We entered New York on the Peace Bridge on Friday, October 10. For most of the state we rode on the route of the Erie Canal Towpath. This meant paved bike trails through the Buffalo metro, local roads to Lockport, and then a grade-a bike trail that went all the way through Rochester. We switched back to local roads at Lyons and took them through Syracuse until the towpath started up again at the edge of Interstate 481. Then there was a delightful stretch of bike trail that runs unbroken to Utica. We picked through that city and 30 miles more, and then the towpath starts again. It goes all the way to Albany. When you aren’t on the towpath, you’re usually on NY State Bike Routes 5 and 31.
We didn’t go straight through. We stopped in Albion on Friday night and in Rochester on Saturday, after enjoying a party the Land Trust threw for us in the Genesee Park. On Sunday we were the guests of honor at another Land Trust party in Savannah, and then we took three days off to go home and open the mail. We started up again on Thursday and rode through Syracuse to Canastota, where we got in the truck and drove 11 miles north to the nearest campground. On Friday we rode east to re-join the towpath in Rome, then continued on a mix of towpath and surface roads through Utica to St. Johnsville. On Saturday we left the towpath and took state route 67 east to Johnstown, then continued on several different routes to Saratoga Springs. On Sunday the 19th we continued on route 29 through the Taconic Mountans, and took route 313 into Vermont.
Brad Edmondson 
3 replies on “Through New York, Oct. 10 to 19”
Howdy!
Saturday schedule is looking crazy here. Roger is thinking about riding with you on Sunday, but we’ll need to know where to meet you to start. You have our phone # and email. I’ll check web site again later, too.
I’ll drive and hang out with Sara.
Any plans to publish the blog narrative as a book–or is that too old fashioned? As I drive now, I wonder what out of town travelers would say about our area and local characters!
Darlys
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Whoops .. I placed “Johnstown” instead of Johnsville on the NYS map.
I stopped at Cohoes yesterday to see the falls on the Mohawk and would recommend those interested in the Erie Canal to stop there.
Also visited the Erie Canal village west of Rome, although there is not much activity there now during the summer they pull an old style barge along the 1850 section of the canal.
Brad and Jim … are you passing by the Erie Canal village next Friday?
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East of Saratoga Springs, I want to recommend CR 61 off SR 29 (Battenville) to CR 313 into Vermont. You’ll cross the Battenkill on a lovely covered bridge (great rope and swimming hole here if the weather is warm enough (I know, I know, its October) and then a nice climb up the Taconics on 313, with a wide shoulder and nice views of the Battenkill and mountains.
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