Day 10 - Lake Ontario, 40 miles on the Erie Canal

Friday - August 5

We started the day with a wonderful breakfast prepared by Jim Marks (omelets, crisp bacon, toast, orange juice, coffee).  Jim rode with us through Durand Eastman Park down to the shore of Lake Ontario.  We headed west along the lake shore and turned slightly away from the lake to cross a bridge over the Genesee River.  After saying our farewells to Jim, we swung back to the lakeshore for a while and then tried to follow the most efficient route down to the Erie Canal at Brockport.

On the Genesee River Bridge, Lake Ontario in the distance

From Brockport we had 40 miles of almost uninterrupted Canalway trail to cover to our destination, Lockport.  There's an Erie Canal song that I couldn't remember quite well enough to sing during our rides along the canal.  Here's a Pete Seeger version of "Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal" song
I'll be ready next time (just kidding).

The Canalway path was in good shape and particularly wide for most of the way.  It was easy to ride two abreast which made conversation easier.  We made rest stops in Brockport and Albion.  In Albion, we met Hannah Blake of the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Commission.  She snapped our pictures as an example of the Canalway bringing business to the canal corridor.  We only bought a few sodas, some batter dipped mushrooms, and a slice of pizza but I guess we're symbolic of something larger.

At Medina, we stopped to take a look at an impressive waterfall.  The land to the north of the canal slopes away sharply from the canal edge along this section of the canal.  At Medina, the canal is carried by an aqueduct and a north flowing stream(Oak Orchard Creek) flows under the canal and then plunges over Medina Falls.   This reminded me that, though I sometimes read references to "excavating the Erie Canal", canal construction was about a lot more than digging.   Across the other side of the canal, which is quite wide at this point, a crowd was gathered in Medina downtown listening to live music (I could hear "Crystal Blue Persuasion" as we rode away)

Michael on canal trail - Medina Falls in background.

Checking out the Medina Aqueduct which carries the Erie Canal over the stream below.

As has become our habit of late, we were running out of daylight as we approached our destination.  We got to see a beautiful sunset along the canal (I don't have pictures but I think Michael's blog will have some)

Michael on the Canalway late in the day near Middleport

Diane at Middleport

It was getting dark as we left the canal at Lockport.  We stopped to get our lights on and then rode about 2 miles through the city streets to our hotel.  After showering we went out for a celebratory dinner (fish fry at Garlocks).  This was the last big ride of the trip (73 miles).  We only have a short 22 mile hop to the Falls tomorrow so we thought a little celebration at this point was in order.

Well past midnight, Lee arrived with Billy, Annie, Carina, and Carina's boyfriend Michael.  It was great to see everybody but we were all exhausted and went straight to bed.

9 days of riding and 648 miles complete