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 