Monday, July 9, 2012

Weather at The Ledges

I spent most of last week at The Ledges.  Weather was perfect, water was just cool enough to be refreshing, and the water level was at exactly the average height for this time of year - well, the average ever since TransCanada bought the dam four or five years ago, anyhow.  Level is just about perfect for cliff jumping/diving (I dive quite a bit myself), and there's enough room for most folks to find a place, if they're not too terribly shy.  Water level continues to drop, so by the time you read this, there will no doubt be even more real estate available.

As usual, the weather (especially on July 4th and again on July 7th) did not behave as the weather forecasters predicted.  Both days were largely lovely, even though they were predicted to be cloudy with occasional showers.  I feel sorry for the weathermen who try to put together a decent forecast for southern Vermont - all the hilly terrain must upset their models significantly.  But even if you just look at the Lake Whitingham weather versus the rest of southern Vermont, there's often a huge difference.  The Lake is in the lee of the main spine of the Greens, and I think this messes things up quite a lot.  It's pretty typical, in fact, for there to be clouds on days that are supposed to be clear, and visa versa.  Lately, the luck has been in the direction of better weather than expected... so let's hope that continues for the rest of the summer.

Honorable visitor mentions this past week included a delegation from Troy, NY - always great to meet people from the RPI community - and a shriek-tastic bunch of local teens who obviously had a great time.  I also chatted with a couple from Saratoga, NY, who had been visiting Abbots' Glen for years but who had never even heard of The Ledges.  Furthermore, the information they got from the Town of Wilmington about the place turned out to be wildly incorrect.  This makes me think we may want to advertise a little - maybe cards and/or tee-shirts.  What do people think of the following tag lines?  Whatever I'd do would of course link back to this blog.

"Swim Naked - it's Cooler and Way More Fun"
"Dare To Consider a World Without Tan Lines"

 Comments welcome...