Archive for August, 2025

Following the rainy day yesterday, today was spectacular! A bit cloudy in the morning (a good thing as we are riding due east), but then sunny from mid-day on.

We left the Rosemont Inn in Utica after a very nice stay and a delicious breakfast. Great place! We then rode what will likely be our last extended stretch on roads, as opposed to trail. The Erie Canalway Trail is 87% complete, apparently, but that leaves some segments when you have to be on traveled roads. Such was the case this morning.

Leaving the Rosemont Inn B&B in Utica around 9:45.

We had ridden about 13 miles before getting off traveled road onto the trail, though we could have navigated to a short stretch of trail in Utica had we wished, but that would have been extra riding, and it looked like it would have actually involved more highway crossing and congestion. As it was, we had a quite nice ride through the more industrial bowels of Utica.

With so little traffic heading out of Utica on Southside Road, the few vehicles gave us a wide berth.

Google Maps made up for some failings the other day, by putting us on roads that had minimal shoulders but almost no cars and generally smooth surfaces. We made good time through the city and out into the country heading east.

In Frankfort, we hit our first detour, for a bridge on West Main Street that was under construction. The detour took us up a rather long hill and circuitous route back around to the other side of the bridge. A bit arduous, at least for the non-eBike-rider among us! When we got back down to West Main, we locked our bikes and walked down the streeet, returning with a Stewarts mocha milkshake. Frankfort was a somewhat depressing town, with empty storefronts and some abandoned buildings.

Most rural New York towns seem to celebrate falled war heros on streetlight posts, but Frankfort celebrated recent graduates, which was a nice change.

Frankfort had it’s share of burned-out or otherwise empty buildings and empty storefronts

Once we finally got onto the Erie Canalway and Empire State Trail, we rode most of the day along the Mohawk River. Despite the road noise, it was a spectacular trail—paved with gentle curves, occasional bridges and overpasses. In Herkimer, we passed under I-90, then stopped at a nice park at the Fort Herkimer Gazebo. As a child, my family stopped in Herkimer on a road trip, and I remember searching for “Herkimer diamonds” (and finding some). It would be fun to come back, maybe with Jack and Harrison!

The Erie Canalway Trail followed the Mohawk River for most of the miles we covered today. Mostly paved, and really well-maintained!

There’s a beautiful stone church at Fort Herkimer, along with the gazebo, benches, and various historic features—also restrooms.

A classic stone church by a small town park in Herkimer.

The Mohawk River here is part of the New York Barge Canal. When the canal was expanded the last time, creating the Barge Canal, they moved parts of it to existing rivers, such as the Mohawk River. So there are locks. We stopped at Lock 18 and were treated to the antics of a mink on the other side of the lock. We watched it for about ten minutes as it explored the area. Given it’s size, I think it may have been a young one.

Can you spot the mink? What a treat to spot this little fellow across Lock 18!

We stopped in Little Falls for lunch. It was somewhat over halfway in our ride today (23 miles from our inn in Utica), and we split a sandwich at Ann Street Restaurant and Deli. I think we probably spent two-and-a-half hours in Little Falls. It’s a quaint artist community, at least the part by the river. The Stone Mill there houses art galleries, lodging, and a couple cafes. At one of those cafe’s, I charged by iPhone over a latte.

Art is everwhere in Little Falls—a cute little town!

Looking down from a bridge in Little Falls, we could see where holes had been carved into the rock—when a rock gets in and is swirled around by current, it can carve our a circular pothole. Pretty cool!

East of Little Falls, the trail has high cliffs on both sides where the roak was blasted out. Clearly, this wasn’t a tow path, but it was great for cycling through!

After leaving Little Falls, we passed through this cut in the rock, with steep cliffs on either side.

Another lock or two, another rest when we tapped into our chocolate-nut bars and cashews, and we finally rolled into Fort Plain and our B&B: The Haslett House.

Quite the spot. From the outside, it looks like a classic haunted house, with multiple dormers, chimneys, and turrets, some in better shape than others. But what character the place has! The inside is filled with all sorts of collectables, books, minerals, Victorian furnishings, and pretty much everything else!

Quite an amazing spot! But high maintenance?

After my shower, I went out looking for some epsom salts for Jerelyn to soak in and discovered that they were setting up for a concert on the town green tonight. We went back there and enjoyed the music—perhaps not the best ever, but fun music from the ’60s and ’70s! We got barbecue from a Amish family, and immersed ourselves in the music and the residents enjoying it.

Music on the green in Fort Plain! Classic Rock—not exactly what I’d expect in this town.

Now to rest up for our second-to-last day of biking. With our 42 miles today, Jerelyn has biked aboput 225 miles, and I’ve put on 316 miles since Buffalo. It will be a light day tomorrow, as we head to Amsterdam, then a long day on Saturday—our final day of the trip.

Riding for a day in bad weather makes you appreciate the other days much more! Today is that sacrificial day, in which we rode for 43 miles in spitting rain and a steady headwind. It helps us appreciate the awesome weather we’ve otherwise had!

Somewhere between Canastota and Rome

With today’s tally, I’ve now ridden about 270 miles, mostly on the towpath trail, though some on-road and some getting to and from motels or restaurants. And then yesterday, when Google Maps got confused! I feel really good. Can certainly feel my thighs and butt, but I’m feeling much better than I had feared when I set off having hardly been on a bike in ages (other than a 15-mile ride I did with grandson Jack a month or so ago).

My seventy-year-old body seems to be holding up!.

Jerelyn is doing really well also, though she started out with some knee pain, and she’s bruised herself hear and there on the trip. She joined me from Pittsford, having ridden there from the Rochester train station ten miles. I think she’s up to about 150 miles, which is awesome!

We stayed last night in an underwhelming Day’s Inn in Canastota, just across a highway fron the Boxing Hall of Fame. Our search for restaurants in Canastota were pretty unsuccessful; there’s almost nothing, but then this morning, just before setting out (having resigned ourselves to the reality of nourishing ourselves with cashews and protein bars), I found a restaurant in Canastota that is located just where we would be getting on the trail!

Leaving Uncle J’s in light rain

Regretting that Google Maps hadn’t found it last night, we biked to Uncle J’s Low Bridge Station at 8:30 this morning, and it was awesome! By then, the rain, which had been heavy most of the night, had tapered off, and we didn’t get too wet. We were able to park our bikes under an overhang. The only problem with Uncle J’s was that the portions were too large—two scrambled eggs must have been three or four, hash browns were plentful, toast, and huge pieces of ham….

We left Uncle J’s and got on the Erie Canal just across the street. It was raining then, and we were wearing our rain jackets. It seems that rain was soaking through my rain jacket to the windbreaker that I was wearing underneath. I think it may be time to retire that rain jacket.

The terrain was much like what we’ve been riding through on the preceding days—mostly along the second-generation canal, but some that seemed to be first-generation and filling in with vegetation.

It was quite hard to identify reasonable places to stop for meals along this segment of trail. We were using Google Maps, and who knows, maybe the kinds of establishments we were looking for didn’t pay for high visibility on Google searches. But we weren’t able to identify any lunch spots on today’s route—UNTIL we were right there. Then places seemed to magically appear on our iPhones.

At a few places on today’s route, we rode along the Barge Canal, and we passed a few locks. Thank goodness for our Ortleib panniers, which are totally waterproof.

For part of today’s ride we were biking alongside the Barge Canal—and passed a few locks—but mostly it was the earlier-generation, narrower canals.

We got into Rome about when our stomachs were telling us it was time to fuel up, and it was really hard to find something that wasn’t a KFC or McDonald’s or Wendy’s. One coffee shop that sounded pretty good on Google Maps had closed last year, and the other near-by was drive-through only. But we found our sort of place: The Copper Easel and Superofficial (combo art gallery and coffee shop(), where I got the best mocha latte of the trip (so far), and we both got scones.

At a unique art gallery and coffee shop in Rome

Rome was about the half-way point today. It seemed that we kept riding under huge Interstate overpasses (at least a few of which were I-90), and at one point we got a little turned around as we switched from riding along the Barge Canal and the older Erie Canal. But we made it…despite the headwind.

Oh yea, when we were thinking about this trip, everyone said to ride west-to-east to have the prevailing wind at our backs. But so far—for the first 270 miles that I’ve ridden—I (and now we) have been bucking headwinds! Oh well. At least it’s really flat.

So much for wind out of the west! We’re bucking a really strong headwind here! Jerelyn took this video of me, riding ahead.

Getting into Utica this afternoon around 4:00 was a little hairy. We rode in on the main drag: Genesee Street for a couple miles—with thick traffic and inpatient drivers.

But we made it to our Bed & Breakfast, the Rosemont Inn. It’s a huge step up from the Day’s Inn, Rodeway Inn, Scottish Inn, and Dollinger’s…. It’s really nice.

The Rosemont Inn, on the eastern side of Utica

After showers and a bit of rest, we walked to a great Dominican Restaurant, Mi Casa, for affordable, genuine, Dominican Republic cuisine. Lots of plantains, rice, beans, fish…great stuff.

Awesome Dominican cuisine!

Tomorrow, we have a ride of about 38 miles to Fort Plain—a town I’ve never heard of. It should be slightly fewer miles than today and less windy—though it still looks like winds will generally be out of the east….

Today was a long day of biking for a couple of people who rarely get on our bikes. We got on the trail by about 7:20 am and managed 51 miles—the longest day in our itinerary. We had stayed the night in a Rodeway Inn, and the “breakfast” fare didn’t seem inspiring, so we biked to Jordan, where I had found a nice little coffee shop cafe, just off the trail: Peace Love Coffee. It was an awesome place, maybe five or six tables, several occupied by the old guys having their morning chat—maybe it’s a thing in these little towns (not just in Brattleboro, where I’m in a similar, Monday morning group).

Peace Love Coffee in Jordan, NY

We got into a great conversation with an older gent who was sitting alone, but seemed to periodically weigh in on the conversation the other guys were having. He looked kind-of grumpy, but when I reached out he totally opened up with information on the village of Jordan (they used to make the wheelbarrows that were used in building the canal) and other aspects of the history. But the village is just a shell of what it had been during the Erie Canal days. He asked us about the biking, where we were from, and all sorts of topics. I was so glad I had gotten up the courage to start a conversation with him!

The morning Guys Group at Peace Love Coffee

Jordan was beautiful, with some old Erie Canal infrastructure ruins that have been turned into a nice community park, but I think places like Peace Love Coffee really define towns like Jordan. The owner, Sarah, started the cafe two-and-a-half years ago, and it seems to be going strong. She couldn’t have been nicer, and “our music” was playing—in keeping with the cafe name.

A community park in Jordan

A plaque about President Lincoln’s funeral train, which passed through Jordan

From Jordan, it was a long slog to Syracuse, but easy peddling with awesome—if redundant—scenery. We passed more aqueduct ruins, a “restored” aqueduct, some old locks, and town parks. We weren’t biking along the barge canal today, but rather the first- and second-generation canals—some areas that were just the narrow original canal (“Cliton’s Ditch”) that is now filling in. Most were the widened canal, but not yet barge size.

The widened Erie Canal—but not the current Barge Canal—that was relocated from the original canalway. We had great weather, though clouds thickened throughout the day.

A rest stop along the way to figure out how to pay our real estate taxes (due tomorrow), which we had forgotten to pay before leaving home!

This is an original timber lock gate (or parts of one) at an Erie Canal Museum we passed today

Having learned about Erie Canal aqueducts yesterday, we saw a number of them today—mostly ruins, but this one (the Nine Mile Creek Aqueduct) has been restored to show how the Erie Canal was carried over another waterway! It’s pretty cool—though reeked of creosote!

The Erie Canal is at the upper level, being carried over Nice Mile Creek in this aqueduct.

As we neared Syracuse, we veered off the canal route on a winding, largely paved trail that led us to a quite new, galvanized steel bridge over railroad lines and open land near the southern end of Onondaga Lake. Getting into Syracuse, we passed a Downtown Farmer’s Market in full swing and were on a route shared with the Syracuse Creek Walk, which is wonderful. We split a bagle sandwich at Water Street Bagel Company, waved to the family from Washington, DC we’ve been running into every day (who were ending their trip in Fayetteville, just east of Syracuse) as they rode by, and then biked out of East Syracuse on East Water Street and Erie Boulevard—for about five miles until the Empire State Trail resumed.

A fairly dramatic steel bridge carrying the Empire State Trail over railroad tracks near the southern end of Onondaga Lake

We stopped a few times to read interpretive signage (of which there is lots), and took a side trip into Chittenango for a pick-me-up snack around 3 pm (by which time we were fading fast). From there it was another seven or eight miles to Canastota and the Day’s Inn, where we’re currently sitting.

Along the Creek Walk in downtown Syracuse

After showers (one gets covered with the stone dust on the unpaved portions of the Canalway) and brief naps, we walked eight-tenths of a mile into “downtown” Canastota, which isn’t much. We were headed toward a Mexican Restaurant (one of the only places that was open on a Tuesday evening). The dinner was good, but they didn’t even have margarita’s (sad-face emoji).

We walked back with some spitting rain beginning. Tonight and tomorrow the area is predicted to get about two inches of (much-needed) rain. It will be great for farmers and lawns, but perhaps not so great for bicyclists. We’re not really sure what to do. There seems to be almost nothing to do in Canastota (except the Boxing Hall of Fame); there isn’t even a coffee shop, and certainly no place to hang out at the Day’s Inn, except our cramped room.

The Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota—across the road from our Day’s Inn

We will likely bike on to Utica, where we are going to be staying in a bed & breakfast, which should be great. We’ll be wet, for sure, but we have waterproof panniers and the cool temperature (low- to mid-sixties) should permit us to bike wearing our rain jackets.

What spectacular weather today! High in the mid-70s, sunny most of the day. A gentle breeze, but not too strong….

Departing the new Microtel Hotel in Newark at 8:00 am.

The trail on the first segment of the ride—from our hotel in Newark to Community Coffee (a small breakfast and coffee spot) in Lyons—was the most beautiful I’ve seen on the western half of the Erie Canalway Trail. It follows the original route of the Erie Canal—a section where the canal was relocated when it was enlarged during one of several expansions of the canal. The tow path was heavily wooded and the canal much narrower than the Barge Canal that has become the travelled canal today.

A spectacular trail section along the old Erie Canal.

The trail here seemed incredibly well-maintained. It had recently been mowed, and the low morning light filtering through the trees made the trail seem to sparkle!

This area almost felt like the bayous of the Southeast.

The coffee shop was nice. No fancy espresso machines and eight-dollar lattes, but I had a good cup of coffee and bagle with cream cheese; Jerelyn enjoyed a far healthier veggie breakfast sandwich. I wish I had gotten up courage to chat with the group of older men sitting at the only other occupied table (on the same morning when I normally meet with a group of men at the Brattleboro Food Co-op Cafe). I could hear that they were talking about Trump and Putin, but I couldn’t really make out their leanings. I’m just not bold enough, and my extrovert wife didn’t step in….

How I wanted to join their conversation about Trump and Putin!

The trail continued along the old Erie Canal, some of which is now filling in, to Clyde. Along here we passed the ruins of historic Lock Berlin (#54) with trees now growing out of the blocks of stone from which it was constructed. This lock is 214 miles west of Albany and 138 miles east of Buffalo, and it became operational in the 1850s with a lift of 7.7 feet.

Remains of the old Lock Berlin.

As we got into Clyde—somehow getting off the proper route of the Trail—we heard cowbells, and a man at the Clyde Visitor’s Center was beckoning us over. We obliged and learned a bit about the town, including where a new coffee shop was located, where I got a muffin and latte.

From Clyde, though, our directions got all screwed up. Between Clyde and Port Byron is the longest section of the Eric Canalway Trail that is on-road, and we relied on Google Maps instead of the Empire State Trail signage to guide us. Google got very confused and seemed to be leading us in circles. At one point, we were told to turn left into the woods, where there might once have been a track of some sort, but clearly isn’t today!

Crossing over the Seneca River on Route 31.

We finally asked someone for directions into Port Byron, and we were directed onto Route 31 (“New York Bicycle Route 5”). There was a reasonable shoulder for most of it, but way too many huge tractor-trailer trucks and speeding pickups for comfort. At one point, I braced myself when a smallesh car passed me with flashing yellow lights and an “Oversize Load” sign; moments later a modular house screamed by, nearly sucking me into its slipstream! But Jerelyn and I managed all right.

A silver lining of this segment of today’s ride was passing a sign for a Montezuma Town Park just after crossing over the Seneca River. Jer, who was ahead at this point, called to me, “Don’t you want to stop?” It doesn’t take much to temp me with diversions, so we turned around and locked our bikes at a kiosk. There was a network of trails. I got out the binoculars and we started off on on a two-mile walk on several of the trails. We were particularly intrigued by reference to the Seneca River (or Richmond) Aqueduct.

The Senaca River Aqueduct, where the canal was once carried OVER the Seneca River!

Another view of what remains of the Seneca River Aqueduct.

The trail we took lead us the long-way-around to what remains of this Erie Canal feature, and it will be one of the highlights of this trip, for sure! The 830-foot-long aqueduct originally had 31 stone arches that supported heavy timbers that, in turn, carried the canal OVER the Seneca River. This is the second-longest aqueduct on the Erie Canal. (I hadn’t even realized that aqueducts were a thing on the Erie Canal!). When the canal was enlarged to form the New York State Barge Canal, the aqueduct was dismantled, removing all but nine of the stone arches—pictured above.

We made it into Port Byron and had a late lunch (early dinner!) around 3:45. It was a place called Potters Farm to Plate. If we had had the energy, we might have biked back this evening for live music, but we didn’t. And we ran into our friends from Washington, DC, whom we’ve seen every day.

After this, we were finally got back on the actual Erie Canal towpath. We biked along a spectacular section with some wild red current bushes and purple Joe-Pye weed and purple loosestrife behind it. Despite the purple loosestrife being invasive, it was gorgeous!

Thick vegetation along the old Eric Canal bed as we got into Weedsport.

In Weedsport we came across another awesome public park. Here was another old aqueduct (the Centreport Aqueduct), with the remains of it well preserved and described with signage. There is also quite an amazing Vietnam Memorial in this park, with photos durably reproduced on black marble; I’ve never seen anything quite like it!

Ruins of the Centreport Aqueduct in Weedsport.

A Vietnam Memorial at the Weedsport park. The photos appear to be laser-etched into the polished black marble, creating durable black-and-white photos that are remarkable good.

Anyway, today was a great day. Jer and I biked 42 miles, including a few miles out-of-the-way as we were led astray by Google Maps. We’re staying at an okay Rodeway Inn in Weedsport; nothing to write home about, but clean and serving our needs.

Tomorrow, according to our plans, will be our longest day: 49 miles, not including some tengents off the trail looking for breakfast or lunch venues. Fortunately, it should mostly be off-road!

I was finally biking with Jerlyn today. When we took the train west from Albany, she got off with her bike in Rochester to spend a few days with her cousin Sue, while I continued on to the beginning of the Erie Canal Heritage Trail (it seems to have different names) in Buffalo. About 110 miles brought me to Pittsford, where I met up with Jerelyn, Sue and Matt. That was yesterday.

Starting off from Pittsford—a particularly beautiful section of trail!

This morning, we left a little before 8 am for a modest day of cycling to Newark. Compared with the previous days, today’s weather was perfect for biking! Mostly cloudy and much cooler than the prior days.

We biked seven miles before stopping for breakfast in Fairport. It looked to be a great little village with tidy shops and gorgeous pots of flowers. As we were about to lock our bikes a very friendly man who was watering the plants advised that we might do better to park against a nearby fence, so that they didn’t get watered from the overhead baskets.

I was curious about these deployable gates that we passed now and then—and that I saw during my first few days. They are used during extreme conditions, apparently, to control the water level. Around the Genesee River, for example, they can keep floodwater from flowing into the canal.

Breakfast was good; we were waited on by a very friendly waitress who efused about bicycling and her desire to someday bike the whole Erie Canal Trail.

By the time we headed on our way, it was sprinkling slightly, though not enough to warrant rain jackets. I don’t think it was even enough to dampen the dust on the trail—our bikes are caked in dust! I’d take the clouds and light drizzle any day over the 90-degree conditions the past few days!

Kayakers and rowers in Macedon, NY. It looks like a great little town.

This seemed to be a particularly nice section of trail—more curves than I found further west, and even if the sun had been out in force, there were lots of shade trees lining the path. We made good progress through Macedon and Palmyra.

We spent a while at Lock E30 in Macedon and Lock E29 in Palmyra. At the latter, we had a nice chat with the lock operator. He took on the job five years ago as a retirement activity. He was polishing the 100-year-old brass fittings that operate the lock electronics. I asked about replacement parts, and he said they were so well made, they almost never need replacement. Not like today’s planned obsolescence!

This lock operator was using spare time (of which they have a lot!) to clean contacts on the amazing original brass fittings from the 1910s.

Along the route today there were some beautiful bridges that we crossed. It’s amazing to think of the money that goes into maintaining the locks and providing all of the trail infrastructure! Thank goodness New York is a wealthy state!

Crossing Ganargua Creek as we neared Newark

We got into Newark, where we’re staying, around 1:00 pm. We were fortunate to get an early check-in—then showers and naps!

We walked from the Microtel Hotel, where we’re staying, into town and ate at Craft 120, a very nice bar/restaurant overlooking the canal. On our way to the restaurant we stopped at a visitor’s center and chatted with the local woman staffing it. Though now deteriorating, there are some awesome murals on the concrete walls at the “Port of Newark.”

We loved these murals. Though now deteriorating with the spalling concrete, they depict early scenes on the Erie Canal. This is at what is call the “Port of Newark.”

Just across the parking lot from where we had dinner.

After dinner, walking the mile back to our hotel, we had a great chat with a family that I’ve been running into on the whole ride—from my first full day. The husband was laid off at U.S.A.I.D. in February, but is still on the payroll for another couple weeks. We was with his wife and two teenage kids. On Friday evening, they were with his parents as well—in their 70s—who biked from Buffalo to Albion with the family, then biked back home to Buffalo. How sad to get an inside view of what’s been happening to our foreign aid!

We biked 29 miles today, and Jerelyn did great for her first “full” day of biking. tomorrow, we’re aiming for Weedsport, 35 miles east, though with a lot of that on roads, rather than trail. The surface will be smoother, but I sure like being off-road!

As with the day before, I got up early and was on the trail by around 6:45. It looked like a great breakfast and craft coffee place in Brockport, fifteen miles east, So that’s where I set the destination on my phone. It was going to be another hot, sunny day, so I figured getting a third of the distance under my belt before it got too hot made sense.

Around 7 am along the trail.

It was a good plan. With the low morning sun, I was biking in the shade for much of this distance, and I made good time on the unpaved, but smooth granite-dust surface. My odometer was showing a pace of about 13 mph—actually a slightly faster pace than Google Maps must use for the bicycling option. I reduced my arrival time by a minute or so—until I stopped for a break.

As I approached Brockport, there was an awesome spiraling pedestrian bridge across the canal. I should have stopped and walked across….

Quite the bridge over the canal!

Brockport is an awesome little town. I gather that there’s a college campus there (maybe one of the SUNY campuses), so it has a college-town feel. Java Junction Coffee Roasters was well worth the hour-plus it took to get there. I think Brockport might not be a morning town, though. At 8:15 or so, when I got there, the place was empty and there was nary a vehicle on Main Street. But I got a great mocha latte and classic breakfast—not on this cinnamon bun stuff! And had a great chat with a man who noticed my bike outside and told me of some of his past biking trips on the trail.

Brockport on a Saturday morning. Pretty quiet.

Before heading on, I walked to the other end of Main Street and back, checking out the town. Fortunately, the bookstore, shown in the photo above, hadn’t yet opened, so I saved a lot of time!

The next stop was Spencerport, where there’s the Spencerport Depot & Canal Museum. It was open, but the folks there were all in a tizzy because the woman doing a historic canal tour hadn’t arrived. I found a nice bench in the shade and relaxed a bit. I was unable to fill my water bottles, though, because they were too tall to fit under the faucet in the bathroom. Minor inconveniences….

There were some nice displays—everyone along the canal is celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Erie Canal this year!

From there, I was nearing Rochester, with a big uptick in trail use, bridges, highway underpasses, road noise, etc. But the trail is very well maintained, and I spent some time on several bridges, checking out boats, especially where the Genesee River intersects with the canal. I stopped at an REI store, right on the trail, practically, and filled my water bottle—and enjoyed the air conditioning! The trail in the Rochester area is paved, but there are annoying bumps from roots growing under the pavement; I’d rather be on the unpaved surface!

From a bridge over the canal, showing the confluence with the Genesee River. I think most of the boats passing here are boats one can charter for a three- to seven-day excursion on the canal. Apparently, with a short tutorial, you’re on your own in navigating the canal, including through locks.

Getting into Pittsford, I stopped at Lock 33, lingering to watch a gate close after a few kayakers had entered. Then on to Jer’s cousin Sue’s house with just 5% battery left on my phone. (It’s scary how dependent we’ve become on our smart phones! I’m glad I had at least charged it during breakfast in Brockport!)

Lock 33 in Pittsford. No pumps are needed for all that water; it’s all done by gravity—once the gates are opened or closed. An ingenious way to move boats up or down….

I got to Sue and Matt’s house around 2 pm, having biked 44 miles, took a nice shower, and walked to the canal shops in Pittsford with Jer where we split a late lunch. Then back to the house for a nap and dinner with Sue and Matt!

Tomorrow, Jerelyn and I will take off together, heading to Newark. It will be great to have company….

Early-morning light on the Erie Canalway Trail this morning. It’s a spectacular trail. It was paved to Lockport, with a few sections on traveled roads, then unpaved (granite dust) from Lockport to Albion.

I got a fairly early start this morning, leaving my hotel in North Tonawanda around 6:45 and peddling to Lockport, about 15 miles away, for coffee and breakfast. The coffee shop I stopped at first had great coffee, but only sweets; I couldn’t eat the entire cinnamon bun, even after scraping off most of the icing. I found Tom’s Diner across the canal and had a real breakfast there, accompanied by a mural of the Rolling Stones from the 1960s.

Note the Rolling Stones mural on the wall in this awesome diner, where everyone is “honey.”

Lockport was pretty amazing. I spent probably two hours learning about how the locks there work and the history of building—and rebuilding—them over the years. One set of the five early stone locks have been fully restored, as they were in 1825, though boats today use the newer concrete and steel locks known as Lock 34 and 35. This year is the 200th anniversary of completion of the Erie Canal, so there are various celebrations happening this summer and fall.

Shown here is the upper (double) lock that is used for raising and lowering boats today.

The early locks are known as the “Flight of Five.” It took boats about two hours to make it all the way through—raising or lowering boats a total of 50 to 60 feet in five locks. Each of those 1825 locks provided up to 12 feet of lift—any more would have been too much water pressure for the wooden gates (though they were massive and made of oak).

The locks raised (and lowered) boats over the Niagard escarpment (made famous by Niagara Falls). Originally there were two sets of these locks, but only one was maintained when the new Locks 34 and 35 were built in 1918. Operating the Flight of Five locks took a team of more than a dozen men; today a single operator manages Lock 34 and 35. These 1918 locks are still fully functional today.

The stone walls and restored oak-timber gates of the original Flight of Five locks from 1825—two hundred years ago, this year.

This video shows the lower lock (#34), which was built in 1918, being closed to allow 3 million gallons of water to flood in, raising the water level 25 to 30 feet for the boat that has entered.

Fun fact: Lockport also has the widest bridge in North America—399 feet wide with several streets on it. It’s appropriately known as the “Big Bridge.” I biked over it looking my real breakfast.

Following my visit to Lockport, including checking out a museum about the locks there, I biked on to Middleport, where I spent over an hour nursing iced tea in an air conditioned coffee shop, recovering (some) from the hot biking in full sun! I was riding into a headwind all day today, despite my west-to-east travel (which is supposed to be better, relative to wind).

View through the window of my favorite Middleport coffee shop—Alternative Grounds Caffe—as I recovered with a large glass of iced tea.

My next stop was the two of Medina, which is an awesome town. I locked my bike at an information booth (where the kind proprietor offered to keep an eye on it) and walked both sides of Main Street and a couple side streets. I had a great lunch and mocha frappe at a coffee shop there, lingering as long as I could justify before getting back on my bike for the last 15 miles or so.

Lunch at my favorite coffee shop in Medina: the Coffee Pot Cafe. I was joined by visitors to a bird feeder at Sapsucker Woods—via a live-cam from the Cornell Ornithology team!

When I biked my more epic 1900-mile ride from San Diego to Houston in 2011, I don’t remember getting as tired and sore!

On the last leg of my ride today, a passed this feature and had to stop for a photo. It’s a road that passes under the Erie Canal—the only place on the Canal where that occurs. Originally built in 1823, the tunnel was rebuilt several times as the Canal was widened. Carefully cut stones provide the strength to hold the water and earth above.

I made it to my planned destination of Albion by around 5 pm, having biked about 45 miles. I’m back from dinner at a pizza joint that was a 15-minute walk away. I’ll ride a similar distance tomorrow (if all goes as planned), getting to Jer’s cousin’s house in Pittsford sometime in the afternoon.

Jerelyn and I were up and out reasonably early, though our planned departure slipped, as usual, and we stopped for a goodbye at Lillian and Dan’s. We left Dummerston at 7:30, heading to the Amtrak Station at Albany-Rensselaer , about two hours away. As we were driving there, we realized that we hadn’t really dug deeply into the parking, though we knew one can leave a car at the train station. That led to too much web research and a phone call on the drive west—and a certain amount of stress on my part—but we made it just fine, unloaded our bikes and full panniers and headed into the train station.

At the Albany train station, waiting to board. They’re supposed to allow extra time for bicyclists to get their bikes stowed, but the train was running late, and they didn’t provide that time.

I stayed on the train all the way to Buffalo, while Jer got off in Rochester, then biked about ten miles south to her cousin’s place in Pittsford. The train was pretty full, and the storage units that can be used for bikes—one per train car—were chock full of luggage initially. We were rolling along by the time we got our front wheels off and the bikes hung up by their rear tires. We were a little worried about Jer’s eBike, but we got that hung up too (sans battery). Whew!

Our bikes hanging in the Amtrak storage cabinets. It’s a nice service Amtrak offers, allowing bikes on board. You have to reserve bike space, and it’s quite limited.

The train ride was pretty uneventful. We left Albany about a half-hour late and got into Rochester, then Buffalo, by about the same lateness margin. That was okay.

I helped get Jer’s bike down from the storage area and out of the train, but wasn’t able to stick around to help her get the front wheel back on before the doors were closing and I needed to scoot back onto the train. She did struggle with it, but finally got it, she reported by text, after turning the bike upside-down. It’s so much easier with two people!!

Jer on her own to re-attach the front wheel.

I was able to get my bike down and wheel installed before we got into Buffalo. By then there was some room to maneuver, so it wasn”t too bad.

My bike re-assembled and ready to roll—though I couldn’t put the second rear pannier on until I get the bike through the narrow train door.

In Buffalo, I had planned to bike the few miles south to Mile 0 of the Erie Canalway Trail (which is part of the Empire State Trail). Using Google Maps, I made my way down to where the military ships are docked, but then the trail was closed and construction seemed fairly impenetrable. I reset my destination to the one-star motel in North Tonawanda, from where I’m penning this blog, and turned around.

An abandoned center-pivot bride crossing this tributary into the Niagara River.

It was a very pleasant, roughly 20-mile ride to my motel. I don’t know exactly how far it was, with my various detours and back-tracking, because when I put my front tire back on the bike, I had it reversed, so the little magnetic sensor used for the trip computer wasn’t working. I didn’t clue into that until I had biked maybe five miles. It now reads 14.95 miles, so 20 miles is a good guess.

I stopped a few times en-route for a snack or drink of water, and to take a few photos, and got in around 7 pm I think. A quick trip to Aldi’s, across the four-lane highway (not pedestrian-friendly!), and I’ve been enjoying a nice dinner of sweet potato chips, drinkable Greek yogurt, the rest of a scone I bought at the Albany train station, and some nuts from the Brattleboro Food Co-op. Not a great dinner, but I didn’t really want to walk or bike a mile up Route 62 to a Tim Horton’s or a brew pub that’s a little farther north. I’d rather get to bed early and put in some miles before stopping for breakfast in Lockport.

A rest stop looking our over the Niagara River—the river is flowing north, out of Lake Erie; Niagara Falls is only about three miles downstream from here, though I headed off to the east shortly after this rest.

I will take two more days to bike to Pittsford (about 40 miles each day), then Jerelyn will join me for the rest of the ride back to our starting point in Albany. The total length of the Erie Canalway Trail is about 360 miles, with 85% of it off-road. We will bike it at a relaxed pace, taking nine days (not including today’s evening ride)—if all goes according to plan, that is!