Location Taken: Thousand Islands
Time Taken: June 2010
Kitesurfing at the Thousand Islands sure seems like fun. Not that I’ve ever had any inclination to kitesurf. I don’t think I’d have the reflexes for it, or the knees. But it does look like a blast.
The Thousand Islands do look like a great place for watersports in general, really. And for those who are going “Isn’t Thousand Islands a… salad dressing?”, why yes it is! It’s also an island-filled stretch of the St. Lawrence River, on the border between New York, USA, and Ontario, Canada. The dressing (likely) just took its name from the islands, since it was (likely) invented there. Or named by an actress who thought the veggies in the dressing looked like the thousand islands. Sources are conflicted.
The islands are a fantastic place to visit, even if just driving by. They’re found where Lake Ontario ends, and the St. Lawrence begins. A part of the Canadian Shield cuts down into the USA, made of harder rock than that which was carved by glaciers to form Lake Ontario. The Lake, needing an outlet, chiseled its way through where ever it could find a crack, which lead to a large multitude of islands where the water carved away cracks on either side. One thousand, eight hundred and sixty four islands, to be specific, many quite small.
The criteria for what counts as an island is somewhat amusing. On the Wikipedia page it states that the islands have to be larger than a square foot, must stay above water year-round, and must support at least one living tree. This makes me think of a one-square-foot island supporting a one-square-foot tree. Just a tree, hanging out in the middle of the river, minding its own business.
There’s also at least two castles on the islands, Boldt Castle and Singer Castle, from the end of the Victorian Era when wealthy businessmen decided the place made for excellent summer homes. There’s also a lot of smaller houses on islands not too much larger than the house itself.
All in all, it’s a fantastic place, and it’s right by one of the few border crossings in the area, so if you need to go between the Ottawa area and northern New York state, you might as well stop and take a look.
