Hill and Dale: Vermont Tour (Day 4: Carmi Lake State Park)

Our first day of riding started in downtown Burlington on the Island Line Trail. This beautiful lakeside trail runs 13 miles up the coast of Lake Champlain, hopping and skipping over aits, and bridges, and ferries and on up to Grand Isle. But we turned inland after 8 miles, tired of all the beauty, and because we were told to. Adventure Cycling is saving us for the joys of hills (and the Sound of Music) to come.

This was supposed to be an easy 68-mile day, and just a few rolling hills. With miscues (my navigation errors), that stretched to 76 miles. And the hills were anything but rolling, with some serious 9+ percent grades. It's been millions of years since these old, eroded mountains were shaped by orogeny (or five thousand years if you buy the the hand-of-God theory), and the locals seem to think that means they aren't good candidates for switchbacks, unlike their much younger and much larger cousins out west. I heartily disagree. Give me a switchback or give me an ice pack and a bag of Ibuprofen. And thank the crank gods that my beautiful (albeit discontinued :-( ) French TA Zephyr crank allows a 20 tooth cog. Coupled with my 36-tooth rear cog and 26x1.5-inch tires, that gives me a shockingly small grandpa gear of 13.8 gear inches. One should be able to climb a tree with that (or schlep a 105 pound pound bike and 130 pound rider up a nine percent grade).

Dean, sporting his appropriate holstein & sunflower jersey, as we leave the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel.

Breakfast at the classic Penny Cluse Cafe consisted of blueberry pancakes and Vermont Maple syrup. I also ordered some eggs and spuds, but that was just a feint; I was really only after the flapjacks and syrup.

This was just a photo-op stop, no sitting or loitering!; we had miles to go before we slept.

St. Albans Bay.

Beer in the tent, sitting on my comfy REI chair (not an unnecessary luxury item!) and reading Cecile Richards' book, Make Trouble. Interesting read but a bit pedestrian in its co-authored execution. The beer, Magic Hat TFG (Taken For Granite) IPA, was, as they say, "rock solid", and not bad for a corporate beer.

We stealth camped at Lake Carmi State Park since we arrived too late to check in properly. The instructions for arriving after 8 PM were to go to the beach area, camp in the picnic area (apparently RV instructions based on the parking), wait until 9:00 in the morning, and come back (up) to register. Since we left by 8:00 AM, we had no choice but to take a free one from the State of Vermont. Just as well: It has always stuck in my craw having to pay as much for a tent and bikes as for a car & trailer or worse, an RV.

Breakfast consisted of Trader Joe's unsweetened instant oatmeal with whole grain oats, flax, chia, quinoa, and amaranth. I also threw in some tart cherries and topped it with Costco's Innofoods coconut clusters. Pretty danged good. Coffee was courtesy of Smokey Row here in Des Moines.