked at the weather and it was doom and gloom. I had Tuesday off and it looked like showers and then an afternoon T-storm followed by rain on Wednesday which I also had off. This weather report never changed until Monday evening. We had decided not to go and to do our normal stuff on Tuesday and hit a movie on Wednesday.

We ate steak tips outside on Monday night and we checked the weather again. Tuesday's forecast had changed to cloudy all day with a late day thunder boomer. Wednesday it was still going to rain. Laurie told me that an ice skating comp was at Lake Placid on Wednesday so I realized we could do that on Wednesday. The only thing was the line up hadn't been announced. We were having this discussion at 7:30 pm.

At 7:30 we dicided not to cancel our plans and go to Fort Ticonderoga. So I packed the camping gear and Laurie packed the food. We headed out at 9 pm. The plan was to go to the fort Tuesday. If the skating line up had people we wanted to see we would stay overnight at my previously booked (no refund) site and go to skating Wednesday. If the line up sucked we would come home after visiting the fort. We drove until midnight and slept at a rest area on Monday night an hour from the fort.

Spoiler alert: The line up for the Lake Placid International was terrible. I only knew one of the teams. So we decided not to go. It started raining hard on Tuesday after we left the fort. We drove home and got home at 9 pm. I write all of this because decideding to go on the trip at 8 pm was spontanious and an adventure all in itself. But as Laurie and I said, we have been wanting to go to Fort Ticonderoga for two years and we couldn't pass up the plan. The above may not have been great liturature but it will be ingrained in our memory as much as the actual day.

We arrived at Fort Ticonderoga at 9:15. The fort opens at 9:30 but we planned on eating and changing out of our sleeping clothes and even brushing our teeth in the patking lot. However, the gates remain closed until 9:30 so we were stuck in a line of cars waiting at the gate. While we were stuck in line I put the car in park and we made a bagel and changed our clothes and put on hiking boots. The gates open at 9:30 and we drove to the lot after buying two adult amission tickets at the gate house. . We brushed our teeth and went in.

There is a lot of history at Ticonderoga so instead of explaining it all a quick time line on the map explains everything. The largest actual battle happened during the French and Indian War in 1758. Sixteen thousand Brits attacked the 4000 French and lost with many casualties.

There are also a ton of programs and we went to many. We finally decided to skip the canon firing demo because we wanted to actually walk on our own and also make time for lunch. Instead of going on and on about the day it makes more sense to post a bunch of photos with quick explanations since I've droned on enough. Below is the program schedule for Tuesday

The first thing we did was take the guided tour of the fort that gave an overview of what happened there over the last two hundred and fifty years. A view from one of the canon overlooking Lake Champlain

Below are two costumed workers playing the fife and drums. But more importantly behind them is the gate that leads into the fort

Many famous people came through this gate. I asked when George Washington came here since I knew he did not fight at Ticonderoga. They told me he was actually the "first tourist". He came after the war to see some of the battlefields of the northern theater that he did not participate in.

At 11:30 we took a tour of the museum, It was brief and the lady only covered a couple of items. We knew we had to make time to go back and that is part of the reason we skipped the canon firing. My favorite piece is a powder horn that Robert Rogers used. Rogers is famous for creating Roger's Rangers. The modern day Rangers (like those in Blackhawk Down) are "descendents" from the elite group that Rogers created. Rogers was from northern New Hampshire. I climbed a mountain named after him (Rogers Ledge)

The museum had everthing from canon to spoons owned by the men. We had to go through it fairly quickly but it was really worth the time

Below is a lock of hair from Benedict Arnold. Arnold along with Ethan Allen came here and captured the canon that would eventually drive the British out of Boston Harbor.

A letter written by Ethan Allen to General George Washington. These are only a couple of artifacts from the museum. The museum was worth the price of admission alone.

At 12:30 we watched the drum and fife demonstration on the parade ground. Basically they expalined a few of the orders that could be heard better and further through drum and fife than by shouting orders in battle.

It so happend that exactly 250 years ago on July 28 the first reading of the Declaration of Independence was read at the fort. Though while it would have been cool to see the reenactment of this moment we were inside the museum and had decided to do a little exploring on our own.

Below are the officer's quarters from the parade ground

At 2:45 we took a tour of the gardens. The gardens were created by the Pell family. They had a home on the property after they bought the land. They are the people that restored the fort and opened it to the public. Without them, the fort was being torn apart by locals that were using the stones for building material.

The gardens ranged from flowers to herbs. They were very formal and beautiful. Some of the gardens are themed such as this rainbow garden below.

ROY G BIV

We even managed to get a lifer butterfly. This guy is a Silver Spotted Skipper

There are oxen on the property. An ox doesn't get that name until they are five years old. Until then they are just steers.

I took another hundred photos from the fort and I may add later for my own personal collection. After the gardens we drove out of the fort. We had planned to drive up to Mt Defiance. From that vantage point Gentleman John Burgoyne stationed canon. This cause the Continentals to abandon the fort. This victory was short lived as Burgoyne's army was crushed at Saratoga a couple of months later.

The reason we ran out of time was I wanted to see the battlefield of Carillon. While the fort itself is famous, the unknown battle of the French Indian War was massive. The year was 1758. The French controlled the fort and knew there was an English invasion. The commander decided to leave the fort and fight from the summit of a hill three quartes of a mile away.

The French cut down trees and used them as firing positions. When the English came they attaked these entrenched positions with a frontal attack. They were decimated. The English had 2500 casualties compared to four hundred from the French. Though the French won this battle, it had little outcome on the war and the English won a year later.

Still, I wanted to see where this fight took place. Because I walked around all of the trenches and read the signage I chose not to drive up Mt. Defiance. Instead, I had an entire battlefield to myself.