When we first started caching, this was one of the first areas we cleared out. InspectorCacheIt227 is a bit of an expert on cryptids. In fact, he wears a hat that says "Bigfoot Expert" on it. The fact that he won it in a raffle at a Sasq-cache event is irrelevent. What is relevent is that we felt that this area, formerly teaming with cryptids, needed a refresh. Some of these cryptids may be familiar while some may be brand new to you. Good luck tracking them all.
As always, be aware of all hazards of the parkway. There was no poison oak at any of the hide location at the time of placement, but it is around the area. This is the only place I have ever had a tick try to inbed itself (I felt it and pulled him out before he was fully in) and I spotted a friendly snake while hiding these, but rattlesnakes are in the area as well.
LAKE CHAMPLAIN MONSTER aka "CHAMP"
In American folklore, Champ or Champy is the name of a lake monster said to live in Lake Champlain, a 125-mile (201 km)-long body of fresh water shared by New York and Vermont, with a portion extending into Quebec, Canada. The legend of the monster is considered a draw for tourism in the Burlington, Vermont and Plattsburgh, New York areas.
History of the legend
Over the years, there have been over 300 reported sightings of Champ.
The original story is related to Iroquois legends of giant snakes, which the Mohawk named Onyare'kowa.
French cartographer Samuel de Champlain, the founder of Québec and the lake's namesake, is often claimed to be the first European to have sighted Champ, in 1609. The earliest source for this claim is the summer 1970 issue of the magazine Vermont Life. The magazine quoted Champlain as having documented a "20 ft (6.1 m) serpent thick as a barrel, and a head like a horse." There is no evidence that Champlain ever said this, although he did document large fish:
There is also a great abundance of fish, of many varieties: among others, one called by the savages of the country Chaoufarou, "which varies in length, the largest being, as the people told me, 8 or 10 ft (2.4 or 3.0 m) long. I saw some 5 ft (1.5 m) long, which were as large as my thigh; the head being as big as my two fists, with a snout 2.5 ft (0.76 m) long, and a double row of very sharp and dangerous teeth. Its body is, in shape, very much like that of a pike; but it is armed with scales so strong and a poniard could not pierce them. Its color is silver-gray.
The 1878 translation of his journals clarifies that Chaoufaou refers to gar (or gar pike), specifically Lepisosteus osseus (the longnose gar).
An 1819 report in the Plattsburgh Republican, entitled "Cape Ann Serpent on Lake Champlain", reports a "Capt. Crum" sighting an enormous serpentine monster. Crum estimated the monster to have been about 187 ft (57 m) long and approximately 200 yd (180 m) away from him. Despite the great distance, he claimed to have witnessed it being followed by "two large Sturgeon and a Bill-fish" and was able to see that it had three teeth and eyes the color of peeled onions. He also described the monster as having "a belt of red" around its neck and a white star on its forehead.
In 1883, Sheriff Nathan H. Mooney claimed that he had seen a water serpent about "20 rods" (the equivalent of 110 yd (100 m) in length) from where he was on the shore. He claimed that he was so close that he could see "round white spots inside its mouth" and that "the creature appeared to be about 25 to 30 ft (7.6 to 9.1 m) in length". Mooney's sighting led to many more alleged eyewitnesses coming forward with their own accounts of Champ.