Back to Canada, 2023: Fifty-five miles on the Erie Canal

We had only 55 miles to ride today, most of it on the Erie Canal towpath. We rode slowly and enjoyed ourselves along the way, and consequently, this became one of our longest days on the road.

I was surprised by how different the Erie Canal is from the C&O. It is much wider and is still in use, mainly now for pleasure boats. In many spots, it looked like we were riding next to a river, rather than a canal. As it is not a national park, private property comes down to the canal, and often, we seemed to be riding through people's front yards, while checking out their docks and boats. I was greatly tempted to borrow a canoe or kayak for a bit of a paddle. We only passed five locks, quite widely spaced, and we were fortunate to be at a lock as two boats went through. Since our vehicle could not meet us on the tow path, we stopped for lunch at the town of Pittsford, which had several restaurants, a great bike store, boat rental, and lovely park all right at the canal. Other towns were somewhat off the canal. We did ride through Rochester but hardly realized where we were, as we were on the tow path and a connecting trail along the Genessee River. The weather is in the seventies, fortunately still warm enough for ice cream at a very popular stand in Palmyra where two scoops is the smallest serving (8 is the largest, but even I wasn't tempted.)