May 14 – Burlington Bike Path

Today was clear with no wind and a high of 14C so it was a perfect day to do the Burlington Bike Path. It is a 20 km long trail that runs along the shore of Lake Champlain on an old railway bed. It runs through the end of our campground at a point about 1/3 of the way along the trail.

We first went north through a wooded area adjoining the backyards of some very large homes.

The bridge across the Winooski River.

This long section of the path was raised and fenced to protect a wetland we were crossing.

On to the stone chip part of the trail.

The last part of the trail is a 4.5 km causeway that connected the railway from the mainland to the Champlain Islands. The arrow below points to the end of the trail.

You can see it as the thin strip on the map below.

View Larger Map

It is a good thing it wasn’t windy because this is the definition of exposed.

There is a gap just before the causeway reaches the island to let boats through. In the summer they run a small ferry to let hikers and bikers get across.

We stopped on the way back at this lookout for our lunch break.

We then passed our campground and headed south through the City of Burlington waterfront. We saw this great retro RV.

Someone had carved these blocks of the granite used to build the breakwater. 

At the end of the trail we found this wheel chair accessible tree house.

Heading back, we stopped at the earth clock, which had a Stonehenge like group of rocks that marked the solstices and a sun dial in the middle.

Jennie being the sundial peg.

So it was a great, easy 40 km ride. We love rail trails because they are always flat.

Again I am not really happy with the pictures. I should have had more of downtown. When biking I keep the camera in one of the attached bags so it is protected if we fall. To take a picture we have to stop, both get off, retrieve the camera, snap and reverse the procedure. We get lazy sometimes when we really should take a picture.