Myself and 2 friends left Buffalo, NY, on last Thursday morning to cycle the whole length of the Erie Canal and cross most of NY state.  We ended on Monday afternoon in Waterford, NY, (a little north of Albany) where the Erie Canal meets the Hudson River.



The route was approx 75% off-road, usually stone dust paths.  The route took us along the "old" erie canal in sections then joined back up to the "new" canal.  Our average was a little north of 75 miles per day.



We brought camping hammocks (hammocks w/ bug nets) and just camped along the canal wherever we could find a place.  Had a rule to not eat at any chain restaurants, just local places, mainly diners.



We all had road bikes with 28mm wide tires, which were OK on the stone dust but that stuff really slows you down.



We had some interesting things happen along the way:



-We decided to sleep in a random park pavilion the first night and got greeted by the local LEOs but they were cool and let us be.  

-On the 3rd night we slept in a little league dugout in a park that bordered the canal trail... woke up the next morning and noticed about 100 bees just hanging out on the ceiling

-Learned not to take advice from a drunk barfly at noon on a Sunday on local places to eat.  "Now we don't have menus but I might have a chicken salad sandwich in the back..."

-One of my friends lost his wallet and phone near one of the aqueducts, didn't notice for 15 miles, went back and actually found them just sitting in the middle of the trail.



Packing all our crap on Wednesday night in Buffalo...  Note the Kel-Tec P3AT in the foreground







Lots of cool old bridges...





View of the canal trail







Park pavilion first night





More trail pics













Erie Canal aqueduct... water over water, how does that work?!?!





More scenery









On the left are the new locks, on the right are the remains of the smaller old locks.





It was 80+ on the first 2 days, so we went swimming in the canal











Remains of an old aqueduct on the old Erie canal section















Seemed like a good idea at the time...







Success!

Great pics.

Glad you decided to carry.

Cool pics. How many flats did you guys end up with? What tires were you running,  Gatorskins or more of an offroad tire?

My 2 friends got a flat each.  We just picked up some Panaracer 700x28c tires for the trip.



My one friend broke a spoke going too fast on some bumpy road, and I broke a spoke when my friend's bike kicked up a 1" thick stick that somehow made it through my rear wheel, locking it up.



Other than that, just had to tweak my rear derailer once on the trip.



 

Awesome.

I went to the in laws up in Waterloo NY and got to see the Cayuga-Seneca Canal.

Great shots and awesome trip thanks for sharing.  

Looks fun.  



Thanks for posting.

Very cool!!!!

I used to live in Buffalo NY and most weekends I had nothing to do, I would have loved that ride.

Looks like fun!

My hat is off to you.  Congratulations!

Delaware has a canal too.

Looks like a great trip.  We've done the C and O twice it too is a good trip ––only 185 miles tho

Dude - I live about three miles from where you took this picture.

On the right is the spillway where the extra water drained out of the locks above this one can drain back into the Hudson river. The New lock was rebuilt about 10-15 years ago - looked like shit before that but it was in the same place. The original Erie canal system was about an 8 foot ditch, parts of which can still be seen in the area.

Awesome trip.