Island Line Rail Trail........

7:08 am - Tuesday - September 25th - Burlington, VT - 51º F, 63% humidity, wind 11 mph out of the south.....heavy cloud cover with a 90% chance of rain today and Wednesday.  Forecast high is 59º F.

One of the reasons we came to Burlington was to ride the Island Line Rail Trail which runs north and south along the eastern shore of Lake Champlain.  The weather for Monday was forecast to be clear and cool, and seemed the perfect day for a long bicycle ride.  It's been a few weeks since we last rode the Carriage Road trails, or hiked, and we were itching for some good exercise.  We woke up to temps in the high 40's, but by 10:30 am it had reached 58º F, which was warm enough to begin riding.  We both bundled up and headed for the bike path......

......within a very short distance we were both glad for every single item of clothing we had donned in preparation for the ride as it was still quite chilly......

.....the initial portion of this 'rails to trails' path was in the shade and when we finally reached a sunny area we stopped to take a few pictures......

 Lots of shade initially

.......after a few miles we were approaching the beginning of the 'Causeway' portion of the trail where there would be lots of sun......

......the 'Causeway' is a part of the old railway line which crosses Lake Champlain near  Mallet's Bay to a large island........

......this portion of the trail is about 2.75 miles over water..........

.......eventually, after 2.75 miles you come to the 'CUT'.....a break in the 'Causeway' which allows boats to pass through and into the larger portion of Lake Champlain.  On the weekends a ferry is available to take you across the 'CUT' to the island.  At this point we had covered 8.25 miles.....time to turn around......

 The 'CUT'

   
......heading back you can see the arc of the 'CAUSEWAY' as it takes you back to the mainland......

.....there is a section of the trail once you get back on the mainland, which is elevated through a swampy/marshy area for about 1/2 mile.....

....by the time we reached the turn off for the Elks Lodge it was about 12:30 pm and time for lunch.  TLE and I decided we were not done yet, and it was time to find some good brews and food.  We checked Yelp and found a place in downtown Burlington called 'American Flatbread' specializing in, what else, flatbread pizza......4.5 stars on over 870 reviews.....must be good, hmmmm?  It was an additional 2.5 miles to the restaurant, however, a navigational error on my part extended the distance by another 1.5 miles.  Nevertheless, we finally reached the restaurant by 1:30 pm....I spent the entire meal apologizing to TLE for making her ride the extra distance.

First up was to choose our brews courtesy of 'Zero Gravity Brewing Company', which is also housed inside 'American Flatbread'.  I chose their 'Black Cat Porter (5% ABV), and TLE their 'Jaguar Shark', a pale ale coming in at 5.6% ABV...... 

The brews

.....for our entree we ordered their 'Pepperoni/Pepper large pizza adding black olives and mushrooms.......

 The amazing Pepperone/Pepper pizza!

 Zero Gravity Brewing

......by the time we finished lunch TLE had forgiven me for being directionally challenged.  Our ride home was at a little slower pace.....

.....we arrived back at the Elks Lodge by 2:43 pm having covered exactly 24 miles burning a total of 1,234 caloric units in the process.  Our average speed over the 24 miles was 10.2 mph.....not too bad!

After putting the bicycles away we settled in for the afternoon reading and napping.  For our evening entertainment we watched recorded episodes of 'Last Ship' and 'Better Call Saul'.  TLE was in bed before 10 pm, but I stayed up to read.

Thanks for stopping by!

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