Exploring Vermont Rail Trails - Day 4 (of 4)

Day 4 (Waterbury - St Johnsbury, 105km or 65mi)

I got up early and started packing. It was a cool night indeed but I was warm, maybe because I decided to wear most of my clothes to bed (which was not much - I didn't take a single long sleeve shirt and had no socks). At 6:50am when I left air temperature was only 11C/52F. A bit too cold for sandals. Pretty soon my toes felt a bit numb, especially on fast downhill.

I put the rain jacket on, which help blocking all the wind chill, but had nothing to protect toes and fingers with. It would've been nice to buy socks, but there were no appropriate stores open anywhere at 7am. I kept going, sticking to Cross Vermont Trail.

Weather forecast for that day said partly cloudy with sun and no rain. Unfortunately, in the early morning hours all I could see was nearly nothing. Everything was covered by a thick fog.

Before 9am I was already in Montpelier. Foggy weather continued and it was actually quite pretty, especially when sun started peeking through. The worst part about it was that on downhill my glasses got very quickly covered with millions of tiny water droplets and I couldn't see anything. I had to stop frequently to wipe it off.

By 11am fog was pretty much gone. It was getting hotter and more sunny. I stopped at Cabot briefly, got some water in a local store and kept going towards the last section of Lamoille Valley Rail Trail. Now I feel that the hill I climbed right outside of Cabot was sort of pointless - it didn't add anything meaningful to the trip and it was probably better to just take the main road (Rt215), which wasn't that busy.

The first part of the remaining trail was rough with chunky gravel yet again, but once I reached Channel Dr the graded trail begun and from there it was basically all smooth sailing all the way to St Johnsbury. Even better - the whole trail is this direction is on down slope making it very fast to ride.

I got back to my car at 2pm after 4 days of cycling, 436km (270mi), 2 burgers and 6 beers.

Exploring Vermont Rail Trails - Day 3 (of 4)

Day 3 (Lake Champlain - Waterbury, 130km or 81mi)

I was lying in my tent trying to fall asleep, thinking about coming rain. Since I hate packing wet stuff in the morning, I figured I could probably avoid this by bending the rules a bit. Deep at night I decided to move my tent (freestanding tents are easy to move) and bike inside the "breakout room" at the campground. It was nothing more than an old shed with some pool tables and arcade machines inside, but I figured that nobody will play there at 2am. I was lucky. Soon after I managed to hide inside, it started to rain. Heavily.

I woke up at 6:15am ready to start the day. Unfortunately, it was still pouring outside. I started packing up my stuff and wrapping everything in plastic bags. By 7:25am I was ready to go, if only weather was a bit more cooperative. The forecast said it would stop raining by 11am but there was no way I could wait for that. I zipped up my jacket and rolled on.

As expected, pretty soon I was all wet. That didn't really bother me that much. It was that kind of weather with steady rain yet warm and even when wet I wasn't cold and felt surprisingly comfortable. I did discovered a couple of issues with my setup though. One was that I had my camera in a hip bag, which was getting wet and muddy from the splash coming from the rear tire. I slid the hip bag over to the front, placing it on my belly which took care of that problem, but then I thought it would be really good to have a simple plastic, lightweight fender" attached to the bottom of saddle bag, protecting my butt and lower back.

The best decision of the trip was to take sandals instead of regular shoes. Sandals are absolutely the best as long as temperature allows it. No need to worry about soaked shoes and wet socks.

Once I got back to Swanton I simply continued on Lamoille Valley Rail Trail - the second one of rail trails planned for this trip. The section from Swanton to Sheldon Junction is still not officially open I think, but it's very usable, being nicely graded and finished with red crushed fine stone.

The more adventurous part starts after you cross the renovated rail bridge on Missisquoi River. From here the trail is officially not on map and it seems to be used mainly by snowmobiles in winter. It's often narrow, muddy and flooded in places, with lots of chunky gravel on others.

It's definitely useable for cycling, as long as you bring your mountain bike. Just be careful with bridges - there are many on the trail and most are in decent condition, with only a couple in a derelict state. Officially, in these places the trail is closed (which is properly marked), but you can still cross on your own risk. Just don't step on rotten wood beams.

This rough trail section continues all the way to Jeffersonville, at which point the trail becomes more civilized again and the officially open section begins. At that time it was about noon and rain stopped. My jacket and bike started to dry off and I raced along the flat path towards Morrisville. I was getting hungry and was very excited to arrive at Lost Nation Brewing around 1:45pm, where they serve excellent beer and really good food as well.

Once refueled, I continued south towards Stowe and Waterbury, taking a more scenic route away from the main road (Rt100) to avoid car traffic. At Waterbury I really wanted to visit Prohibition Pig bar, I heard so many good things about but I wasn't hungry nor thirsty and it was getting a bit late, so I decided to move towards the campground.

After arriving at Little River State Park I was told that campground was full and sold out. That's not something you want to hear after biking over 80mi in rain. Fortunately, after a while and some negotiations it turned out that someone was leaving early and I got a spot. I set my tent up, cooked a dinner, took a shower (good I had 2 quarters left!) and hang all food and soap in a bag on a tree. Just in case some teddy bear was going to visit at night.

That night felt much cooler and air was crisp and fresh. The rain must have pushed all the humidity away. It was going to be a cool night.

Exploring Vermont Rail Trails - Day 2 (of 4)

Day 2 (Newport - Lake Champlain, 125km or 78mi)

After a very windy night I got up at 6:20am, packed up and started cooking breakfast. Unfortunately, cooking on a an alcohol stove in windy conditions is close to impossible and I very soon found out I was burning through too much fuel. I finished my oatmeal but decided to change my plans for next couple of days in terms of future breakfasts, since I had to conserve fuel.

Back on road at 7:25am I was making a good progress moving through some rural land just south of Canadian border. Here is where I had the only mechanical on the trip. I found out that one of the plates in the chain has slipped off the pin and chain was just hanging on on one plate only. Not good. Fortunately, I had a tiny multitool with me and could use pliers to move the plate back in position and then push the pin in with chain breaker tool.

Sometimes I find some very unexpected things

The next step was a strenuous climb up the mountain pass in Jay Peak range. It's not particularly steep, but it's loooong so don't get too excited - the summit is still further away than you think.

Like I said before, the great thing about climbs is that there is always a downhill afterwards. Very soon I was back in the valley and next I took West Jay Rd, which is unpaved, keeping me away from trucks and cars and it runs close to the border. I mean - very close to the border.

In fact, the road is so close to the border that at some point you will find yourself in Canada, even if you didn't ask for it. That's one of those unique spots on U.S. map where the border, which is a straight line on a map, crosses the infrastructure "in a wrong way", putting the official border markers on the wrong side of the road.

Very soon I reached Richford and hopped on the Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail - the first long rail trail on this trip. I like this place. It's a very easy road to ride, being flat and well graded. It runs through some open farmland and just feels relaxing in general. Not every bike route needs to be like a stage in Tour de France, right?

By 1:25pm I was already in St Albans. I suspected some overcast and even rain on this day but it was actually sunny and hot. I ran out of water, so my first step was to get resupplied in liquids and some snacks and my second step was the have beer and eat something good. I found a table outside of Twiggs Gastropub and can recommend not only their burger, but also Fiddlehead IPA - excellent in every way.

At 2:30pm I was back on road and went north towards Swanton. My plan was to reach a campground at the edge of Lake Champlain but the only way to get there was Rt78. Unfortunately, it's a terrible place for cycling. Being the only route connecting Vermont, New York State and Canada in this part of the country it's very busy with heavy car and truck traffic. I wish they built a proper separated bike path somewhere next to the road, because riding a bike there feels sort of terrifying.

When I arrived at Campbells Bay Campground I found out I was the only one with a tent. Air was heavy and humid. Felt like thunderstorm was on the way.

Exploring Vermont Rail Trails - Day 1 (of 4)

It's the fall season of 2021 and all I know that I need a break. Just a few days on my own, away from family (sorry!), my usual surroundings and especially, from my day job. Since in these weird (post)pandemic times nothing is certain anymore, when an opportunity came, I grabbed it quickly and decided - I'm packing up my bike and going to Vermont.

End of September is typically quite decent weather-wise here in New England and after checking forecast I found out it was supposed to be still warm so no heavy clothing was required. Unfortunately, the forecast also mentioned some heavy rain coming up in a couple of days. Not ideal.

Day 1 (St Johnsbury - Newton, 77km or 48mi)

Early morning I put everything in my car and drove north to St Johnsbury, VT. Getting close to White Mountains the fog on highway was so heavy I couldn't see anything a half a mile ahead. I started to rain. "Just great" - I thought - "If the whole day is going to be like this, it doesn't seem like a good start". Fortunately, once I cross the mountain range weather improved quite a bit, rain stopped and sun started peeking through a gap in clouds.

I arrived at around 10am, unpacked and started pedaling north. The great thing about Vermont is that even around larger towns it doesn't take long to find an unpaved road. It was humid, cloudy and cool (~64F/18C). That's actually not a bad weather for cycling (as long as it doesn't rain). I hate riding in full sun anyway.

Soon I realized that I had a pretty good pace, which may have been because there wasn't that much to see on the way so I didn't stop for pictures too often. I was rolling through a cattle country.

Actually, to be honest, there were things to see. Unlike in Massachusetts, in Vermont fall seemed to be in full swing already. Lots of trees were wearing yellow and red outfits.

After several climbs and some very rewarding downhills, I first reached Barton and then my final destination for the day - Newport. I arrived early, at 2:45pm. There was still plenty of daylight left, so I set up my camp at Prouty Beach Campground, took a shower and went to Newport Natural Market to get something to eat. I found out they had some really nice beer for sale as well (Chimay!) but only in 4-packs. I guess that's a benefit of travelling with someone - you can share a 4-pack. I had to pass on that, otherwise I probably wouldn't be in condition to bike the next day. Four heavy Belgians is a bit too much in one setting.

Then I decided to bike a bit on Newport Bikepath north, along the eastern edge of Lake Memprhemagog. Arriving back at the campground I cooked dinner, watched some really nice sunset and then went to bed. Unfortunately, while the test sites are beautifully located right at the edge of the lake, they are also not sheltered in any way from wind. There was a pretty strong wind coming in from the lake and with my tent flapping and making noises, it was very difficult to sleep.