We drove our hot, new ride back to northern Vermont. A wrong turn off of the interstate lead us through Newport and passed a surprisingly beautiful lake on the boarder with Quebec. The sun was just setting and the lake was surrounded by mountains on its northern shore, a very pretty sight. It would seem that North Troy is one of the few unremarkable spots in all of Vermont!
We arrived at the b and b in North Troy in the dark. There was not much to see, however. North Troy is a US port of entry but other than sprawling cattle farms, there's not much there. Our lodging for the night appeared to be the only business in town that had not failed.
We got the key to our Jeep back from the inn keeper and were soon reunited with it (and all of our clean clothes left behind!). The innkeeper introduced us to Maya, a solo hiker who had finished the Long Trail that day. Maya was from Albuquerque, New Mexico. She had hiked the length of Vermont and now had no way to get home. If we could give her a ride to Burlington she could arrange mass transit to her next destination from there. Since Burlington was only about twenty miles out of our way back to Rutland, we were happy to help. It also gave Mary a chance to ask lots of questions about the rest of the Long Trail for our future hikes.
The Inn looked like it had seen limited recent use. It was a beautiful old house built in the nineteenth century, but it could use a little upkeep. We were still used to being on the trail, though, so we were mostly happy for a bed.
In the morning there was fabulous breakfast, causing me to raise my estimation of the whole outfit. We were served a variety of coffee cakes, rolls, cinnamon breads and organic eggs cooked with fresh veggies and lots of organic coffee. Breakfast gave us a chance to chat with Maya about her travels. It turned out she was quite an accomplished hiker, having through-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2009. I'm always amazed at the people we meet on and around the trail.
After pigging out at breakfast we caravanned the Jeep and rental car to Burlington to drop Maya off and then on to Rutland to return the rental car.
Finally back to driving just our vehicle, we decided to head to Burlington for a couple of nights. It was hot and sunny so we figured Lake Champlain would be a good bet. The east's biggest lake, Champlain has been called the sixth great lake.
We found camping at the North Beach Park. The spots were tiny and it amounted to suburban camping, quite a contrast to the 110 mile backpack we had just done! On the plus side, a short walkway lead from our campsite to a beautiful, sandy beach. The towering Adirondacks were just barely visible on the other side of the lake, giant, white ghosts there to remind us this was not Lake Michigan. We enjoyed several refreshing swims while camped at Lake Champlain.
Burlington is Vermont's largest city. It is an interesting blend of urban living with outdoorsy pursuits. On one hand it has a large public transportation system and is home to the University of Vermont Catamounts. On the other, it has dozens of restaurants where they can tell you which family farm your dinner was raised on, and more outdoor gear shops than we had time to visit.
The downtown district was a really cool scene to check out. Most of the restaurants had outside seating right on the street. Several places had live music, and almost every corner was home to a street musician with a hat or empty case out for tips. I was amazed at how packed the streets were on a weeknight. We sampled some of the local fare and relaxed in the cool night air. Burlington seems like it would be a pretty neat place to live!
After getting our fill off the city life we are packed up and headed to Quichee Gorge State Park for some camping and hiking. I'll post a report on the gorge and surrounding area after. We're still happy to be hanging out in New England for a while.
