Biking the Burlington Island Line Trail

On Sunday, we decided to take the bikes into Burlington to ride the Island Line Trail.  Ken and Bonnie had ridden this trail a couple of years ago and remembered how much they liked it.

We parked at North Beach located on the shore of Lake Champlain.

We could see the Adirondack Mountains across the lake in New York.

We unloaded the bikes and began heading north. Even though the sun was out, it was quite chilly riding on the trail.

We stopped at a beach overlook that had steps walking down to the beach.  While Ken and Bonnie walked the beach looking for seaglass,

Chuck and I admired the blue fall sky with the spiderweb clouds.

We got back on our bikes and continued riding north crossing Winooski River over an old railroad trestle bridge.

After the bridge, the trail was lined with black metal fence for about 1/4 mile.

We stopped at Causeway Park to rest and eat a snack and then headed out on to the causeway...

...stopping here and there to admire the beauty and serenity of Lake Champlain.

These guys look like they're really in deep thought!  They're probably trying to figure out how they're going to beat us in cards tonight!  :)

The Island Line Railroad was built by Rutland Railroad in 1901.  It's hard to imagine how man and animal built not only the railroad but this causeway across the water.  There weren't any bulldozers around in 1901!

We continued as far as we could go stopping at the end of the causeway.  There is a ferry that takes bikers across to the other side but this was far enough for us.

We chatted for several minutes with three women who were biking the trail today.  One of the ladies lives in Burlington and pointed out Mt. Mansfield to us, the tallest of the Green Mountains.

What a beautiful day!  Am I a lucky girl or what!  :)

By this time it was 3:00 and we had about 8.5 miles to ride back to the car where our picnic lunches were waiting on us.  We biked a little more quickly on the way back just stopping to rest a couple of places.

A rock arch cairn someone built from the lake rocks.

I just love old railroad bridges -- particularly
when there is a bike trail going over them!

We got back to the park around 4 pm and ate our picnic lunch with a beautiful view of the lake.  That's a record!  The latest we had eaten lunch before this was 3:30.

When we talked to the lady at the end of the causeway who lives in Vermont, she told us that the leaves are late in changing this year.  This weekend is normally the peak weekend.  But I don't think that really matters to us.  We just enjoy living each day God has blessed us with to the fullest, meeting new friends, and sharing life along the way!  :)