Welcome to New York

Niagara Falls to Medina – 56 miles
Average Speed – 11 mph

Today we are meeting two of our children and our friend, Mary Ellen, who are coming from Albany to ride back with us along the Erie Canal. We won’t meet them until early in the afternoon, so there was no hurry to leave the motel. This was another place that advertises wireless internet that isn’t available in every room. The staff gives out expired passwords so that even if you get a signal in the lobby, you can’t get online.
Besides the internet annoyance, there was also the small problem with the springs of the mattresses of both beds popping through. This made sleeping so uncomfortable and nearly impossible. One of these days, I may get a restful sleep.

The constant noise in Niagara Falls seems to start early in the day. If you imagine an open-air video arcade, you might get a sense of the noise that bombarded us as we walked down Clifton Hill. We didn’t bother riding our bikes down the steep road, which is just a short distance from the Rainbow Bridge.

We entered the pedestrian crossing area to walk our bikes across and somebody appeared from an office and told us that we must ride across the bridge, which currently was backed up with traffic. The walkway is adequately wide for both passengers and bicycles and although we said that we had planned on walking the bikes over to the other side, the official said that “they” didn’t like bikes on the sidewalk. We didn’t like biking across the bridge, but eventually made it.

We had breakfast in North Tonawanda since we had some time to kill before the others arrived from the inconvenient Depew train station. Amtrak only takes bikes on certain trains at certain times of the day. That’s very helpful. Speaking of bikes and trains, ViaRail is doing a pilot project this summer promoting the use of the train and bicycles. This program is on the Toronto and Niagara route and if successful, will be continued. The unfortunate part of it is that few people even know about it.

We met up with the others in North Tonawanda and started heading east, using the poor canal route maps that we have. We had looked online at a county cycling map and wrote down the instructions for getting to Lockport. We passed right by Lockport. The canal trail did not start where it was indicated on the map. There wasn’t even a sign welcoming us to Lockport or directing us to the business section of town. We passed right by and ended up having to backtrack and get the trail in Gasport.

We had hoped to find some better maps at Lockport. Guess that Lockport isn’t too interested in attracting outsiders.

When we stopped in Gasport for lunch, a couple who had driven there for the beef on weck, said that they totally missed Lockport and had great difficulty finally getting there. At least, we found the trail in Gasport and headed on our merry way to Medina, our destination for the night.

Geese along the trail

Tomorrow, we head to Fairport and stay with friends.