You can see how the shallows end abruptly at the underwater cliff
We spent today on Echo lake beach, reading and hiking. Echo lake is one of the few places where you can swim without getting chilled to the bone. Hence, there was quite a crowd! But we found a nice shady spot to perch. If we ever come back here, I want to bring snorkeling gear, because apparently there’s an underwater cliff that drops off 80 feet!
Beech Cliff Ladder Trail has four ladders and is not for the acrophobic.
NIST has devised a new standard for "vertical" using this cliff.
After a hundred pages or so (I’m still inching my way through Secrets of Eden, by Chris Bohjalian) I went on a hike up the Precipice trail (also known as Beech cliff Ladder Trail) which takes you to the summit of Champlain Mountain, then took the Canada Cliffs trail to the Valley Trail and down to Lurvey Spring Road for a nice ~2 hour loop. I had gone without a map too and no idea what the network of trails might be like, so it was a bit exciting at times, wondering if the loop would indeed bring be back to the beginning! It did, so I was pleased with my navigational guesswork. Another beautiful day.