Burlington, Vermont - September 17th to 19th, 2021
When Right Buddy (RB) was researching the Burlington area, she saw a picture of the Colchester Causeway and she instantly put that on our “must-do” list. We were only in the area for two full days, so we were thankful when the weather cooperated for one of those days to allow us to ride our bikes out on the causeway.
Although we camped for three nights in Grand Isle State Park, from Friday until Monday, we only spent one day in Burlington. On our drive from Quechee on Friday, we stopped just south of Burlington at The Scoop for their hand-crafted ice cream.
At the campground, we went for a walk after dinner. The rocks at the swim beach were perfect for skipping stones, so we spent some time skipping them on Lake Champlain.
Saturday was spent in the Stowe area which we covered in our previous blog post (Stowe, Vermont - September 18th, 2021).
We spent Sunday in the Burlington area. We parked our van at Airport Park in Colchester along the Island Line Rail Trail. We hopped on our bikes and road the trail out on the causeway back towards Grand Isle.
Not far from Grand Isle there is a gap in the causeway to allow boats to pass through. There is a bike ferry that will take you across the gap. The ferry is free, but they ask for a $5 donation, or $10 for a round trip, to cover their costs. Even though we didn’t go very far past the ferry, we took the ferry for the experience. The ferry runs constantly, but only seasonally. After Labor Day, it only runs on weekends through the end of October. Lucky for us, it was Sunday.
The causeway is just wide enough for the bike path. There were a lot of people enjoying the trail, both bikers and pedestrians. The causeway is about three miles long with gorgeous views out over Lake Champlain.
We saw a couple on an interesting tricycle. There was a wheelchair in the front with a normal bike seat with pedals and third wheel in the back. We liked that the wheelchair was in the front instead of being towed behind. That way the person in the wheelchair has an unobstructed view instead of staring at the other person’s backside the whole time. And the person pedaling the bike sits high enough to see over the person in the wheelchair. The bike has electric assist to allow the pedaler to get up hills with all of the weight. We didn’t get the chance to ask the person in the wheelchair how comfortable the ride was, but it looked like it would be pretty good. They did say that the wheelchair can detach from the rest of the bike and be used as a manual wheelchair. What a clever design!
We turned around when we reached Grand Isle and returned to the van for lunch. It was about ten miles round trip. After enjoying a picnic in Airport Park, we hopped on our bikes again and took the trail in the opposite direction to Burlington. This part of the trail is mostly in the trees, but does follow the lake shore. So a nice view of the lake opens up every now and then along the way. We locked up our bikes at a bike rack in the Waterfront area of Burlington and walked up to Church Street Marketplace, just a handful of blocks away. Along the way we found a credit union ATM to withdraw some cash as we spent the last of our cash on the bike ferry.
Church Street Marketplace is a four block long pedestrian area lined with shops and restaurants. The buildings are an eclectic mix of architecture, most of which are historical. The area reminded us of the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado.
On the way back to our bikes, we stopped at the Burlington Bay Market & Cafe. It was our last day in Vermont and we had not tried a maple creemee yet, so this was our last chance. They were delicious. We had ours in cake cones. Yes, we know RB usually has her ice cream in waffle cones, but the cake cone seemed more traditional for a creemee. They were delicious. The ice cream was very creamy, not airy like some cheap soft serve ice cream. We’ll have to come back some day to have those again.
We rode back to our van the same way we came. It was a very relaxing ride, despite the amount of traffic on the trail. It was a beautiful Sunday and a lot of people were out enjoying it. However, most of the people on the trail were very courteous and we did not get trapped behind pedestrians very often or for very long.
The total miles of biking for the day was about 22 miles with only 466 feet in elevation gain in about three hours, not counting the time we were eating lunch or touring Church Street Marketplace. Whoever first came up with the idea to turn old railbeds into bike paths is a genius. We love finding rail trails. They are usually some of the best bike paths around, wide and flat.
Many times an experience does not live up to what you envisioned in your head ahead of time. The Colchester Causeway was not one of those times. The actual experience of riding our bikes on the causeway turned out better than we expected. The gorgeous weather probably contributed to our enjoyment, but it definitely was a unique experience. It felt like we were riding our bikes out into the middle of the lake, surrounded by beautiful views in every direction.
Check out our related video: Burlington, Vermont
(RB)