Day 3 Ticonderoga to South Burlington

Miles: 78 miles
Actual miles ridden: 22.4 miles
Actual ride time in saddle: 2 hrs 11 minutes
Average speed: 10.1 mph
Max speed: 31 mph

Ok. We never made any promises here. Today we decided to take it easy. We left Ticonderoga after breakfast and caught the 8 am ferry over to Vermont.

After about a mile or so, we turned onto Smith Street and traveled about 6 miles on unpaved roads. Tom’s mountain bike definitely handled better than my touring tires, but for the most part my bike was fine. However, the gravel really cut into our time. You just can’t go fast even on level ground in gravel, the relatively small hills we encountered would have been no problem on pavement but with the weight of bags maneuvering though the gravel was tough.

The view of Lake Champlain and the Adirondack mountains from the Vermont side was exceptional. Once we got on pavement it was truly an enjoyable ride. The vacation I imagined – a few rolling hills, but for the most part it was pleasant and scenic. There wasn’t much around besides farms and orchards but we almost always had a great view. I love Vermont!

About 10:30 am we passed the Bridge Restaurant and ice cream shop at Chimney Point and felt compelled to pay homage to the local establishment. We each ordered a chocolate shake and enjoyed it under the shaded picnic area.

We headed toward Vergennes where we met up with Dad and Claudette for lunch. Before eating we took in a quick view of the Vergennes Falls, which were pretty impressive.











As we walked to the restaurant, we were surprised by Monique and her friend Jill who stopped by to cheer us on. They joined us for a delicious lunch at the popular 3 Squares Cafe on Main Street.

After lunch the sun was heating up and we succumbed to some real arm twisting and took a ride into South Burlington to our next hotel. Why not? It would give us time to visit the Magic Hat Brewing Co. with Monique and Jill. Besides, I’ll admit 78 miles on day 3 was a little ambitious.

We did a self-guided tour of the Magic Hat Brewery and tasted a few samples. We especially enjoyed the Summer Wacko brew and the Brown Rice Ale.

Afterwards we headed into Burlington and ate dinner at the Skinny Pancake. It is a great local restaurant a block from the lake that serves organic and locally grown food. They have a huge selection of savory and sweet crepes – hence the name Skinny Pancake. They had some great vegetarian options for us too. We sat outside and enjoyed the sights as we talked over an incredibly delicious meal. Although it would have been nice to stay for the live music, timing just wasn’t right.

Jill insisted she buy ice cream for dessert. So we crossed the street and had some local island homemade ice cream. We walked to the docks and captured a few great views and got familiar with the bike path entrance that we will be taking tomorrow. All in all it was a great day with a few fun twists that made it feel more like a vacation day.

Everyone has left and we are left in our hotel room with our bikes, so tomorrow we pedal through Burlington to North Hero Island. It should be a relatively flat and scenic ride. We’re really looking forward to it.