Welcome to spring in the Champlain Valley. And to Rosslyn’s annual spring drama: the Lake Champlain boathouse blues!

Over the last month lake water level has been rising, rising, rising. And rising some more. In fact, it’s even risen since I started drafting this post. (Current level a little further down.)

Boathouse Blues Begin

Until recently I was singing the end-of-ski-season rag and the dandelion ditty while quietly hoping that Lake Champlain water levels would rise enough to hedge against last summer’s all-too-low water levels.

And then I received this recent message and photo from Essex friend and neighbor Tom Duca.

“The lake was superlow last year, but now it’s moving right up… Most of the snow is melted in the higher elevations, so I don’t think the lake will get much higher than this…” ~ Tom Duca

Nerve wracking, right? Hopefully Tom’s snow melt assessment is accurate. And hopefully it’s not an overly rainy spring.

My mother was the next boathouse blues melody maker.

“Water much higher, you’ll be glad to know!” ~ Melissa Davis

So I suppose my wishes for higher-than-2016 water levels weren’t as quiet as I had thought. And initially Lake Champlain’s spring water level increase did relieve me.

And then my mother sent me this.

“Water rising! Almost even with Old Dock dock.” ~ Melissa Davis

She was referring to the Old Dock Restaurant, located just south of the ferry dock. Time to start monitoring the official Lake Champlain water level.

[To read the rest of this article including links to current Lake Champlain water levels, visit Rosslyn Redux.]

I posted a follow-up post, “Moist May 2017“, with this short slide show / video cataloguing our currently soggy Essex reality…

The final images offer a nice balance to the spring rain, rain, rain. With the first impossibly green asparagus and precocious yellow narcissus, can summer be far off?

[To read the rest of this article visit Rosslyn Redux.]