June 17, 2008: Burlington, VT

On our cruise back down Otter Creek, we came by a small side creek as an alternate route to Lake Champlain. The cut was hand dug in 1812 by patriots to help guarantee that the British could not blockade the end of Otter Creek and keep the Navy ships from reaching the Lake. The cut is still there and shows up on the navigation charts. We also saw the Four Brothers islands, which are home to an enormous and varied bird population including gulls, black crowned heron, egrets and cormorants. The islands are owned and protected by the University of Vermont and are an important research area.

We arrived at Burlington, VT in early afternoon and discovered that the city is very bike friendly. In spite of low hung gray clouds and mist in the air, we took a ride on the Burlington Bikeway for 7 miles along the waterfront. It was wonderful. The trail was created by pulling up the train tracks, now called Tracks for Trails. The paving began at the Community Boathouse where we are docked. The ride took us on the high rises above Lake Champlain with beautiful views across the water to the Adirondack Mountains. We rode through forest glades where the trees touched above us making a natural cathedral over us and you could hear the birds singing in celebration of Spring. We crossed a pedestrian suspension bridge over the wide mouth of the Winooski River. There was even a board walk with iron lattice railings that let us travel over an area of marsh and swamp that rivaled the beauty of some in Eastern NC. We rode through the alleyways behind houses, where fences were covered by cascading pink roses and through the side streets of a well cared for residential area. We even rode under a railroad trestle. Of course about 7 miles out, the rain began to come down seriously so it was a pretty wet ride back. It will really be a happy memory of our trip.
For dinner we walked into downtown Burlington where they have a pedestrian mall full of restaurants and sidewalk cafes. We walked by the University of Vermont Science center, but did not get far enough to see the campus. There is also a Coast Guard station here. IBM has a campus here as well, but I never realized how beautiful the city is.