Day 3: Burlington VT to Isle La Motte VT
Big surprise – the day dawned dark and dreary. We rode a few miles on bike un-friendly Shelbourne Avenue and stopped for breakfast at (surprise!) Friendly’s. The Lumberjack’s Breakfast cheered Chris up and we were off to find the Burlington Bike Path. We found it in a park and cycled for several miles along the Burlington waterfront. This path is typical of many East Coast bikepaths – fairly narrow, curvy and not many amenities. It was, however, flat and traffic free, with a great view of Lake Champlain to our left.
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As we pedaled north we watched a rain squall head our way and just as we cycled through the downtown Burlington waterfront, the rain hit us. It rained fairly heavily for the next three or four miles, and as the directions said the turn off the bike path was unmarked, the routemeister had to get in touch with his feminine side and ask a passing jogger where Starr Farm Road was.
(Note from 2021: Back in 1999, the over the lake portion of what is now called the Island Line Rail Trail wasn't rideable because there was no bike ferry in operation to cross the gap. The Burlington path has also been improved.)
After getting off the path correctly we had our one major navigational error: the Bikeways cue sheet said “Turn R on Turf Rd. and bear L at Barley Rd” when it should have said “Turn R on Barley Rd. and bear L at Turf Rd.” Ignoring the grumbling of the soggy cyclists, the routemeister lead on.
After a quick stop at a Grand Union to stock up on Gatorade and snacky things, as well as the mission critical foot powder for Rick, we continued north under clearing skies. The sun burst out just as we came within view of Malletts Bay, one of the most beautiful sights on the tour. We circumnavigated the bay on Lake Shore drive and with a short uphill slog we crossed I89 and began to head west on route 2 onto the Champlain Islands.
The turn west put us at right angles to what had been a 15 to 20 mph tailwind, so the cycling got a little tougher. We began to be passed by a series of emergency vehicles with their lights and sirens going full tilt. Mike began to flag a bit here, and began his patented “pedal-glide-glide-pedal” routine, making him utterly useless to draft behind.
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At the intersection of Route 314 and Route 2 the fire department had shut the road down. We were later to find out that a liquor truck had run off the road and the driver had been killed. We had to detour onto Route 314 which took us so close to the world renowned Ed Weed fish hatchery that we had to stop. There we saw what appeared to be a whole lot of fish. Next to them were more fish, which were adjacent to other fish. Outside of fish, the only other attraction were facts about fish. They did have an outdoor tank with some huge sturgeon, which, of course, are also fish.
As we pondered the many interesting facets of fish, we got back on Route 314 with the freshening wind at our backs. We rejoined Route 2 and made short work of the 10 miles to North Hero Island, where we stopped for lunch at the Hero’s Welcome deli/store. Great food, nice people and no fish. Well, they did have a chart showing all kinds of fish in the men’s bathroom (the chart was in the bathroom, not the fish.) As we left North Hero an attractive woman in a station wagon waved enthusiastically to us – the first friendly person we’d seen in Vermont.
We had about 52 miles on the odometers, leaving about 12 miles to go to reach our hotel on Isle La Motte. The winds had shifted to being directly out of the west, causing the skies to clear but meaning we had long stretches of direct headwinds. We just put our heads down, grunted and slogged it out. We crossed onto Isle La Motte and marveled at the absolutely lack of everything: no people, no stores, no sound. We found the sign for the Ruthcliff Lodge, turned left and coasted into paradise.
The motto of the RuthCliff is “After thirty years in the business, we have learned that the best activity is no activity at all.” The hotel is nothing fancy but has an awesome view of the lake in front of Mount Mansfield and plenty of Adirondack chairs on which to lounge. The rooms had no TV and no telephone, and every thing was as quiet as could be. There were kayaks and bikes (ha!) you could rent but after 65 miles of pedaling we were primed to be slack.
The owner of the RuthCliff cooked dinner for us and we learned what steak Montreal style was (kind of like blackened Cajun). It is a good thing they cooked for us – since we were there before Memorial Day, the only food was back at North Hero. The full-time population of Isle La Motte is 298 – during the summer it swells to over 5,000.
His wife turned out to be the attractive woman who had waved to us outside of North Hero and she told us how they run the RuthCliff from May to October, when they shut it down and run a place near Stowe Ski Resort for the winter. She told us that during the ice storm of 1998, which happened in the winter when the lodge was shut down, Isle La Motte was without power for three months.
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A big dinner, big desserts and a few beers – we quickly fell asleep to the sounds of coy-dogs (half coyote, half dog) yelping at the nearly full moon.
Today's ride: 60 miles (97 km)
Total: 169 miles (272 km)
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