Day 32 - We Didn't Know We Were Going Whitewater Rafting Today - In Street Clothes & With an Expensive Camera

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The weather report for today was bright and sunny in the morning with thundershowers in the afternoon, so we wanted to get an early start because we had lots to do before the rain came. I say we wanted to get an early start, but in reality it was Sunday morning, and our first stop - Ausable Chasm - is only 30 minutes away, so there is no point in getting on the road until 8:30. These are the things I told myself as I rolled over and caught a few extra zzz's this morning. So we had a quick breakfast, and headed out at 8:30, right on schedule. We even stopped along the way to gas up the bike since we knew 1 tank would last us all day.

Our first stop was Ausable Chasm, which is basically a big gorge cut into the sandstone by the Ausable River. I did look up the origin of the word Ausable and found out it was from the original French name for the river which was the Au Sable River meaning the Sandy River. Au Sable became Ausable and Ausable Chasm was born. The are a few different ways to see Ausable Chasm, but we opted for the classic tour which is a self-guided hike down into the gorge by stairs and walkways attached to the sides of the gorge until we reach the water, where we are loaded on rafts and float downstream to the end of the gorge. The whole thing is about 2 miles long. They have added a few new options, first where we could have tubed along the water instead of riding the raft. And the second, much crazier option is called the Adventure Tour. They have added a series of cables and suspension bridges across the gorge. This allows the victim to climb the sides of the gorge and repel down. The bridges are very open with either a cable at the bottom or wooden slats every couple of feet. With my fear of heights, there is just no way we were doing the adventure tour. The classic tour has been offered since the late 1800's and it's good enough for us.

We started by the entrance with some great pictures of Rainbow Falls which is right at the beginning of the gorge, We didn't know until the end of the tour as we returned that there is actually a falls above Rainbow Falls, but it is formed for use by a powerplant to generate electricity. After Rainbow Falls, headed to Elephant Point on the right side of the gorge where looking down on the left side we could see a large rock formation in the shape of an elephant's head. Next, we crossed the main bridge on foot to reach the left side of the gorge where the main path down the side of the gorge began. Along the path were several observation platforms where we could see both up and down the gorge and take some great pictures. Since we had arrived at 9:00 just as the place opened, there were not many people on the trails yet, so we mostly felt like we were there by ourselves. The walk was great, and the views were spectacular. There was one couple from Buffalo we met along the path and talked to a little about where to go and what to see. As we began to approach the area where we would board the rafts, we looked behind us and an Asian hoard was advancing on us. Evidently, one of the tour buses that had arrived just behind us in the parking lot was full of about 40 Asian tourists and they were all walking together and catching up to us fast. Evidently, they were not stopping at the observation points like we were and were making better time heading for the rafts.

Somehow, as we took our pictures on the last observation platform, the busload of tourists got ahead of us and had formed a long line to get to the rafts. Since the rafts only hold 8 at a time, we knew we were in for a little wait. But the time passed quickly and soon it was our turn to ride the raft. We had been whitewater rafting several times before, so Jody & I were both experienced riding this kind of raft. Fortunately, we were not being called upon to help paddle, just to go along for the ride. Our tourguide and boat driver, John explained that because of all the recent rain, the water levels were unusually high and that because of that, the water was moving much faster than it usually did on the rafting part. While it was unlikely we would get very wet, as we were all in street clothes, he recommended that we remove our shoes and hang them on our life preserver as the raft would probably end up with 2 or 3 inches of water in the bottom. When we reached the first turn, it was apparent that we were about to ride some Class II rapids. It was fun, and only the guy alone in the front row of the boat got wet, Jody & I were in the last row by the John and we stayed nice and dry. There were a few other interesting spots along the way, but for the most part the water was smooth, though the current was very fast moving. According to John, the raft ride was only taking about 1/3 of the normal time because the current was moving so much more swiftly than normal due to the high water. But when the water was smooth, I did get some really good pictures.

We finished the raft ride, and by the amount of water that had been at the bottom of the raft, we were really glad that we had taken off our shoes. We were now 2 miles away from the entrance and we had 2 options for what to do next: there was a 2 mile nature hike through the woods back to the entrance, or there was a trolley bus stop that would drive us back. If it wasn't for the threat of bad weather in the afternoon, we would probably have taken the 2-mile walk. But it was getting close to 11:00 and we still had one more stop before heading to Burlington, so we went with the trolley ride back.

When we arrived back at the gift shop, we were a little bit hungry, but we took one look at the line in the cafe - the same busload of tourists that had been in front of us at the rafts were now in line for the cafe. So we gave that up, picked out a couple of really good t-shirts and headed for the bike. The sky was looking a little cloudy, but our next stop, High Falls Gorge was only about 45 minutes away, so we kept our fingers crossed and headed out. The ride over was awesome! Most was on Scenic RT-9N and there were all wonderful mountain roads with steep hills and fast turns, it was great fun motorcycle riding. We did feel a few sprinkles along the way, but for the most part we arrived dry.

High Falls Gorge is a gorge similar to Ausable Chasm but on a much smaller scale, There is a walking path of steps and platforms attached to the sides of the gorge, where we could take awesome pictures of the waterfalls. There were even a couple of the smaller observation platforms that had glass floors so that you could see the water below through the floor. It was very cool, and not nearly as terrifying as I thought it might be. the whole path is only a half mile loop, so it only took about an hour to see it all. By then we were getting hungry, and the High Falls Gorge had what looked like a pretty good restaurant attached. So we decided to take a break for lunch as we had succeeded at our goal of visiting both Ausable Chasm and High falls Gorge before the rains came.

So as we sat in the restaurant enjoying our lunch, the sky proceeded to open up and the downpour began. We ate slowly, and just as we finished lunch, the sky cleared up again and the rain stopped. I looked at the radar on my phone and understood why the weather was so unpredictable. There were just a bunch of small showers to the west of us, and it looked like we could expect random small showers at any time for the rest of the afternoon. So we put on the rainsuits and headed out with the certain knowledge that with a full belly, full gas tank, and rainsuits, we were ready for anything. The Garmin lady said it was about an hour to Burlington, VT, but I remembered that I was concerned that I had forgotten to turn on the "avoid ferries" in the Garmin. Sure enough, when I turned it on, there was a ferry in our path, so when I enabled "avoid ferries", it was now 1 hour and 45 minutes to Burlington. No problem, we were ready for anything.

The remaining ride down the western shore of Lake Champlain on RT-9N, the trip across the Lake Champlain Bridge, and the ride north to Burlington on VT-7 was awesome! It was all great mountain roads with plenty of hills and turns and some wonderful scenery along the way. As beautiful as the Adirondacks in New York are, there is just something a little more picturesque about Vermont all along the way. Vermont is just a little cleaner and a little prettier with each passing town. We're staying in a Hilton Garden Inn right in downtown Burlington tonight. Being a downtown hotel, this is a valet parking only hotel. Having done this several times before, I just pulled up, unloaded the bike and asked the valet where to put the bike. He was very nice, and directed me to a covered spot in the valet parking garage, and I parked the bike there myself.

I had picked a downtown hotel on purpose because we wanted to visit the famous Charles Street Marketplace which was only a block away from our hotel. There were lots of interesting local shops and restaurants to see and we wandered about for an hour or so until we realized it was getting time for dinner. One of the things we noticed about downtown Burlington is that there were very few chain department and clothing stores around Charles Street Marketplace, and no chain restaurants. There were many restaurants in the area, and lots of them looked very interesting, but all of them were privately owned. So I did a quick search on TripAdvisor for nearby restaurants and the number 1 pick was a place called Pizzeria Verita which was on the block between our hotel and the Charles Street Marketplace - so Pizzeria Verita it is!

We arrived at 5:00 just as it was opening and already it was starting to fill up. It's kind of an upscale pizza place with artisan pizza and a menu in Italian. We opted for a meatball anti-pesto and a Diavolo Pizza which had some spicy meat, provolone cheese, spicy tomato sauce and olive oil. We also added some spicy Italian sausage. It was delicious and very different that we've ever had. Of course, while we were at the Charles Street Marketplace, we had noticed the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream and we couldn't come to Burlington, VT without having Ben & Jerry's for dessert. So we walked on over and each had some delicious triple caramel ice cream. We really liked downtown Burlington. It seems like such a friendly place, and certainly had the best vibe of any of the larger cities we had visited. It's just a little too cold in the winter for us.

Tomorrow, we are off to Meredith, NH to visit my sister and her husband and maybe get a taste of what she calls "Lake Life". But not before we make a couple of stops along the way - The Ben & Jerry's factory to get the factory tour, and East Dorset, VT birthplace of Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. Should be another great day!

139.9 Miles Today

4911.8 Miles Total

4.348 Gallons Today

122.375 Gallons Total

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