| Name: | Sun 18.6. Burlington, VT - Rouses Point, NY | 
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| Description: | Day 1 of our trip took us from Burlington to the US-Canada border in Rouses Point. We roughly followed US Hwy 2 that goes south-north through islands in Lake Champlain. First we rode through a more bike friendly side roads of Burlington to the Island Line trail - a rail trail that goes through Burlington south-north and continues north through a causeway in Lake Champlain to South Hero island. The problem is about a 100 ft break in the causeway for the ships. Fortunately, local bike advocacy organization called Local Motion has a bike ferry running on the weekends through the summer. We were a bit concerned since the ferry did not run on Saturday due to high winds, so, we were happy to see the ferry fee collection tent in the distance as we approached the gap. We paid $20 round trip fee just to appreciate the fact that we did not have to ride on a busy highway instead, and chatted a bit with the crew. Then we continued to South Hero island, and town of South Hero. The rest of the day kept us on Hwy 2 with a few exceptions of less busy roads. The route is fairly well marked because it is part of the Lake Champlain bikeway so it was easy to follow the markings and just keep going. Hwy 2 had mostly about 3 ft of shoulder which felt sufficient. We stopped for a lunch at North Hero at a fairly popular convenience store. Had a sandwich and an ice cream - a must fare in the warm days that we experienced. Then we rode more north on a less busy west side of Alburgh island and finally crossed the outlet of Lake Champlain on a large bridge which actually was fairly pleasant since it had a good 6 ft of shoulder. Then we just rode south a bit to our motel of the night, the Anchorage Inn. Rouses Point overall looked like it saw better days but our motel was in quite good shape, despite the less than perfect surroundings. První den naší cesty vedl z Burlingtonu k US-Kanadské hranici poblíž obce Rouses Point. Zhruba jsme sledovali silnici č. 2 z jihu na sever po ostrovech v jezeře Champlain. Napřed jsme po místních cestách projeli Burlington k jezeru a pak podél jezera na sever po stezce vedoucí na bývalé železniční trati. Tato trať projíždí po náspu i jezero ale ve středu je asi 30 m mezera pro lodě. Naštěstí místní cyklistická organizace zde v létě o víkendech má pro kola přívoz. My jsme byli trochu nervózní protože v sobotu kvůli větru přívoz nejezdil. Naštěstí v neděli tolik nefoukalo takže nás za $20 tam a zpět převezli - peníze nazpět za jednu cestu jsme nechtěli, byli jsme rádi, že nás převezli, jinak bychom museli jet po vzdáleném mostě s rušnou silnicí. Stezka končí na vstupu na ostrov South Hero a odtud jsme jeli po silnicích, převážně po hlavní č. 2, ale ta měla asi 1m krajnice takže to šlo. Cesta je taky dobře značená jako součást trasy kolem jezera Champlain. Na oběd jsme se stavili v obci North Hero, kde jsme si dali sendvič a zmrzlinu - už bylo dost teplo. Pak jsme jeli dál na sever až k mostu který přejíždí výtok z jezera - řeku Richelieu. Hned naproti mostu jsou zbytky americké pevnosti z první poloviny 19. století, kdy se tady ještě občas bojovalo s Brity. Most byl velký ale krajnice byla aspoň 2m takže se po něm jelo dobře. Hned za ním je Rouses Point tak jsme si jen našli motel, který byl celkem slušný i když vlastní Rouses Point má už svůj zenit za sebou. | |
| URL: | TopoFusion Home Page | |
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| Total Distance: | 51.90 miles (83.52 km) |
| Total Trip Time: | 5:20:00 (4:03:47 moving time) |
| Total Climbing: | 1815 feet (553 m) |
| Total Descending: | 2015 feet (614 m) |
| Average Speed: | 12.77 mph (20.56 kph) |
