Bike tour 2011, a set on Flickr.
Lake Champlain 2011
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
On the road Day 1
It is a sunny day as we launch down the gravel driveway. Theresa almost gets run off the road by my nephews neighbor in her SUV. I exchange the complementary bikers greeting of move over A-hole and we are off. Its 7:30 an we already have an rush on . We push it up the first big dirt hill and off we go. I pass what appears to be a cat on RT104 but its a baby fox!
Mushrooms in Fairfax
Cows of course
A turtle that was in the road - I put him back into the field.
A house and garage covered in cast iron fry pans - ???
Rt 78 in Vt We almost get run over by trucks every 30 seconds or so. Flooding is everywhere
Yum green flooded roadsides!
Fly hatch in Alburg
We cross at Alburg and pull up to customs. There is no one around so we wait at the window for a while. Someone shows up and we are let into Canada. We could have just rode our bike across and no one would have noticed. The roads instantly turn to crap.
We bike up to Noyan the next "town" on the map. Yes three houses is a town I guess. But we meet with a Bike Vermont tour group and they tell us about the only restaurant around so we bike south to get there. We go in and find the menu of course in french. I order the special that appears to me to be a Caesar salad but it turns our to be BBQ ribs with salad.
Its 85 degrees out and a plate full of ribs is not exactly bike food, But its tasty and we devour it. We have a great chat with the bike group and off we go north.
We see lots of farms - a field with dead fish from the flooding hat is across the road from the river what a smell!. Porta potty's are everywhere as everyone septic systems are flooded out. House are just trashed in some places. Its hot - flat and farms.
We stop at a store to get drinks and they don't speak English or take American money. We haven't changed and money to Canadian yet. We finally hit St Jean after 72 miles and a million detours due to flooding. We check in and head down the street for some great pizza and the BEST beer in the world!
Day one is over .
Cows of course
We cross at Alburg and pull up to customs. There is no one around so we wait at the window for a while. Someone shows up and we are let into Canada. We could have just rode our bike across and no one would have noticed. The roads instantly turn to crap.
Its 85 degrees out and a plate full of ribs is not exactly bike food, But its tasty and we devour it. We have a great chat with the bike group and off we go north.
We see lots of farms - a field with dead fish from the flooding hat is across the road from the river what a smell!. Porta potty's are everywhere as everyone septic systems are flooded out. House are just trashed in some places. Its hot - flat and farms.
We stop at a store to get drinks and they don't speak English or take American money. We haven't changed and money to Canadian yet. We finally hit St Jean after 72 miles and a million detours due to flooding. We check in and head down the street for some great pizza and the BEST beer in the world!
Day one is over .
Lake Champlain Tour
So it begins:
The bikes - her bike Trek 1.2 50/34 compact double - 11/32 cassette- Brooks 68S saddle - Toppeak MXP trunk bag with expandable panniers. Conti- 4 season 700x28 tires
His - Kona Jake the Snake 42/36 compact double -11/32 cassette - Brooks 68 saddle - Trunk bag with expandable panniers ( some brand I can identify anymore)- Schwable marathon 700x28 tires.
The route for the first day:
View Larger Map
We pack everything into zip lock gallon bags and press all the air out to compact it as much as possible. It looks like about 15 pounds of stuff when its all said and done. The area we are riding into has had lots of flooding so I call ahead to Local Motion in Burlington and get a non-biker on the phone. She said everything up north should be fine. We shall see. We have the route picked out and drive up to my nephews in Fairfax to drop the car and launch the next day. We have an enjoyable stay but are of course chomping at the bit.
The bikes - her bike Trek 1.2 50/34 compact double - 11/32 cassette- Brooks 68S saddle - Toppeak MXP trunk bag with expandable panniers. Conti- 4 season 700x28 tires
His - Kona Jake the Snake 42/36 compact double -11/32 cassette - Brooks 68 saddle - Trunk bag with expandable panniers ( some brand I can identify anymore)- Schwable marathon 700x28 tires.
The route for the first day:
View Larger Map
We pack everything into zip lock gallon bags and press all the air out to compact it as much as possible. It looks like about 15 pounds of stuff when its all said and done. The area we are riding into has had lots of flooding so I call ahead to Local Motion in Burlington and get a non-biker on the phone. She said everything up north should be fine. We shall see. We have the route picked out and drive up to my nephews in Fairfax to drop the car and launch the next day. We have an enjoyable stay but are of course chomping at the bit.
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