Over the Gap in Late Summer

We took a late summer mini-holiday up to Burlington, Vt., three days in that small city that sits on the eastern edge of the widest part of Lake Champlain. I drove up alone last year to test out sailing a rental Hobie Cat on that big expanse of fresh water, and this year my wife, Beth, accompanied me to see whether it might be a place where we’d like to spend more time.

Aside from strolling the outdoor pedestrian-only area with restaurants of all types, we came to bicycle the Champlain Bikeway, a mostly flat trail that runs on an old rail bed right along the lake — and for me to sail again. We also looked into neighborhoods — on bikes, in the car, and from the water — to see whether any of them appealed to us.

I did manage to sail all three days, for a couple of hours. The first two were challenging, with lots of wind, swells built up over the 10-mile stretch from the New York side, and plenty of whitecaps. I realized then why people like a mono-hull for these sorts of conditions. All around me, their masts were steady in the water while mine was bucking with every wave. But the third day was magnificent, with a good breeze and not too much in the way of seas.

That was when I got this picture of a gaff rigger with two jibs:

That’s my (rental) Hobie Getaway in the foreground.

But the best story from our trip happened when we biked up to South Hero via the Colchester…