NIAGRA FALLS AND THE CANALWAY TRAIL - Niagara Falls, NY
Niagara Falls, NY
September 30
Niagra Falls and the Canalway Trail
“No passports? Wait over there for processing since you don’t have proper documentation.”
“We only want to cross the border for 15 minutes to see Niagara Falls,” says Kerry in his most sensible ex-IRS voice.
“Just park your car over there and get out.”
Two uniform-clad immigration officers march out of the building, putting on thin black gloves. They walk around the car, opening each door and the hatchback.
“You have a lot of **** in here. It will take a long time to search this car,” says the taller one.
Later I ask Kerry, “Did he really say “****”? Not a very polite Canadian thing to say about all our earthly possessions.
He is correct. It takes a long time to open every bag and container and remove a few things from each, and then, later, it takes us a long time to repack all our ****. (!)
The Falls look like every picture you have ever seen of them. The best part of our foray into Canada is the Niagara River’s brilliant turquoise water sparkling through the crimson and yellow leaves as we walk the path to the lookout point. The second best part is the drives over Rainbow Bridge, into Canada, and the Peace Bridge, out of Canada, a half hour later. Magnificent bridges with magnificent names.
Back In Buffalo, we prepare for a week on the Canalway Trail, which stretches across up-state New York, following the Erie Canal. We search for a secure place to leave our car for a week, and then we pack our bike bags.
We wear our bike clothes and all-purpose riding shoes and pack a light pair of pants and shirt for evenings, comb, toothbrush, long sleeve shirt for chilly riding, a rain jacket, a spare inner tube, a patch kit, and a couple items of food. This is how we managed the Katy Trail as well- almost nothing with us. I feel unburdened, unencumbered.
It’s 3:00 when we get on the Canalway Trail. It takes five minutes of riding to realize that the Katy Trail and Little Miami Trail have completely spoiled us with their signage and clarity. The Canalway is not signed as it leaves Buffalo. It is off-road at times, on-road at times.
Some of it follows sidewalks, having us cycle around dogs on leashes, parked trucks, and children on trikes. There are abrupt stops at stairs where we get our upper body workouts carrying the bikes up. We ride in heavy traffic at times.
We cross busy highways, and finally completely lose the ”trail” in North Tonawanda ( a suburb of Buffalo) at dusk. We stumble into what we like to lovingly call a “bed bug” hotel. We can’t imagine riding miles and miles like this. We decide to ride back to Buffalo tomorrow morning, not understanding how the guide book could be so misleading.
October 1
By the time I have one eye open, Kerry has downed five or so styrofoam cups of cheap hotel coffee and garnered enough determination for both of us.
“We are not riding back to Buffalo. We are riding back to where we lost the trail and getting this whole thing figured out," he states, tossing the styrofoam cup in the trash can.
After yesterday’s ride, we realize it is important to know the trail before we start. We sit on the bed side by side. We study the guidebook, in conjunction with google maps on our trusty I-phones. We review the trail ahead of us, step by step and turn by turn. Kerry puts the directions for the next 60 miles into his steel-trap of a mind, and I write paper/pencil notes and tuck them into the waistband of my bike shorts. It’s about 60 degrees and misting heavily when we step outside.
pumpkin season -
We don one more layer each. The trail, after we backtrack to find it, starts along the Niagara River and soon moves along the Tonawanda Creek. Fall leaves of every shade of green, crimson, yellow, and salmon sprinkle themselves everywhere – on the path and in the air.
Leaves everywhere
At times, we are required to get off the path and ride on the road, but it’s peaceful back roads and feels good to pump hard. It’s perfect riding – mist in our faces, idyllic farmhouses with huge porches set in green hills on one side, and waterways on the other side. I can’t believe we ever thought about turning back.
Then it gets even better. At a little town called Lockport, the trail moves directly beside the Erie Canal. The trail, in about 1820, was a tow path for mules to pull barges down the canal. Later lock systems were built and boats got engines, so the mules went away.
Building the Erie Canal was a major accomplishment. The ability to transport from the east coast to the Great Lakes was a boon for our country.
The gray misty day brings out colors of sage and gold in the water.
We ride for miles and miles on the crushed limestone trail, spotting at least five Great Blue herons during the day.
Grapevines, apple orchards, red barns, and trees of fall hues surround us.
It's bliss all the way to Albion and then down the highway a few miles to bed and breakfast.
October 2-3
“Where is breakfast served?” Kerry asks the inn-keeper.
“Oh, this really isn’t a bed and breakfast; sorry if the brochure mis-lead you,” he says. “If you want breakfast, just cross the street to that gas station. They have micro-wave burritos over there.”
“Uhm. Thanks.”
I have a vision of puking micro-wave burritos over my handlebars a few miles down the road. I’m pretty sure Kerry has the same vision. We skip the gas station burritos and pedal back down the highway to the trail. Roosters crow, dew sparkles, and the sun wraps us in golden warmth after yesterday’s clouds and mist. We dawdle along, cycling on the soft trail no more than ten miles an hour.
It’s too pretty to speed through this part. The Great Blue Herons are so tame, I practice sneaking up on them on my bike to get a close-up picture.
Brockport – beautiful old buildings and young attitude
Many of the little towns along of the Canalway have hip historic districts with restaurants, pubs, well-kept old buildings, and a sense of economic well-being. Brockport is one such cheery place with a college, part of the SUNY system (State University of New York).
Kerry gets his bike seat adjusted at a bike shop. I use the foot-pump to get my tires to the perfect 62 psi, something you can’t do with a hand-pump! Being the non-gear people that we are, we make a big investment in gel gloves to see if they will help our poor aching wrists. (They don’t. But swallowing a few motrin a day does the trick).
We roll into Rochester in the afternoon. It's a beautiful entry to the city riding along the Genesee River and it’s pretty span bridge. We stay in another “bed-bug” hotel (have to stick to our budget, you know). Downtown is dead; apparently everyone heads to the suburbs after work.
.
The tallest building is the Time Square Building with what looks like ugly bat-wings on the top of its 14 stories. Wikipedia tells me an architect named Ralph Thomas Walker designed the building in 1929 and called them “wings of progress.” Each wing is 42 feet high and weighs 12,000 pounds.
Strangely, also says Wikipedia, in 1920 the Erie Canal was re-routed out of city center and from 1927 to 1956, a subway ran in its course. The old subway and aquaduct sit abandoned in city center. There’s a sense of sprawl, poverty, and hopelessness to the place.
Rain and cold weather are forecast. After this, the Trail takes off away from the canal to on-road/off-road riding.
We call it the end-of-the-line for our Canalway journey.
We have asked and begged to get our bikes on the Amtrak with us to return to Buffalo, but we are told it can’t be done. We leave the bikes in Rochester, take the Amtrak to Buffalo, and then drive back to Rochester to pick up the bikes. It’s raining hard.
Time to head south. We point the car that way and end up in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.