Day 86: North Hudson, NY to Middlebury, VT

Aug 31 blog

44 miles

3,753

We had our breakfast at the hotel, and were excited to start our ride which would take us through Ticonderoga, across Lake Champlain, into Vermont.

We had a lot of hills and headwinds to contend with on our ride into Ticonderoga. We decided to stop at the Hot Biscuit for brunch and had the pleasure of meeting two men who worked for the Lake George Steamboat Company. The older of the two was originally from Holland, and not surprisingly, had been an avid cyclist. He shared with us a funny story about a bike tour that he and his bride-to-be took from Holland to France. Evidently, as they were not yet married not only were they not permitted to share a tent, their tents had to be separated by a specific number of feet! How times have changed. We also learned that he had played a major role in the building of a Dutch windmill at Lake George.

At Ticonderoga we took the short ferry ride across Lake Champlain, and celebrated our crossing into Vermont. Just up the hill and around the turn we stopped at the Champlain Orchards store where we bought a few apples and some hard cider for later!

We had rented a little Airbnb house in the town of Middlebury for two nights, as we planned a rest day there before tackling the Brandon Gap mountain pass.

Riding into Ticonderoga