After a great night in Little Falls (perhaps the best canal town we’ve stayed at so far), day 50 of this coast to coast adventure starts off cool and cloudy. The first trick is navigating the steep stairs from our third floor room at the Canal Side Inn.

Temps and air quality both in the 50s. The rain held off for most of the day, but made its appearance for the final 20 miles. Early on, the trail wound a bit into rock formations that create some cascading waterfalls in the area.

And one of these sharp rocks made its way into my front tire for the first flat of this 2023 segment. A special shout out to the Mohawk Valley Alpiners club for strategically placing a nice bench alongside the trail right where I needed it.

At several points, the ‘old’ abandoned canal would be on my right, and the ‘new’ active canal on the left. Here are a couple locks (I like to think of them as water elevators), one old and one new:

The best stop of the day was at a creek-side park, where Schoharie Creek meets the Mohawk River / Canal. Jax had a beautiful paddleboard ride amongst aqueduct ruins from the old canal. And we had the whole park to ourselves… except for the bald eagle that flew by low and waived hello while eyeing our lunch. The passing cars, trucks and trains were whizzing by too quickly to enjoy the beauty.

A nostalgic quote from a fellow passing traveler in this same area, as posted on a nearby interpretive sign, captured the sentiment we felt:

“The graceful winding curvature of the old canal, the meadows, and woods, the half-hidden church nestling among the leaves of its elms and pines, the neat secluded hamlet, the farmhouse… so disposed as to greet the eye of the passenger, will long be hopelessly looked for by him who flies through this scene” – James Fenimore Cooper, 1851.

Back on Tour! The Coast to Coast Adventure resumes. The 2023 segment starts from where we left off last year, Buffalo New York. The fine folks at Campus Wheelworks in Buffalo reassembled, tuned up, and installed a couple fresh new tires on my pre-shipped Bianchi bicycle. Both rider and bike are ready to roll out of Buffalo, but first, a stop at The Spot coffee shop with Jax to fuel up for today’s ride:

63 degrees, overcast skies, and an AQI of 120 to start the ride. Yes, that’s the first time an Air Quality Index rating factored into a ride on this cross continent adventure. Haze from Canadian wildfires is somewhat visible, but not bad so far. An AQI over 100 can be hazardous for certain people sensitive to air quality, and a rating over 200 can be concerning for strenuous outdoor activities (such at long distance bicycle riding!), so we’ll be keeping an eye on that.

Today’s ride was almost entirely on dedicated bike paths, starting with the Shoreline trail along the Niagara river. Riverside parks and wide water views are abundant, including a view of the majestic Grand Island bridge:

The town of Tonawanda marks the start of the Erie Canal, where we said goodbye to the Niagara river. Jax busted out the paddleboard and tried out the wide, smooth waters of the canal. Looking good. Looking real good!

The Erie Canal trail will be a constant companion as we traverse across upstate New York. Minus a few planned deviations, this fabulous waterside trail will take us all the way to Albany, 300+ miles downstream. It’s part of New York State’s gloriously ambitious Empire Trail System.

As you might expect, the canal trail is mostly flat. One notable exception today was the town of Lockport, which lies on the edge of the Niagara escarpment (the same hardstone ridge that Niagara Falls famously tumbles over). Here, in 1817, pioneering canal builders implemented a series of 5 locks to rise boats 50 feet over the escarpment – an incredible feat of engineering at that time, over 200 years ago. New Yorkers, who are prone to some boasting, proclaimed the project was equivalent to the great pyramids! The Lockport locks were later widened and reduced from 5 to 2, one of them pictured here:

Another boastful attraction in Lockport is ‘one of the widest bridges in the world’. Well, at 399 feet, the ‘Big Bridge’ was apparently very big in 1914… at least according to this sign:

From Lockport, the trail reverts from pavement to crushed gravel, which is mostly smooth and easy – the biggest hazard might be the weeping willows… they’ll slap you in the face if you get caught gazing at the tranquil canal:

A splendidly enjoyable 50 mile ride to kick off this final segment of our coast to coast pedaling and paddling adventure.