Lake Willoughby, VT?

[Soggy]

Anyone been diving in Lake Willoughby? What's it like? It is a spring-fed lake, so I'm assuming it is pretty darn clear (and cold) water. Anything cool to see?

 

[Northeastwrecks]

I have not, but its near my favorite ski mountain. Let me know if you want to try it sometime.

 

[Soggy]

My family lives near Burlington and my dad has a boat. Willoughby is one of his favorite places to go fishing. So...that means I have someone to take me to dive sites in the Lakes around Vermont.

 

[mrdumont]

Anyone been diving in Lake Willoughby? What's it like? It is a spring-fed lake, so I'm assuming it is pretty darn clear (and cold) water. Anything cool to see?

I dove there last Friday 9-24-04. Excellent dive for serious divers. Glacial formation between two hardrock extrusions. Max depth 300'. Slides of house sized boulders provide spectacular sights, swimthroughs, mineral veins and pockets. Vis was 30' at 130', temp 42 deg. In beautiful Northeast Kingdom.

Did 2 dives in layered neoprene up to 13 mil around core. Wetsuit would be nice. Not inherently dangerous but not for novices - you need to be experienced in cold, limited vis environments. If your ready, it's one of my favorite dives - anywhere in the world.

 

[ScubaNorth]

I dove there last Friday 9-24-04. Excellent dive for serious divers. Glacial formation between two hardrock extrusions. Max depth 300'. Slides of house sized boulders provide spectacular sights, swimthroughs, mineral veins and pockets. Vis was 30' at 130', temp 42 deg. In beautiful Northeast Kingdom.

Did 2 dives in layered neoprene up to 13 mil around core. Wetsuit would be nice. Not inherently dangerous but not for novices - you need to be experienced in cold, limited vis environments. If your ready, it's one of my favorite dives - anywhere in the world.

Great job with this feed back. Makes me want to dive this Lake and it takes quite a bit to get me into fresh water.

 

[oxyhacker]

Willoughby is one of my favorite "different" dives in NE. Clearest water I've ever seen in an NE lake, and steep, erie, cliff walls with huge tumbled boulders.

Two most popular dive spots are both right on the main road, Devil's Rock and the Boulders. You can spot them because there's a devil's head on the cliffside across the road at Devil's rock, and a spring at Boulders. Parking is on a fairly short pull off area at both spots, be sure you are off the road and over the white line or you may get ticketed.

Devil's Rock goes down very steeply to about 60' then levels off for a while. Boulder goes down steeply for god knows how far - the bottom of the lake is supposed to be something like 450'. Since you can hit 100'+ a stone's throw from the shore, a lot of local instructors use it for doing "deep" dives.

Lot of folk lore about the lake. Supposed to be a resident monster, Willy, an underground passage to a neighboring lake, and a U-Haul with a murdered drug lord in it. The last story seems to be semi-true - a game warden was telling me the state police had a minisub looking for it once and some canadian divers claimed to have seen it but couldn't find the spot again.

Anyone been diving in Lake Willoughby? What's it like? It is a spring-fed lake, so I'm assuming it is pretty darn clear (and cold) water. Anything cool to see?

 

[mrdumont]

I agree with oxyhacker's post, however, the site I was referring to is almost directly accross the lake from those sites. It is quite a bit more spectacular as the rockslide is much larger. Dropoff is similar to oxyhacker's description. The site I described can be approached by boat from the public landing or by renting a small boat at the northern (I think) end of the lake - possibly by hiking in. This site is really what makes the lake worthwhile if you're travelling a long distance. Again, if you want to give it a try, contact the folks I mentioned in previous post, they'll gladly help with details.

 

[Gabriel90512]

I would be up for this dive it sounds fun
would be cool to find a U-Haul

might be full of $$$$$

 

[busraider1]

I was in the "northeast kingdom" last weekend for the foliage, only if i knew, i would have brought my gear to look for "willy"... oh well, catch the lake monster another time.. Sounds like a fascinating dive though. thanks for all the info... I'd rather try to catch "champ".. the supposed monster in lake Champlain...

 

[Soggy]

Maybe I'll make it up there someday. I very much enjoy rock walls.