Nothing Stops Avid Canadian Cyclists On a Discovery Ride to Lake Champlain

Story and photos by David Cohen
Contact David at
David316@sympatico.ca

(Pictured above, the Canadian cyclists: (L to R): David Chan, David Cohen, Marcia Cohen, Clive Wright, Freda Wright, Brenda Zakrzewski, John Attridge, Roberta (Bobbie) Robb, and Sharon Kaczmarek. In the photo above, the cyclists gathered outside The Maples in Grand Isle, Vermont)

A cold wind, slanting rain, and leaden skies.This was the odd "reception committee" that greeted nine cyclists from the Hamilton-Burlington area of Canada when they arrived at suppertime one Friday in June in Douglas Corners, a hamlet about 40 km south of Montreal near the Richelieu River.

(The cyclists enjoyed many pleasant rest stops along country roads)

It was to be the jumping-off point for what has become an annual event-a bike tour designed and organized by Westdale optometrist John Attridge.

On this year's tour, besides John, were Roberta (Bobbie) Robb, Sharon Kaczmarek, Brenda Zakrzewski, David Chan, and two couples, Freda and Clive Wright and Marcia and David Cohen. As usual, they carried their own luggage (including tools and spare parts) on their bikes and stayed at motels and B&Bs after each day's ride, which averaged about 80 km.

(The weather did not deter the cyclists, as at Douglas Corners in southern Quebec, about 15 miles north of the U.S. border. But by the time they reached Lake Champlain, the sun had come out)

Tour participants' hearts sank as they trudged across the parking lot
from their rooms at the Le Douglas Motel to its restaurant. The
weather forecast for the next day, their first on the road, was more of
the same - rain, cool temperatures, and a strong wind.

Conversation over their pasta dinners mainly concerned what clothing to wear the next morning for the first leg of their 480-km tour down the New York side of Lake Champlain and then back up the Vermont side.

However, once out on the quiet country roads leading to the border
crossing at Rouses Point, the cyclists found their legs and, warming
up, they began returning their extra clothing to their panniers.

After crossing the border, they soon came upon the glorious expanse of Lake Champlain and the route they were to follow for the next five days -- the splendid Lake Champlain Bikeway.

(Fishermen make an idyllic scene on Lake Champlain)

As it turned out, the sternest challenge to the riders was not the
weather but rather the Adirondack Mountains, which they encountered on their second and third days on the road.

Although they begin training for the ride in early spring and can
handle most hills, the cyclists found these daunting in places. Not a
few times on Day 2 and Day 3 did they have to dismount and walk their bikes to the hill crests.

(The Adirondack Mounains provided a breathtaking backdrop for the cyclists)

John, who designs each tour by traveling over it by car the preceding autumn, took some good-natured ribbing for not being totally forthcoming about the severity of the climbs.

But the riders appreciated their leader's attention to detail and his
efforts to include interesting sites and scenery along the routes.
As usual, this year's tour had a geographical as well as a historical
focus: Lake Champlain in New York State and the man after whom it is named, Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635).

The tour included stops at several monuments, museums and sites dating from the seventeenth century to the present. Of note were ruins of a British fort at Crown Point, a strategically important military site at first controlled by the French and later by the British and the
Americans. The cyclists walked among the ruins of the fort's barracks and defensive excavations.

(Brenda Zakrzewski, David Cohen, and John Attridge at the ruins of the
British Fort at Crown Point, N.Y. The common historical heritage of Canadians and Americans is nowhere more in evidence than along the shore of Lake
Champlain, in New York State and Vermont)

Later, they visited Fort Ticonderoga, the site of the famous fort
originally constructed by the French and later occupied by the British
and the American Revolutionary forces.

(The group boarded a tiny ferry to cross the lake and make their way back up the Vermont side of the route)

It was here that they boarded a tiny Tconderoga Ferry dating back to 1759 to cross the lake and make their way back up the Vermont side.

At several points along the route they stopped at monuments dedicated to Champlain. Most notable was the brilliantly designed and sculpted lighthouse at Crown Point where Champlain is believed to have fought his first battle against the Iroquois in 1609.

But all was not history and seriousness. John managed to work in a
side trip to the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory near Shelbourne, Vt.
Although they must keep to a schedule (which they frequently fell
behind), the cyclists had plenty of chance encounters - with other
cyclists and locals.

(St. Genevieve Roman Catholic Church provides a beautiful endpoint to Inn Road in Shoreham, Vt., just down the street from the Shoreham Inn)

Of note was a meeting with Dave Reitman and Randy Diamond - touring cyclists from Westhester, N.Y., and New York city respectively - first in old town of Essex and the next morning over
breakfast at a restaurant in Westport. Diamond was suffering from an allergic reaction that made his eyes tear. David Chan, a Hamilton
family doctor (and professor of medicine at McMaster), gave Randy a medication he carried and some on-the-spot medical advice.

Armies march on their stomachs, said Napoleon; cyclists pedal on
theirs. Dinner with a cold beer or glass of wine is an important goal
(some would say, the goal) of each day's ride.

This trip had several notable gustatory stops. Dominic's in
Plattsburgh and Firehouse Pizza in Westport were excellent and ample pasta (carbo up!) pit stops.

The cyclists were privileged to stop at a couple of truly wonderful
inns where the food and drink were well above standard and the
welcoming atmosphere special.

The first was the Shoreham Inn in Shoreham, Vt., at the end of Day 3. Built in 1790, the white clapboard building that houses the inn has
continuously served as a hotel since it was constructed. A little over
two years ago the inn was taken over by a young couple, Molly and
Dominic Francis, who operate it as a combined restaurant-bar and B&B.

(The cyclists at the Shoreham Inn after enjoying chef Dominic Francis' superb breakfast. Dominic and his wife Molly acquired the inn two years ago and have turned it into a restaurant-bar-B&B)

Dominic, a trained chef from Manchester, England, cooked two superb meals for the cyclists - a salmon and risotto dinner and a breakfast the next morning of to die-for scrambled eggs and muffins. In between dinner and breakfast, the cyclists slept in rooms that were noteable for their period detail, elegance, and spaciousness.

Then, at the end of Day 5, the group stopped at The Maples on Grand Isle, Vermont, an establishment run by Linda Coffin, a grandmother who at the age of 59 completed her first Hawaii Iron Man triathalon and has since completed two others. An avid cyclist (cycling is one of three disciplines with swimming and running in triathalons), she was thrilled to play host to a group of cyclists.

With the help of her friend Gail Horne, Coffin served up a sumptuous
dinner of salmon and chicken with numerous side dishes, not to mention pre-dinner drinks and snacks served on the lovely front veranda of the 1840 farmhouse that anchors The Maples. And with the help of Bobbie Robb, Linda and Gail surprised Brenda Zakrzewski, whose birthday it was that day, with a lovely birthday cake.

The tour ended as it began, at Douglas Corners in Quebec. The weather, as at the beginning of the tour, again was a factor - this time, instead of cold, windy, and rainy, it was sunny, hot, and windy. Their feet burning and muscles aching, the riders counted the kilometers to the finish.

When it arrived, they congratulated each other and made extra haste to crack open celebratory cold beers.

(Click below for more travel).