Biking Burlington Bike Path

 

One of our favorite things to do is to invest a few hours riding the Burlington Bike path, oogling the views and shoreline along the way. The Burlington trail is part of the Champlain Bike Trail, a 1600 mile group of trails, 363 miles of that trail around Lake Champlain. I’m more of a day tripper that stays off roadways, I prefer trail riding mostly.

burlington bike trail
Burlington Bike Trail Via: Local Motion; image by K Rose

The Burlington Bike Path is 16 miles of mostly paved trail that runs along the eastern side of Lake Champlain offering fabulous views and easy peddling. The trail is perfect for all ages and riding skill levels using non motorized modes of travel.

This well used path is the busiest around the Burlington waterfront; as you move north of North Beach the crowds thin out and the views open up. We haven’t ridden the trail since a recent waterfront upgrade, which completed areas rerouted by construction projects.

Traveling north through the Burlington waterfront, you’ll pass a few beach areas, ride over the Winooski river bridge, ride through a few neighborhoods before reaching the causeway and on to the Lake Champlain Islands. The causeway brings you three miles across Mallets Bay, you’re surrounded by water with 360 degree lake views. To reach the Champlain islands you’ll need to use a bike ferry to cross “the cut,” an opening in the causeway allowing boat travel from the bay into the broad lake. We typically use this as our turn around point, after spending time enjoying lake breezes while sailboats complete scenic vistas.

This aerial view of the pedestrian causeway offers a great visual of the ride across the bay.

burlington bike path
The Champlain Island trail crosses from Colchester to the Islands via this pedestrian causeway. Image via Localmotion.org

Local Motion does the best job detailing this bike trail with maps, videos, and details of the trip. They have a bike rental shop right on the trail at the Burlington waterfront. The map to the trail can be downloaded via pdf, I’ve taken the liberty of breaking the pdf into three pieces for the purpose of this post and
better viewing.

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Are you a road bike rider or do you prefer trails and bike paths?

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6 thoughts on “Biking Burlington Bike Path”

  1. Wow, that zoomed out image of the Champlain Island trail makes the whole ride look daunting. Cool, but daunting. Going to have to check this bike ride out.

  2. Pingback: Path, Trail, or Road: Biking Preference is Personal - BodynSoil

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