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Registration at the Waterfront school in downtown Buffalo. Early
Saturday morning.
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Assembling my bike Saturday morning.
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Ready to ride to Niagara Falls. The only mechanical problem I had
the entire trip was near the end of Saturday's loop. I got a flat
when a wire pierced my kevlar belted rear tire.
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On the Peace Bridge headed from Buffalo to Canada.
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View from the Peace Bridge looking north along the Niagara River
(the western terminus of the Erie Canal). Canada is on the left
and the USA is on the right.
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To get over some of the traffic lanes coming from the Peace
Bridge we had to go up a spiral sidewalk and then down a spiral
sidewalk. Never did that before! Then we had to go through
Canadian immigration (and of course, on the way back, US
immigration).
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A few miles north of the Peace Bridge, there is a trail that goes
all the way to the falls. Here are some of the riders on the
trail. I rode the trail on the way up and the road on the way
back.
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After about 22 miles you come to the falls. These are the
American Falls.
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And the Canadian or Horseshoe falls.
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Downtown Buffalo was filled with buffalos -- all done up in
different dress by various artists. This one is in the square
across from City Hall.
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Here's another buffalo in the square across from City Hall. I
gather they are being auctioned off to raise money for a worthy
cause.
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Buffalo City Hall from the side opposite the square with the
buffalos. I think we were told it's the largest city hall in the
US. We had a reception in the lobby of the city hall and were
also able to go to the observation deck at the top of the
building. The views were spectacular. You could see the mist from
the falls over 20 miles away! Unfortunately, I didn't take my
camera because I didn't know we were going to do that.
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Sunset on Saturday. Tent city at the Waterfront School with the
Buffalo City Hall in the background.
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Early Sunday morning. I was rider number 171. Having something
distinctive on your bike like the pinwheel is a great way to get
people to remember you. "You know, I'm the guy with that stupid
pinwheel." "Oh, yeah..."
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Trying to get in the toe clips and set off for Medina.
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Riding along the streets of Buffalo to get to the canal
and the trail.
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The first view of the canal. This is in Tonawanda and the
view is roughly to the east.
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Erie Canal looking east. About 8 miles west of Lockport.
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The lunch stop at Lockport. The canal is in the background and
the view is to the east.
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Bikes parked at the Lockport lunch stop.
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Here's a boat that takes people for a ride through the locks at
Lockport. One of the snafus of the tour was that there weren't
nearly enough spaces on the boat for all the riders that wanted
to go on the boat and had been told that they could go. You'll
notice that I'm taking a picture of the boat from the dock, not
the dock from the boat, so you can tell which group I'm in.
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Once I regained my temper, I discovered that the locks were less
than a mile away. Ann, Stan and I rode to the locks. Here's a
view to the east showing the lower of the double locks at
Lockport.The level in the lock is the same as that in the canal.
The downstream bridge you see is called the upside down bridge
because the truss work is under the bridge (hard to see in the
picture). I don't have a clue what the engineering reason for
doing this might be.
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The gate on the upstream side of the lower lock. I estimated that
the spacing between the horizontal ribs in the gate is about 4
feet.
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Here I am on the bridge over the locks with the upper lock and
Lockport in the background. Picture by Ann.
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Four boats are in the upper lock. The boat that we didn't get on
is the rear one on the left.
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The other side of the gates separating the upper and lower locks.
This is from a foot bridge across the locks. The previous picture
of the gates was from the auto and pedestrian bridge you can see
at the top of the picture.
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Water runs out of the upper lock into the lower lock. The boats
have lines looped around vertical lines attached to the sides of
the lock. This keeps them anchored while the water level changes.
The woman on the right front boat pushes on the wall with a pole
to keep her boat from scraping and possibly getting hung up on
the wall. (Nobody else seemed to worry about this.)
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The gates start to open.
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The tour boat with cyclists and others moves from the upper to
the lower locks.
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Now the four boats are in the lower lock, the gates are closed
and they're waiting for the water level to lower to the
downstream canal level.
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On the side of the double locks are the remains of the five
original locks that raised and lowered boats the same height. The
original towpath runs along the left side of the canal. This is
one of the areas where the barge canal, the widened canal, and
Clinton's Ditch follow the same route.
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The tour boat leaves the lower locks. As it turns out, it was
probably better to see the locks the way we did than to ride the
tour boat. For one thing you only had to see them once!
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Ann and Stan ride along the towpath east of Lockport. They are
headed to Medina (pronounced meh di' neh - long i in the middle).
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Tent city at Medina. The volunteers made us a tasty dinner in the school
cafeteria. We also had breakfast there the next morning. That's
Warren and Pam relaxing next to their tandem.
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Monday morning. Mike and Hallie riding along the original towpath
about 16 miles east of Medina.
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More riders on the towpath.
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Riding along!
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Richard waves. (There were several Richards on the tour!)
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The morning rest stop in Holley, about 21 miles from Medina.
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This is south of Rochester. The canal is on the right (looking
east) and the Genesee river flows to the left which carries it
through Rochester and out to Lake Ontario.
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I got to the afternoon rest stop just in time to take a side tour
into downtown Rochester to see the High Falls -- a substantial
waterfall right in the middle of downtown. This shot is taken
towards the south from the middle of the pedestrian bridge across the
Genesee river. We're on our way to an overlook on the east side
of the river.
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A close-up of the falls.
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The High Falls from the overlook.
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Across the river from the overlook. The building with the spire
on top is the Kodak building. The bridge in the foreground is the
pedestrian bridge where the some of the earlier photos were
taken.
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The cyclists at the overlook. In the background is the Genesee
Brewery. I'm told that they don't actually use Genesee river
water to make the beer. When I asked "why is it located right on
the river then?", I was told it was to use the river as a source
of power.
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After we crossed back over the Genesee River and a couple of
riders did TV interviews, we had a quick tour of a museum in the
old water works building. Here, our tour guide on the right and
four cyclists admire a Holley pump.
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Back at the afternoon rest stop in Genesee Valley Park which is
next to the Genesee River and just south of the University of
Rochester.
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Tent city at Nazareth College in Pittsford. The truck behind the
light standard is the luggage truck. In Pittsford, I found a
camera shop and got a 32Mb flash card for the camera. There was
no longer a worry about running out of picture space. Also, Jane
and I had a nice dinner at a prime rib restaurant.
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Tuesday morning. Sign for lock 30 in Macedon Village. About 16 miles from the
start of day 3.
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A pleasure boat locking through lock 30.
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Chris arrives at lock 30. In case you don't recognize what he's
riding, it's called a recumbent bicycle and has underseat steering.
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Warren studies the gates. He's the captain of a tandem team. Pam
is the stoker.
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What Warren is studying. According to the sign, lock 30 gives an
elevation change of about 16 feet.
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The boat leaves lock 30 to the east.
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A rider arrives at lock 30.
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The morning rest stop on Day 3 was at the Joseph Smith family
homestead in Palmyra. Joseph Smith founded Mormonism. There's a
reconstruction of his boyhood home on the site. Here's the
fireplace.
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Riders inside the home admiring a digital camera which allows
entry of a caption with the picture.
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The master bedroom.
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The upstairs girls' bedroom. Apparently in those days it was
taboo for boys to walk through a girls' bedroom, so the girls'
bedroom was always the farthest back in the house.
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The exterior of the house.
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Mateo and his mommy at the rest stop. Mateo is 3-1/2 years old.
Unfortunately, Mateo and his mom and dad had to leave the tour
due to a family emergency back home.
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A random farm along the ride, not very far from Palmyra.
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Future tent city at the Mynderse Academy in Seneca Falls.
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The Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls. The women's suffrage
movement began in Seneca Falls. Is it a coincidence that polygamy
and woman's rights got their starts at almost the same place???
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A boat passes by Tavern on the Flats (where we had dinner) on the
Seneca-Cayuga canal which is part of the Erie canal system (but
not part of the Erie canal proper).
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A docked boat near Tavern on the Flats. Note the bicycles. Many
pleasure boats had bicycles parked on them. Boaters cruise along
the canal and use bicycles to travel around once they've docked.
Many towns provide marinas or docks with toilet and shower
facilities to make it easy to take a pleasure tour along the
canal.
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Facing the camera are Bob, Carol, and Jane on the Tavern on the
Flats patio. Carol first told me about the canal tour during the Great
Finger Lakes Bike Tour in June.
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We found an ice cream shop and a park not too far from where we
had dinner. Here's a shot of the boats docked along the Seneca
Falls waterfront on the canal.
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A tour boat carrying some of the riders in our group on a tour of
the locks.
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Due to a severe thunderstorm warning, tent city moved inside the
Mynderse Academy for the night. There was a severe
thunderstorm about 3am. It was too dark in the gym to get a
photo, but here's the lobby with a few riders set for the night
or killing time. To make more space available, some of the
classrooms were opened. Jane and I found a classroom on the
second floor and stretched out on our air mattresses. We had the
room to ourselves!
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Wednesday morning. The Canal Crooners were regular performers at the breakfast
briefings. Here they perform after the thunderstorm on the start
of day four. That's Nancy, Patty, Carol, Marian, and Dave.
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Ed (lead) and Vearl (second) and ? coming up a hill about 15
miles from Seneca Falls. In this part of the state, the barge
canal does not follow the route of the original canal so we were
on roads in the Finger Lakes region. There were quite a lot of
hills on the previous day (3) and the start of this day (4).
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Sign for abandoned lock 51 on the widened canal on the
route of the original canal.
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View of the lock from the top.
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View from the bottom.
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View from the east end. It's actually a double lock so boats could
go through in both directions simultaneously.
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In the next town (Weedsport???) the abandoned canal has been made
into a park.
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Eventually we got back on a trail and there's water in the canal
although there are no boats. The lead rider is Ray from Penn Yan,
NY. Last year he cycled from there to Seattle/Vancouver, down the
west coast, across the southern part of the country and up to
Ocean City, NJ where his sister lives. He covered 10,000 miles,
self contained, from May to November, How do I know this? I had
lunch with him the day before.
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Patty on the trail.
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More riders on the trail.
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Sims Store and Museum on the canal path. This was about 32 miles
from the start. It was the afternoon rest stop but it wasn't even
lunch time when this photo was taken.
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Remains of an abandoned aquaduct which carried the canal across a
river. The river is on the left and the canal ran from the lower
left to the upper right.
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The garden of the Erie Canal Museum in downtown Syracuse where
the mayor hosted a reception for the tour and commemorated the
175th anniversary of the canal. We passed by the museum on the
way to the overnight stop. Jay, the luggage truck czar, Jane, and
I drove back to the reception.
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Jane waiting for the reception to start.
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Waiting for the speeches. Names I know: Tom has the helmet on and Richard is
standing and wearing a dark blue shirt.
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More riders waiting. I think the fellow in the middle is actually
asleep!
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This looks down the path of the original Erie canal. The museum
building is on the site of a weigh lock. What is a weigh lock?
Boats had to pay tolls based on the weight of the cargo. So they
had to be weighed. They would go into a weigh lock, the water was
drained, and this left the boat on one end of a great big balance
scale!
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A birthday cake for the canal!
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Speeches. If someone from the Parks and Conservation Association
tells me the names of the speakers, I will be happy to include
them. I believe this is the mayor's representative.
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More speeches. I believe this is a state legislator.
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More speeches. I believe this is an industry representative.
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More speeches. John DiMura from the Canal Corporation.
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More speeches.
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 |
More speeches.
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 |
Rich White-Smith, the executive director of the NYPCA,
receives an award.
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 |
Finally the speeches are over and we can have some cake! That's
Ann nearest the camera. After the reception, Jay, Jane and I
walked over to Armory Square and had a nice dinner in an Italian
restaurant. Then we drove back to tent city. Most of the other
cyclists at the reception had been at the museum waiting for
several hours and then had to cycle to tent city after the
reception was over (or after dinner if they stayed in town for
dinner).
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A rainbow (probably from mist over Lake Ontario) at tent city at
the Manlius Pebble Hill School in Dewitt, just to the east of
Syracuse. That's our tent on the left with my bike shorts hanging
out to dry.
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Thursday morning. Shortly after leaving Dewitt we started
riding along the path in the Old Erie Canal State Park. Here's
an abandoned aquaduct taking the canal over a stream just a few
miles from the western end of the park.
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Another view of the aquaduct. The canal is on the right and the
stream to the left.
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 |
Yet another view. I confess, I don't really understand how boats
made it through.
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The morning rest stop was at Chittenango Landing where old dry
docks are being excavated and restored. Students from Patty's
school help in this project.
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The canal from Chittenango. The view is to the west. The building
houses a museum.
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The actual rest stop was set up behind the remains of this
building.
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Here are the dry docks. Deep, medium, and shallow from left to
right. Boats would be drawn in here and the water drained. The
gates and canal are on the far side.
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A reconstructed three seat privy. It empties into the drain from
the dry docks, which then goes on into a stream. Can you imagine
sharing this with two others? It looks like it would be cheek to
cheek!
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A model of a canal boat inside the museum.
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There was another museum in Canastota. It turns out early railroads
followed the path of the canal. Here's a photo of an old steam
engine hanging in the museum. It's a high res picture so the
caption is legible.
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This is the museum in Canastota. I believe I shot this picture
from about the spot where the canal ran through town.
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It's very peaceful riding along the towpath of the original (but
widened) canal.
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Eventually we left the original canal and joined the barge canal.
Here's a very small boat locking through lock 21.
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The view from the same spot in the other direction (to the west).
The bridge in the foreground is closed. We crossed the canal on
the walkway on top of the gates.
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Emptying the lock produces whitewater.
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Once the water levels equalize, the gates are opened.
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And the little boat sails on through.
|
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Still later in the day, we got back to the towpath along the
original (but widened) canal. This section of the canal is quite
overgrown and looks to be impassable.
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At the Erie Canal Village near Rome, one could take a boat ride
on a restored packet boat. According to our guide, an actual boat
wouldn't have railings or chairs on top. Instead passengers could
stand or sit on the roof. The phrase "low bridge, everybody
down," meant you had to get off the roof since there might be as
little as 6 inches of clearance. Passengers that had paid for a
seat below could go there. Passengers that hadn't had to hang
over the sides from a rail! Hard to believe.
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Here's a photo of a sign that commemorates the beginning of the
canal. It's in high resolution mode in order to be legible.
|
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Some of our group on a bridge watching us in the boat. That's
Nancy, Marian, Patty, and Carol.
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View of the canal to the east from the boat. We've just turned
and are heading back towards the village.
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We see other riders as we pass through the village.
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Including Eileen holding Skye. Skye is 2-1/2 years old and is
waiting for the next boat ride. I think Ellen is second from
right.
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Here's our mule team. Do they look like they're going the wrong
direction? We're in the process of a turn. The rudder on the boat
is used to turn it so it's pretty much sideways in the canal.
While this is happening, the mule team allows slack in the tow
rope which is manually lifted to the other side of the boat. Then
the mule team races backwards to tension the rope before the boat
runs into the sides of the canal. In this photo the boat has
turned almost 90 degrees and the mules are headed back to get the
slack out of the rope.
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Front view of the boat loading for the next trip.
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Eileen and Skye got good seats. The fixture on the deck just in
front of them is where the tow rope attaches.
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The top deck of the boat from the foot bridge over the canal.
|
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While we were at the Erie Canal Village, an antique car club
arrived.
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Another of the antique cars.
|
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This fellow was having some kind of trouble with his in-line six.
I would have offered my bike tools, but I didn't think they would
help. All the valves, rocker arms, and push rods are fully
exposed. No valve cover and valve cover gasket here!
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When you have the hood open, you get lots of advice.
|
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Part of tent city at the Rome Art and Community Center. That's
our tent on the right. Rome had a DJ to play country rock for us
during the afternoon and we did some dancing!
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The other side (front) of the Rome Art and Community Center with
more of tent city in the background. Jane and I had dinner in a
small Italian restaurant in Rome on Thursday night.
|
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Friday morning. The morning rest stop on day 6 was at Lock 20 near Marcy.
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Cyclists at the rest stop.
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Utica Mayor Tim Julian (yellow shirt) gets ready to lead riders
into Utica. It turns out he is a pretty fast rider. He set a pace
of 17-18 mph and after a while the police asked him to slow down
because he was stretching out the "peloton" so far that they had
to keep the roads closed too long!
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The first stop in Utica was the Matt Brewery where some of the
riders took a brewery tour. The mayor and the police escort get
ready to lead the rest of the riders to an Art Institute tour.
Bet you can't guess which tour I went on!
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It wasn't hard to guess, was it? Here are some of the riders
examining samples of malted barley.
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Here, they're on an observation deck.
|
 |
And this is what they're looking at: the wort cookers.
|
 |
Bottle cleaning.
|
 |
Bottle filling.
|
 |
Packing into six packs and cases. Barb is closest to the camera.
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Sampling some of the products. The Matt Brewery's main line is
Saranac beer. That's Fawn in the blue shirt talking to Bill.
A random fact: You have to ride about three miles to burn as many
calories as you ingest by drinking one bottle of beer. (Of course,
YMMV.)
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Matt's had a working "player xylophone." That's one of the
Richards on the far right.
|
 |
After the brewery or institute tour, riders were invited to Hanna
Park next to city hall to have lunch on the mayor.
|
 |
Part of tent city at Monroe Field in Little Falls. The green tent
in the middle of the picture is the same tent as ours but it
belongs to a couple from Connecticut. This trip was the first
time we ever saw anybody else with the same tent.
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The rest of tent city at Little Falls. Our tent is way in the
back. Jane and I had a very nice dinner at the Canal Side Inn
which serves French and American cuisine. We were a little
underdressed compared to the locals, but everyone was friendly
and interested in the cycle tour.
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Saturday morning. When we left Little Falls, we had to climb for
several miles. The reward was this nice view of the Mohawk River
Valley.
|
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The morning rest stop was at the marina at St. Johnsville.
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St. Johnsville was glad to see us.
|
 |
The woman on the left is Suzanne, our tour director. The man in
the middle is the mayor who was having a birthday (89?) the next
Monday, so we all sang Happy Birthday.
|
 |
The marina. In this part of the state, the barge canal is the
"canalized" Mohawk River.
|
 |
There was also a campgrounds at the marina. This view is to the
east.
|
 |
Later we got to the town of Canajoharie which has a library and
art museum. The museum has several paintings by Winslow Homer.
|
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Canajoharie was to be a lunch stop and the site of a 12:15 event.
We had to kill time waiting for the event (some of us arrived
before 10:30) and Skye found the best way to do it! By the way,
that bike seat was her home for 9 days!
|
 |
The event was a ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open a new
section of the path. (We had ridden over this section in order to
get to Canajoharie!) By the way, Canajoharie is an Indian name
which means "the pot that cleans itself." Apparently there's a
nearby whirlpool in the Mohawk where small rocks scour out a large
rock.
|
 |
Speeches before the ribbon cutting. The woman in the blue shirt is
Barbara Spraker who was the prime mover in getting the new
section of trailway built.
|
 |
The actual cutting of the ribbon. Cyclists lined up to ride
through are in the foreground and most of the photographers are
in the background.
|
 |
Speeches after the ribbon cutting.
|
 |
Riders coming up the hill on Highway 5S on the way to Amsterdam.
The thruway is behind.
|
 |
More riders climbing the hill.
|
 |
This rider has quite a load with front and rear panniers.
|
 |
Just after the bike path starts again, it goes over Schoharie
Creek. This view is to the south. That may be 5S on the near
bridge and the thruway on the far bridge.
|
 |
We cross the Mohawk into Amsterdam on Highway 30.
|
 |
Looking east along the Mohawk with Amsterdam to the left.
|
 |
Tent city at Lynch High School in Amsterdam. Note the drop off
just behind all the tents. There was a HUGE hill to climb to get
to the school and this field. I'm guessing not many kids ride
their bikes to school here! The consensus seemed to be that this
school had the best showers of the ride.
|
 |
Jane and I in front of our tent in Amsterdam.
|
 |
The Detail Man. He shines up bicycles for $13 per bike. Jane
first met him on the RAGBRAI
in 1998.
|
 |
Saturday evening, we had a ride banquet. Here are some of the
party favors at the banquet. The light level was pretty low in
the banquet room, and unfortunately, not all the pictures came
out.
|
 |
Jay and I enjoying the snacks at the banquet. Jay drove the
luggage truck all the way across New York and provided all sorts
of support on the ride.
|
 |
At the hors d'oeuvre table. That's Hallie in the middle and it
might be Richard behind.
|
 |
Bob and Joyce and ?. We've seen them on the Great
Finger Lakes Bike Tour in the past.
|
 |
The Cycling Seven: In front, Carol, Marian, and Patty, and in
back, Tammie, Mary, Bob, and Nancy.
|
 |
Donna, from Georgia, is on the right. She regularly does the
RAGBRAI
but decided to do the Canal ride this year. We think we
were camped next to her in Hawarden in 1998 as she was with team
Pickled Peddlers.
|
 |
More riders at the banquet.
|
 |
Barb and Delia, stoker and captain of a tandem team. We got lost
together somewhere near Tonawanda on the very first day!
|
 |
Wes bought me a beer at the banquet. He and his partner, Don,
had a bad crash the first day. I came by just after the crash and
stopped to help. I always try to stop and help when there is a
problem. In any case, even though it was a scary crash, there was
amazingly little damage to people or bikes, so after a short
recovery, both were able to keep riding!
|
 |
More riders at the banquet. The fellow on the right came from
Hungary right after the uprising in 1956. I don't know his name,
but I do know his nickname: The Roll Guy! He tried to take a
shortcut into the Chittenango Landing rest stop. It was up a
steep grassy embankment. His bike stopped and fell over and he
did a very elegant roll on the grass!
|
 |
Some of the youngsters got a little bored and invented a new
method for getting your bike up the hills.
|
 |
Josh and Joe, one of the younger riders on the tour. We met them
on the first day. When I asked Joe if he was worried about the
400 miles, he said, "Nah."
|
 |
Jannell, the assistant ride director, and Suzanne, the ride
director. I'll bet they're relieved that the ride is just about
over and nobody's fallen in the canal!
|
 |
One side of the banquet hall.
|
 |
And the other side.
|
 |
These two are fast riders who "stop a lot."
Just barely in the left side of the picture is Jim.
|
 |
In the food line. That's Ann in front of the pole and Stan in the
red shirt. To the left of Stan is Tom. Bob is seated at the end
of the table.
|
 |
The canal crooners provided some after dinner entertainment.
|
 |
A family trio also sang for the group.
|
 |
Josh leading the group in "When You Ride from Buffalo." I
apologize, especially to Josh, for the poor quality of this picture.
|
 |
Sunday morning. The luggage truck is loaded for the last time.
|
 |
Jay with the truck. The logo on the door was on all the official
vehicles.
|
 |
An almost full truck.
|
 |
Jay and Patrick, our bike mechanic, discuss what needs to be done
before they can leave Amsterdam.
|
 |
I fold up the tent for the last time.
|
 |
I'm ready to ride the last 50 miles of the tour. I'm wearing a
sweatshirt because it's cool in the mornings.
|
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Lock 8 on the Erie Barge Canal. The dam under the bridge levels
out ("canalizes") the Mohawk River and the lock lifts and drops
boats past the dam.
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Abandoned lock 23 on the widened canal. There is a group based in
Rotterdam and Schenectady along with students from Union College
who are planning to restore this lock. The original canal had
22 locks between Albany and Schenectady and it was very
time consuming to get through all those locks. So a lot of
traffic used ground transportation to Schenectady and got on
boats after lock 22. Lock 23 would be the first lock encountered.
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Looking upstream on the Mohawk from River Park in Schenectady.
The spot where I'm standing is roughly 300 yards from my son's
apartment. The ride went within a block of his apartment. I
didn't stop for a visit because he was out of town.
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The morning rest stop at Union College. The fellow in blue at the
left is Rick, the rest stop czar. He provided rest stops all
across New York.
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Finally, the Hudson River. Troy is across the river and I believe
I shot this from Watervliet, just at the start of the bike path
along the Hudson.
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After a few miles on the bike path and about a half mile from the
end of the ride, there's a view of the Albany skyline to the
southwest.
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A sternwheeler headed through a bridge opening, south on the
Hudson. This was taken from the Albany boat launch where the ride
ended. I believe the bridge across the Hudson carries Highway 9
to Rensselaer. In November, 2005, I received a correction from
Howard Ohlhous. It's actually the Livingston Avenue Bridge, a
railroad bridge. Also, the sternwheel is a fake!
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The Albany Boat Launch where the ride ended. That's I787 overhead
and the actual launch is out of the picture to the right.
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Luggage waiting to be picked up for the last time.
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Patrick and his bicycle at the end.
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An Albany bicycle policeman on patrol at the boat launch.
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I'm done riding for a few days.
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Actually, I did have to fold up the tent one more time. It had to
dry out once we were home.
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