Lake George: Hearthstone Point - 10/13/07

[Andyjo]

I'm new to the board, and though i'd start off with a dive report.

This weekend a friend of mine from school, the girlfriend, and myself all headed up to Lake George for some nice fall diving, we got to Hearthstone point at ~8:30, where we met up with some people doing a rescue course (Morin's, from glens falls), tand hey told us where all the goodies were.
After suiting up, and some blabbing from people who thought it was 'to cold' to be diving, we were off! We started out from the beach, swam out the the yellow line out past the beach, and swam north along that. If you keep going north after the end of the line (and the buoyancy course!) you'll come to the fuselage of an old 6 seater airplane!, we checked that out for a while, and then headed south-ish, and deeper, staying right on top of the thermacile until we hit a sunken boat, i think it's a about 15ft long, blue, if i had a camera we would have had an awesome shot of my buddy dan 'driving' it. After playing on the boat for a while, we broke through the therm. and headed south some more until we came to the old sunken buick station wagon. We tried to start it, but i think it it's flooded :blinking: .. that or the missing engine... or it being 70 ft down....
After checking out the car we cruised around, and made our way back to the beach, we had ~1500lbs left, so we went back past the plane, and a little north east from there, there's a nice drop off, i'd say about 20-25 ft, we played there for a while, got back to the beach and we all were dead on 500lbs!
The viz was great, about 30-40ft the whole time, the bottom comp, the beach was sand (duh), out to about the 'yellow line', where it gets rocky, all the 'stuff' (plane, boat, car) is located in sort of silty areas, so you have to watch out for that. The water was awesome (temp wise) i think it was ~ 60-63 degrees (warmer than the air :14: ). We were under for about 40 mins.
Overall, it was a great dive, i wish we had brought more air, and a boat...

 

[dave4868]

Great to hear a Lake George dive report! Thanks.

I've only dove the north end of Lake George, but might try Hearthstone some time.

Sounds like you got unusually warm and clear water for this time of year. Lucky.

Was it that warm at 70', too?

Welcome to ScubaBoard!

Try adding some specifics to your profile and posting an intro to the Intro and Greets forum and you'll get a nice welcome!

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/introductions-greets/

Dave C

 

[guggie]

Nice posting. I'm interested in diving Lake George as well. We have friends that live on the lake and someday I'd like to retire in the area. Anyone know of other dive areas, websites that address Lake George's offerings?

 

[dave4868]

Nice posting. I'm interested in diving Lake George as well. We have friends that live on the lake and someday I'd like to retire in the area. Anyone know of other dive areas, websites that address Lake George's offerings?

Over the past several years, I've done about a dozen dives in the north end of Lake George.

It's truly a gem of a lake, especially the north end.

Here's a particularly good website about the Lake George area in general and also about scuba diving in Lake George (link is on the page near the bottom).

Lake George Area Vacations

If you have any questions about where to dive in the north end, feel free to send me a PM.

Dave C

 

[DepthCharge]

Nice posting. I'm interested in diving Lake George as well. We have friends that live on the lake and someday I'd like to retire in the area. Anyone know of other dive areas, websites that address Lake George's offerings?

Unless your diving from one of the state parks, most diving requires a boat. Definitely some interesting places. There's a place we call the Redemption Center..........lots of old bottles. Oldest intact vessel of war in the northern hemisphere. Many wall dives, and a few other wrecks. And when you get bored with Lake George, you can run over to Lake Champlain.

 

[piikki]

Unless your diving from one of the state parks, most diving requires a boat. Definitely some interesting places. There's a place we call the Redemption Center..........lots of old bottles. Oldest intact vessel of war in the northern hemisphere. Many wall dives, and a few other wrecks. And when you get bored with Lake George, you can run over to Lake Champlain.

I would agree with this statement. You run out of new shore dives pretty quick, especially during summer season because most shore line is privately owned, town beached included Also, the better of the state parks, Roger's Rock, rents the best dive entry area most of the summer to private parties, so it's available for divers only early and late in the season which is a bummer.

If you own a boat, you can get to great walls. There are only a couple of charters that go out. Where is this Redemption Center you talk about, I never heard of that? I have a feeling there are some sites that are kept secret from us relative new divers. There must be more historical stuff lurking about.

 

[DepthCharge]

Where is this Redemption Center you talk about, I never heard of that? I have a feeling there are some sites that are kept secret from us relative new divers. There must be more historical stuff lurking about.

It's right in front of the Boy Scout camp. Over the years they just threw all kinds of "stuff" right out front................lots of bottles (hence Redemption Center) and some old dishes etc.
One time, I found a pile of about 8 round bottom bottles at the base of a wall about 100 ft deep, something like 30 ft off shore of one of the islands. They used to have a very interesting way of handling garbage years ago. They would put it on the ice in the winter and by spring.........it would be gone