E-Bike Excursion to Burlington, VT

Here's a view looking off the Causeway across Lake Champlain. That's New York in the distance. It was completed in 1899 of riprapped marble after one year of construction and continued train service on from Burlington to Montreal, CA. 

 At the height of the fall foliage display, Scott and I reserved E-Bikes for another 3 day excursion with our RV "Baby" up to Burlington, VT.  As before the rentals were free from our local Senior Center. The Island Line Rail Trail and Colchester Causeway extend from South Burlington up to South Hero Island on Lake Champlain. It's 13.5 miles long one way but we had to stop a little early because the bike ferry that transports bikes during the warmer months was closed. This section of the trail crosses the lake on a causeway 3.5 miles long with a break that allows boat traffic to pass through to a large bay in the lake.  The trip took us about 3 hours and was spectacular as you can see from the photos.

We were the only folks brave enough
to sit outside. It was pretty cold.

Sunset over the vineyard while we sipped our wine.

All the State Parks in Vermont were closed for the season and most of the RV parks, but we got reservations at the Shelburne Camping Area, only about 4 miles south of Burlington. Our site was easy to access and Shelburne is a lovely town with some great shops and restaurants. Our first night we had a wine tasting at the Shelburne Winery. We had hoped to stay there as it's a Harvest Host location, but they were not taking reservations and in fact, have left the program. The wines were excellent and we enjoyed them overlooking the vineyard. 

After biking and a good lunch at the Skinny Pancake (sitting outside), we went shopping on the pedestrian street in the center of Burlington.

On our last day, it poured but at that point, it didn't matter. We were very lucky to have two lovely days at this time of year. That was a week ago and now we are doing our last preparations for our first trip down to Guatemala. We fly on 10/28 and return on 11/30. We have a survey scheduled for early next week. As part of that, we'll get hauled out at RAM. That will result in a list of work that needs to be done before we leave Guatemala mid January and head north to the U.S. This is the first time I'm not looking forward to our return. Concerns about COVID and worry about what we'll find in the survey have dampened any enthusiasm! Wish us luck.

Heather on her rented E-Bike

Scott takes a break on the Causeway