Erie Canalway – Day 3 – Buffalo to Lockport

As I began to upload pictures to my website after writing the text for day three, my website crashed. My son does all the technical stuff for me so I contacted him, but it ended up taking weeks to sort out the issue and get it back online. So I continued to choose the pictures each day of the trip, and write the text to go with them, but I was unable to put the blogs together and publish them. It does take me a lot of time each evening to do the blogs as I travel, so not having to fully complete the work did save me time and reduce the rush in the evening, but it left a lot of people, who enjoy following me on my trips, in the dark as to how the trip was going. Some could follow along in Strava, but I don’t write extensive descriptions there. So, a couple weeks after the trip has finished, I’m finishing the blogs, and releasing them one a day.

I woke with a headache and was a bit frazzled getting ready this morning. It didn’t help that I dropped my left contact lens, trying to put it in, and couldn’t find it, so had to use my one left replacement. Then the right one didn’t seem correct, so I had to open the right replacement. My vision still didn’t seem quite correct, but I was tired, and rushing, and it was good enough. So, I started the day hoping that I don’t screw up with my contact lenses again for the rest of the trip, because I don’t have glasses for distance with me.

I was also too too tired to finish the blog last night, so felt under pressure to try to get it done this morning, which I was able to do before leaving the house, and during breakfast, but somehow thought it was Day 3, until Cindy and David and Dayle pointed out that it was only Day 2.

We rode down one of Olmstead‘s shady Parkways to breakfast.

We had breakfast at Tipico Café, which was recommended by the AirBnB host. The food was good and the atmosphere very relaxing. It was in Elmwood Village. The whole area is very pleasant.

After leaving there, we rode down another one of Olmstead’s Street that has a massive boulevard in the centre and beautiful homes lining both sides.

On our way to Mile 0 of the Erie Canalway, which is 360 miles (580km) in total, we stopped briefly at a 911 memorial Park and had a quick look at the LRT, which runs above ground through the downtown area, and is a free fare zone, and underground and paid fare, in the suburbs. I wrote about it here.

We also rode past the old City Hall, which probably would have remained big enough had the leaders at the time realized how depopulated the city would become.

Buffalo has been revitalizing its waterfront and has named it Canalside. It’s located at the 1825 terminus of the Erie Canal. There are public events hosted there throughout the year and many activities, including boat tours, kayak rentals, and a nice rink in the winter. There is also an old US Navy ship, the USS Little Rock, and a bike ferry, that takes you across the canal.

Once we had looked around there, we begin to follow the route which I had downloaded from the official website for the canal. Yesterday, when we were at the Darwin Martin house, a woman came up to us when she noticed our bicycles, and she told us that she was riding the Erie Canalway starting today, as well. About 500m in we met Jeanie, from the Darwin Martin House, and she pointed out that the route was detoured. So we turned and followed her. It was quite a long detour and not shown on the website where I grabbed a gpx file of the whole route last night! When I did Google it this evening, I found this page that shows all the trail closures.

The detour route was well signed.

Once we got on the actual trail, one of the first things we saw was Frank Lloyd Wright Fontana Boathouse. It was one of his unbuilt designs until 2007 when it was built for the West Side Rowing Club in Buffalo.

Yesterday when we were crossing the Peace Bridge I noticed cyclists on a smaller bridge below us. Today we crossed that bridge.

Yesterday we didn’t realize that the bi-directional protected cycle track on Niagara Parkway is part of Erie Canalway. We rode the entire length of the cycle track today rather than turning off to go to our Airbnb.

Once we left the cycle track, we were riding along the canal, but also next to a highway, which was quite noisy for several kilometers.

Finally, we left the highway and had an idyllic ride much of the rest of the day. There were occasional sections that were on the road, which generally had shoulders, or were protected by curbs or crash barriers.

We met some local cyclists travelling the other way, and asked them about where we would find food between Buffalo and Lockport. They suggested a place called Uncle G‘s just outside of Lockport, or a restaurant just a couple of kilometres away. One was too early, and the other was going to be quite late. He did mention Tonawanda in a questioning voice, and neither of the other cyclists said anything. Shortly before we got to Tonawanda we stopped for the bathroom and to eat a snack. We were surprised when we got there how many restaurants there were right at the trail. Had we known, we would’ve stopped there for lunch.

We did stop at Uncle G’s, which was right beside the trail and had good meals, as well as apparently good ice cream, judging by the large lines, but we were quite full after we ate our lunch. We are finding food quite expensive here, possibly even more than restaurant food at home when the exchange is figured in.

I’ve been having squeaking disc brakes. David was able to help me fix the front ones yesterday, but a fix of the back one today didn’t last so but it’s going to need some more tweaking tomorrow.

We regularly saw recreational watercraft on the canal.

We got into the hotel about 5 PM. The clerk visits friends regularly in Brampton, and was quite entertaining, and suggested that we could use the pool at the hotel next door when we expressed disappointment at the lack of one here. David and Dayle decided to go, but Cindy and I relaxed in the room.

When I took out my contacts to shower, I discovered that the missing right contact was in my left eye along with the left. No wonder my near vision was slightly magnified today, I realized in retrospect. I’m shocked that the double lenses didn’t irritate me all day long. The missing left one was still in the case. Oops. This morning was a reminder how hard it is to see the small clear contacts when tired, in low light – I was putting them in the bedroom rather than the bathroom – and when not wearing corrective glasses. So now I still have two sets, but unfortunately, both open.

We went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner just a few minutes walk down the road. The food was delicious and plentiful.

Tomorrow we are off to Rochester.