A little bike and hike and kayak on our last day in Vermont

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

September 16, 2022

From our campground on Apple Island, it was a 17-mile drive to get to the other end of the Colchester Rail Trail. This was the trail we started biking three days ago when we first arrived to this northwest corner of Vermont. But we couldn't ride this far section then because it has a gap where Lake Champlain interrupts the trail. The bike ferry will take bikers over the water gap, but it wasn't running three days ago. So we are determined to ride this section of the Colchester Rail Trail that starts in Burlington, Vermont.

At the start of the trail, the water is shallow and we could see hundreds of water birds enjoying their summer home in Vermont.

It must be a good feeding ground, as it was hard to get a picture of a few ducks with their heads above water.

We have our jackets on because it is cool and windy this morning. The 12-mile-per-hour winds blowing across that big lake made it hard to pedal as we got further over Lake Champlain. This used to be the rail bed of a train that chugged its way across this section of the sixth largest lake in the United States.

In the distance, we could look over the water to see mountains all around us. To the east we can see the Green Mountains that we have been enjoying since we crossed into Vermont over a week ago. To the west we can see the Adirondack Mountains of New York where we are heading tomorrow.

After 3.1 miles, we got to the gap where the bike ferry takes bikers to the shorter section that ends on Apple Island. Sine we've already done that section, we won't be taking the ferry today.

Because we're here on a Saturday, the trail is busy and the ferry is running.

We haven't had much wind this summer, and it's funny how a 12-mile-per-hour breeze seems like a lot on this bike ride. The good news is that the ride was easy on the return trip with the wind blowing us back to the pickup.

The Colchester Trail was a great experience, and we would recommend it to others.  While we never got our kayak out on Lake Champlain, it feels like we have experienced this big lake because we were surrounded by it this day. That was a nice little bike ride on our last day in Vermont.

After our bike ride, we wanted to explore the city of Burlington. This is Vermont's largest city, and it has a large pedestrian area along Church Street.

This mosaic hummingbird was as big as a building hovering in downtown Burlington.

Burlington sits on the shores of Lake Champlain, so we walked down one of the steep streets towards the lake. The science museum on the water front has outdoor exhibits that tested the laws of electricity and gravity to the fascination of tourists like us.

In order to fuel our hike back up another steep street, we purchased a snack. We are becoming experts on the art of maple creamees since we arrived in New England. That was a nice little urban hike on our last day in Vermont.

Denisa loves a good factory tour, and she read that a chocolate store in Burlington had tours. When we arrived at Champlain Chocolates we found that they had moved the factory to another location, and they were no longer having tours. It was another casualty of Covid. So instead of taking a tour, we bought a package of chocolates from the factory seconds rack.

Our next stop in Burlington was the world's tallest file cabinet. We won't call it awe-inspiring, but it was interesting. While we were glad we made the trip into Vermont's largest city, we will just say that it doesn't have the homey vibe that we enjoy. So we headed into the country-side.

We are always looking for a good place to go kayaking and we had read about Arrowhead Mountain Lake. We drove the 24 miles north to check it out.

It didn't take us long to get on the water and head towards Arrowhead Mountain.

We went under the railroad trestle and decided to try going upstream on the Lamoille River that empties into the lake. We always try to row against the current first while our arms are rested.

We soon found that the river is low in September, and too many rocks were sticking out of the water to continue. We had to turn around and float back to the lake before we got very far up the Lamoille River.

We floated back under the train trestle, and into the body of this big lake.

It is a shallow body of water, with tall grass growing up in patches that divide it into a maze of coves. The island-like clumps of grass formed quiet coves that were out of the wind and left the water as calm as a mirror.

We found areas of the lake where the bottom of our boat almost dragged and we wondered if we would have to backtrack to get out. We also found a few critters sharing the lake with us.

We rowed all over Arrowhead Mountain Lake, until we got in 4.2 miles of kayaking. We have wandered into another of God's wonders!

That was a nice little kayak paddle on our last day in Vermont. Even though the temperature climbed all the way up to 70 degrees today, we wore jackets most of the time. We feel a bit of fall in the air, and we noticed that some of the birds must sense that temperature change as well. This little flock was heading south over the lake.

We really have enjoyed our time in this state. As we drove back to our campground, we reflected that we enjoyed a nice little bike and hike and kayak on our last day in Vermont.