Bicyling, Cycling...

We are staying at the Champlain Adult Campground in Grand Isle, VT. This is a campground that caters to older folks with no children. There is no ban here on having children with you, but it seems that for the most part, retirees are here without grandkids. It is very quiet and very beautiful. It is a little on the expensive side for no wi-fi and no cable--$44.00 a night, so we are only staying two nights. BUT, the views of the lake are amazing. There is a path right behind our site that leads down to the "beach", a rocky outcrop where you can get down to the water to swim in Lake Champlain. You can see the car ferries go back and forth all day long. The waters are crystal clear, the weather is fantastic. Temperatures are in the 70's this week, and very low fifties at night, great sleeping weather!There are so many bike trails and bike paths around the Lake Champlain area both on the Vermont side and the New York side. Lake Champlain is often called the "Sixth Great Lake." It has a surface area of 435 sq. miles, 587 miles of shoreline, 70 islands and it has 83 species of fish! So if you like to canoe, kayak, fish, or bike along it, you're in! There are so many biking brochures for all the trails, we were a little intimidated by how many of them are following state roads and country roads, and we weren't sure about sharing the road with cars. We really hesitate to get out on a road when we would prefer a separate bike path. Judging by the numbers of serious bikers out on the roads, that factor does not deter them at all. Maybe some day we will get there, but for now, we look for shorter trips in shaded areas, off the main roads. Our average biking exploration on bikes has been usually about 5-8 miles at a time round trip. Today, we discovered a fabulous bike trail...in Grand Isle, you take a BIKE ferry that lasts two minutes (10.00 a person) to get from one part of the trail to the other. This bike trail is on an old rail bed, and Lake Champlain is on both sides of you within a matter of a few yards. You see the lake on both sides of you for about five miles. The town of Burlington is a bike ride of 10 miles ONE WAY if you ride this trail. Unfortunately, that is just a little too far at this point for us just yet. So we rode for 11 miles round trip today, which is a record for us so far this year. Incredible views of the lake, fresh air, nice wind blowing, and a great little ferry service run by a local bike group called Local Motion. Enjoy the photos!