Cruising an' a Cruising

Today's plan is to rent some bikes as we have seen there is a 24 mile (that's there and back mind) bike path along the lake. So, after having a relatively early breakfast we head on out to the rental shop down at the wharf. As we pass a number of the halls of residence and what we think is the Students Union building they are setting up a lectern at the side of the road and we hear someone say the Mayor is making a speech at the rainbow crossing, but it just looks like a regular pedestrian crossing to us.

The guy at the rental shop advises on the bikes to rent, and the fact that there is a temporary detour for about 1.5 miles of the route. Although this does apparently involve going up the steepest hill in Burlington and then along a stretch of busy road with a cycle path. But it's OK to ride on the pavement (or sidewalk) at this point too. He says that the route usually take about 3 hours so we rent the bikes for 4 hours as we've been assured the difference can be paid later if we exceed the time. 

It's a great looking day for a ride so we set off.  With Eric in the prime seat!

The route passes along the waterfront and we pass the first of the sculptures dedicated to Lake Champlain's own monster called "Champ". We had read in a few brochures that this was the case, and we had in fact driven past the point where he was first "sighted"on our drive in to Burlington, but didn't take it too seriously (no children to amuse, as there were with the Loch Ness monster) so forgot to put it in the blog at the time. 

The route turns uphill not long after this. There's no shame in getting off and pushing it up - the man in the shop told us most people do - although we are sure that MH would have managed it easily!  North Road was not as busy as we'd expected but we rode on the sidewalk anyway to allow for the wobble factor.

As the detour path runs through a campground Eric spots a kindred spirit. 

As you will undoubtedly realise our cycling ambitions fall well short of the truly competitive, so there are a number of stops to sit, eat some fruit, drink some water, take some photos, watch for wildlife, or simply not be on a bike for a minute or two. We are just out for a casual cruise.

Whey hey! Careful there, I don't want to fall from here, it's a long way down

A slightly later stop with a slightly different view. Eric looks one way...

...While we look the other

Reaching the Winooski river and the city limits of Burlington, which is the border between it and the town of Colchester, we pause for breath. 

And a photo opportunity for Eric.

Reach Colchester itself. Did we mention that Winooski means onion so it's the onion river. 

Eric looks quite happy - - Look out he's behind you!

Eric' looking the other way to the scenic view - what's he spotted?

Just thought you might be missing the bird pics so here's one of an Osprey, or wait, is it a red-tailed Hawk?

A panorama of the small picnic spot. There were no benches or anything to sit on, but in amongst the causeway stones were handy flat blocks of marble stone, there is plenty of it around in Vermont, and even a museum dedicated to it.

We check this point on the map and find we are at mile ten, so it's another two miles along this causeway to the return point. 

We reach the point at which there's a break in the causeway, called 'the cut', which marks the end the trail today. During the summer there is bike ferry to transport you across the break and you can continue to South Hero, one of the islands we had previously driven through. Thankfully it's not running and we have to go back. Helpfully Eric suggest that if we take a bit of run at it we could probably leap the gap, like Evil Knievel, but we demure - not today Eric.

So after another pic by the trail map to keep him happy we start the return trip. 

We did take more photos on the way back but they looked just like the ones we took on the way out so we will spare you those.  Although we had to walk uphill again for the detour back, at least the steepest bit was downhill this time.

The guy at the rental shop didn't  make too much of the fact that we had taken 5 hours for his 3 hour cycle ride. Pleasingly he also didn't charge us any extra for being over the allotted time of our rental agreement. Ace.

It was still a pretty steaming hot day and we wondered what were going to do next. Given that we hardly felt we could walk more than a few steps we decided we may just relax at the waterfront park after getting a quick bite to eat.  

On arriving at the quay we noticed that the Ethan Allen lll boat was about to leave in a few minutes for a lake cruise. The idea of a few hours on the cooling waters of the lake and sitting down the whole time, was far to good to pass up. so cruise number two begins with a lot less effort on our part. 

We must have missed going to the end of this pier while we were on land and so hadn't seen these blue figures before.

Eric settles down to listen to the commentary.

We get a view back to the City of Burlington

Looking across the water to The Adirondacks in the distance.

This was the bay where, in 1984, there was a mass sighting (71 people) of 'Champ' from the previous Ethan Allen boat. Slightly more interestingly we were also told about this rock formation.  It is called a 'thrust ball' - think we have that right, accents are quite difficult sometimes and we don't have a geologist on hand to check the detail with.  The grey rock at the bottom is in fact younger than the cream coloured rock on top, so quite unusual in that they are the wrong way round. 

If you use your imagination there is also a formation that looks like an Indian Cheif head from one angle.

A view of Shelburne Bay.

There is a small island of rock in this part of the lake called Dunder Rock  Allegedly, during the 1812 war, the British shelled this rock thinking it was an American warship, and when realising their mistake said, 'Dunder, it's a rock', hence the name. Another legend has it that it is an Indian Chief who turned himself into the rock to guard Lake Champlain for all time.

A distant view of Red Rock Park.

The high point here between the trees is used by would be 'Acapulco style' cliff divers, the water below is 60ft deep, which makes it safe for them to dive into. Really?!

On the edge of Shelburne Bay the information we were given said that this was the first established shipyard in North America. They made double-wheeled river boats, one of which is in Shelburne Museum, which you can visit.

The dry dock.

Nearly fully recovered from our morning's exertions we venture back uphill to the accommodation.

It now because obvious what this morning's reference to rainbow crossing was about.

As we pass we overhear (my hearing is obviously better than I thought) a lady speaking with some students telling them it was her sisters idea to have this pedestrian crossing painted this way as a symbol of inclusiveness at Vermont University.

Tea and cookies at the B&B and get down to a bit of blogging.