June 20, 2024, South Hero Is, VT
The three largest islands in Lake Champlain are all at the north end of the lake. Two, South Hero and North Hero, are linked by bridges that carry US-2 which continues to Rouses Point on the New York side of the lake just a mile below the Canadian border. The third island is Isle La Motte which is connected to North Hero by a bridge carrying NY-129.
We secured a three-day campground reservation in Grande Isle SP, about half way up the eastern edge of South Hero. It’s a nice park with simple campsites; none have water or electricity. But it offers a friendly, diligent staff, clean bathrooms and a well designed dump and potable water resupply station.
As we noted in Burlington, it seems about half of the campers speak French as a first language. The area is very popular with people from Quebec Province, especially Montreal. Tourism took a big hit here during the pandemic when travel to and from Canada was almost completely curtailed.
One of our hopes for the day had been to ride the three-and-a-half mile Lake Champlain Causeway and the Local Motion Island Line Bike Ferry that extends Burlington’s Island Line rail trail to the island. But the heavens let loose with a steady, all-day rain punctuated by several really intense downfalls that severely reduced driving visibility.
So our day was occupied with sight seeing by car. That included exploring the island’s two tiny towns, South Hero and Grand Isle. The island is bucolic, mainly agricultural with a bent toward tourism. Boating is big here with quite a few marinas. The marinas are generally modest, catering to both power and sail. Powerboats tend to be runabouts and fishing craft. The sailboats tend to be larger, mostly cruising types in 25 to 35 foot range.
There were no chain stores of any variety, not even a Family Dollar, on the island. But there were several very well stocked general stores that offered fresh vegetables and a good variety of meat. Of note were the large stocks of alcoholic beverages. It made us wonder what people do here in the winter.
We waited for some time in the parking lot during an especially heavy gully washer before dashing into McKee’s Island Pub & Pizza for lunch. Sandy was delighted to find that there was a large, dedicated gluten free section on the menu so she had few limits to what she could eat. It seems that the business owner has celiac disease. So we ended up having wings and French fries.
Dinner was a simple one. Sandy whipped up egg & olive for sandwiches and, of course, sliced tomatoes.
June 21, 2024, South Hero Is, VT
The weather report was still pretty sketchy so we shied away from doing our causeway bike ride. As it turned out it never did rain but it was threatening all day! Regardless of the skies there were lots of bikers on the road as we drove south toward the bike ferry location. I guess we’re a bit more risk adverse than those folks.
We did find a great thrift store. Grandma’s Attic is set up in an old building that has served, over the years, as a church, town meeting hall, school, town maintenance building and, now, Grandma’s Attic. Proceeds are donated to the town. We found enough books to resupply Bill’s library for a couple of weeks.
Later in the day we stopped at Viva Marketplace in South Hero. It was a popular ice cream stop for bikers and lots of other people. The ice cream part was attached to a large gift shop where Sandy found a neat assortment of greeting cards.
June 22, 2024, South Hero Is, VT
Heavy rain commenced, again, about 4:00 in the morning and persisted on and off all day. We decided on breakfast at the local Masonic Lodge, a monthly event. It was a busy affair filled with locals who all seemed to know each other. The offerings were extensive and they even offered to make Sandy gluten free French toast! She accepted. We sat across from a nice couple. The man operated a small, two-acre vineyard. It was enough to keep him plenty busy in his retirement.
Up the road we stopped at a weekly farmers’ market. Even this early in the season there was quite a bit of local produce. We picked up some snap beans and a quart of beautiful heirloom cherry tomatoes.
Continuing across the bridge to North Hero, we noted that the area seemed a bit more resort like with quite a few elegant small hotels and more large estate-like homes. We stopped to enjoy drinks at the Pier Bar whose open-sided dining area extended out into the lake.
Of course we had to make a stop at the local general store. Then there was the Red Barn, a beautifully restored small hill barn that served as an art gallery, music venue and, when we stopped by, a large book sale. Bill used the opportunity to pick up more books, overflowing the capacity of our on-board library shelf.
That evening we returned to McKees Island Pub for dinner.