We really need to come up with a better name for this trip, NorthEast trip lacks a certain panache. Maybe just "The Nor'easter" or "PePaul's Big Adventure". Whatever we call this it's time for the Dainings to go to a tourist trap!
Day 7 I (Paul) love a good cave and a good river and a good skydive (bad skydives are particularly bad), so we found a place with two out of the three. Stone Bridge and Caves has it all (but not skydiving): a 180 foot long bridge of stone over top of a rushing river, gem mining, waterfalls, and walkways cobbled together by a half-blind toddler.
It was actually pretty cool. The river cascaded over a few small waterfalls and then went underground forming a rock bridge over the river. It's hard to take pics of holes but you can see how the river just disappears. Apparently there's a big lake right under the gift shop. There was also another cave where pretty much the entire thing was filled with waterfalls (again hard to photograph holes filled with water)
We had fun and saw some trout. New bucket list item: catch a trout in a pitch-dark cave....naked.
Day 8
Today we threw all of our plans out the window nearly killing a nice Vermont couple. We had planned on more hikes up mountains but were kinda sore and sick of that so we rented ebikes and rode 28 miles. Now we're a whole new kind of sore.
There's a really nice bike trail through Birmingham, VT all along Lake Champlain.
After a two mile hike we were a bit warm so we went for a dip. The water was cold enough to take your breath away but I've read that cold plunges are good for the soul or something. Souls replenished we headed towards Maine.
The view over Champlain were beautiful with mountains in every direction. Once we got past Birmingham there were fewer people and the path becomes a causeway, it's just a 20-foot wide pile of rocks in the middle of the lake with a bike path on top. It's super cool. However, boats need to get past this random thin strip of land so there is a "cut" where boats can go through. As a result a bike ferry is needed. Two guys run a ferry that only asks for donations, you load up your bikes and they ferry you the 50 feet to the other side of the cut. A drawbridge would be more efficient but a ferry on Lake Champlain is so much more glamourous (extra 'u' added for class).
On the other side is South Hero island which has a winery, a nice beach, and a brewery. We got some pretty terrible beer and rested for a while on the beach. Ebikes are much easier to ride than normal bikes but we were still pretty tired after only half the trip. There was a big sign advertising maple cremees at a farm so we stopped. Turns out cremees are just ice cream. Some of us are afraid of lactose so we sadly moved on.
We were biking from 10AM to 5:30PM so that's all for today. Definitely rent a bike and do this trip if you're ever near Lake Champlain, it's wonderful.
Day 9
This is our last big driving day (6ish hours) so not much else is going on. We stopped at Lake Willoughby, VT. It's a beautiful lake without too many people around so we grabbed a beer and enjoyed the views.
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