July 4th weekend ride in Burlington VT

Why isn't Independence Day always a long weekend?  Can't we add or subtract days to June to make this happen?  

Anyway, for the 4th of July long weekend I went up to Burlington, Vermont.  The morning after arriving I jumped on my bike with the vague agreement that I'd meet up with the rest of my family later that day.

 

The packed gravel causeway. Fairly narrow in places.

We were staying in South Burlington.  I had a recollection that the bike path that goes along Lake Champlain goes to the islands in the lake.  This was a somewhat flawed memory, as it turned out.  Also, I had to bike through the Route 2/Route 89 interchange which turned out to be utterly terrifying. Anyway, I got through it & swore I would not bike through there again (meaning, I'd have to meet up with my family wherever their activity turned out to be and not back at the hotel).

After that and a somewhat more pleasant ride through Burlington, I made it to the bike path. Initially, it was packed with families and such. It made for slow going -- and of course you absolutely have to make a big effort to be careful & courteous around newbie/inexperienced cyclists. Particularly the kids who can be fairly unpredictable. Anyway, the traffic thinned out after a bit and the riding became quite a bit more tranquil. 

Oh, this is where there used to be a bike ferry I thought

Around here I had a funny interaction with another cyclist.  She was taking a selfie while rolling.  I was coming around her to pass & assured her I was not trying to photo bomb her selfie.  Later on, she passed me when I stopped to take a few photos and have a snack.  Later still when I caught up with her again, I asked her how much further the path went.  She told me it was quite a bit shorter than it turned out to be.  Not a big deal, but I thought I was already across "the causeway".  So when I family asked me where's the causeway, I said it was behind where I came from.  It wasn't.

As it turned out the causeway was indeed a narrow causeway that went out into the lake.  And, to my surprise, it dead ended at a bike ferry.  There was an hour wait for the ferry!  I felt fairly ill-used.  If I had done even a minimal amount of research I would have known this bike path dead ends and doesn't go directly to the Lake Champlain Islands.  oops.

Only 89 miles to Montreal and world class poutine.

So, I turned around and started cycling back towards Burlington.  I stopped at North Beach for an iced coffee.  My wife & daughter were off at a farm, so I set that as my destination and rode there.

Relaxing under the shade by North Beach

There's an active railroad line next to parts of the bike path

We have Stonehenge at home

I met up with a couple cyclists who assured me this was actually passable.

Google Maps' bicycle directions kind of sucked. They sent me along a closed section of road which was fortunately rideable, and then along a terrible "stroad" with no shoulder & fast moving traffic.

Finally, it got a bit better with a shoulder, and then it turned off into the kind of rural road that you expect to ride on in Vermont.

Is in my ears and in my eyes

Now this is Vermont cycling!

Finally, I got to the parking lot, found my car, and was just getting everything sorted out when my family finished their thing and came walking over.  I got an ice cream sandwich and was done for the day.  Cycling wise.