Pratt

Glancing at the Winter 2022 Cyclosource catalog from Adventure Cycling, I noticed that the cover photo is of the Burlington Bikeway at the bridge over the Winooski River. The flat, snowy expanse to the right of the picture is Lake Champlain.
I've only ridden there in the summertime.

indyfabz

It gets cold there in the winter. I spent a couple chilly days at North Beach at the beginning of June, 2018. It was hard to stand on the shore with the wind blowing off the water.

IPassGas

I'm thinking about a loop next year involving the empire state trail, but would then miss Burlington. If doing only one side of Lake Champlain, which side would you suggest?

djb

I've ridden from Lake George up to Canada and went up the west side, NY side of the lake, which from memory was pretty nice traffic wise. I have ridden down the east side of Lake Champlain down to Burlington, but coming down the islands and then down to Burlington.

​​​​​​Personally I found the islands very pretty to ride on, but I recall the bit down to Burlington being busyish, but not terrible, not for me.
When researching a route for Montreal to Boston ages ago, 8 years maybe, I was told that the road south from Burlington can be busy, being the main drag for all traffic, so you might want to look into that. I went east from Burlington a bit and then got onto I think route 100 or 101 down through Vermont towards new Hampshire. This was a very pretty ride, but probably much more east than you've planned.

So no clear answer for you, but you should be able to find good info opinions as these routes just be done by a fair number of people.

indyfabz

U.S. 7 immediately south of Burlington (once the bike path ends) is busy, especially during rush hour. And there was a relatively short section with no shoulder. Last year I hopped on the sidewalk for a bit, until the shoulder picked back up. Once you get to Shelburne you can turn off onto the much quieter Bostwick Rd. (becomes Greenbush) through Charlotte. The issue in that part of the world is that there aren't really any N-S through routes along/close to the coast until the Vergennes area. Stayed at Button Bay State Park during an organized tour back in 2010. I remember it being a nice place. A cool think about a lot of VT state parks is that they have lean tos. They come in handy if the weather sucks.

Also note that the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail, from Swanton to St. Johnsbury, is/was allegedly going to be completed this fall:

LAMOILLE VALLEY RAIL TRAIL (LVRT) | Agency of Transportation (vermont.gov)

Website does not reflect that.

Finally, I rode the entirety of the MVRT, from Richford to St. Albans, last June. (It crosses the LVRT in the Sheldon Jct. area.) Most of it was not in the best of shape. It was like riding in a rut, with tall grass on both sides, with the section in the Sheldon area being the exception.

Pratt

The Champlain Islands are very nice. The traffic and hills are both low, but on either side you can see the mountains beyond the lake, Adirondacks to the west, Greens to the east.

IPassGas

Thanks much for the comments. What ever we do, it seems like a good idea to ride on the islands and so Burlington as well.

indyfabz

Burlington is a “funky” town. If you’re there during the right time, you might catch some live music up on Church Street.

If you plan to camp, North Beach has some large lean-tos.

One warning: Check to see when the ferry across the bike trail gap is operating. When I was there after Labor Day last year it was only operating on weekends. If you’re there during the height of summer I don’t think that’s an issue.

StarBiker

Paywall, maybe get this article for free. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/12/b...len-bikes.html