Erie Canalway – Day 7 – Weedsport to Syracuse

We headed out at 7:45 this morning after breakfast in the motel.

Right off the bat I turned the wrong way, and then when I corrected myself, ran a red light. We were all still tired from yesterday’s long ride in the heat and humidity. It didn’t bode well for another very hot day, but at least the distance was only 43 km.

We weren’t far from the trail – it was only single track for a while, but quite smooth and beautifully shady.

The trail runs along in abandoned section of the canal through this area.

In Jordan, they had a mural and had created a garden in the old canal bed.

We happened upon the two ladies in their 70s that we had met a couple days ago, but with their pedal assisted e-bikes they soon left us behind.

Cindy spotted a turtle laying eggs at the side of the trail. Her shell was covered in algae.

Much of the abandoned canal is dry, but there’s a section 5 miles in length near Camillus that has been refilled. It’s called the Camillus Canal Park, and has a museum, but it wasn’t open today. We did meet one of the volunteers who told us that the organization maintains the 5 miles that has been refilled, and raised $3 million to rebuild an aqueduct.

This is the end of the section that they maintain.

We then encountered one of the longest hills on the trip so far which seemed to last for quite a while. The heat and the humidity were terrible today with the high of 32°, which apparently felt like 35° with the humidity, but felt like more to me.

The trail goes through the New York State fairgrounds and then over two large active transportation bridges over highways. Then it descends to the edge of Lake Onondaga. The trail lighting and the trail look quite new.

It led to an area of old industrial buildings that had been beautifully refurbished, and then under more highways.

We were all completely exhausted when we got to the hotel even though it wasn’t a long day.

The clerk at reception recommended Dinosaur Bar-B-Que for lunch. It’s a small Upper New York state chain. It was delicious.

Cindy and I both like to use Atlas Obscura to find quirky things to visit when we go to new places. One of the places was the Niagara Mohawk building, a beautiful art deco building, built in 1932.

We went into the lobby and asked the security guard if we were able to look around, and he indicated that we could just look around the lobby. They had four beautiful decorative areas.

Just as we finished looking around the security guard received a phone call, and then asked us how we had gotten in. We indicated that the door was unlocked. He said it wasn’t supposed to be, and we needed to leave. He said we shouldn’t have been in there in the first place and shouldn’t have been taking pictures. But at that point, we had seen the lobby and had our pictures so we left.

The old Erie Canal route went right through the centre of Syracuse. There’s now a park called Clinton Square where the canal used to be. There are some beautiful buildings around the square, but the square itself is just a wide open expanse with no shade, which was mostly empty of people or things to do on this hot afternoon.

There was a beautiful fountain and reflecting pool here as an homage to the old canal route. It is still advertised on the official city website, but people were wading in it, which apparently city officials and police didn’t like, and now it’s dry. It was also used as a skating rink in the winter. I don’t know if it still serves that function.

Here’s a picture of what it looked like when the canal was there from the Erie Canal museum.

As we walked to see another item from Atlas Obscura we passed this beautiful building.

This is the 24-second shot clock monument. According to Atlas Obscura: “The 24-second shot clock, used to speed up low-scoring professional basketball games, and was invented in Syracuse, New York, by Syracuse Nationals owner Danny Biasone and general manager Leo Ferris. This monument of a continually running shot clock pays tribute to the city’s contribution to basketball.”

While Syracuse has some beautiful buildings, it also has quite a few abandoned buildings and empty lots.

We then visited the Erie Canal Museum. There were some lovely murals leading to the museum and in the elevator.

The museum is housed in the historic weightlock building. It was used for “collecting tolls on cargo in order to pay for the construction and maintenance of the canal. In order to assess a toll, the boats were weighed.  Boats entered the lock chamber, water was drained through a culvert under the city into Onondaga Creek, and the boat settled onto a wooden cradle attached by rods to a scale. The unloaded boat weight (from its empty weight certificate) was subtracted from the measured loaded weight to determine the weight of the cargo. The weighmaster then charged a toll based on that weight, what the boat was carrying, and how far it was going.”

There was a full size canal boat in the space which one could go in and see how it was set up.

There was also a map that showed the route of the old canal versus the current one. The new one is still quite well-used, but almost entirely for recreational purposes.

We were all quite tired, and the museum closed at four, so we went back to the rooms to rest for a couple of hours.

There was a highway between our hotel and downtown Syracuse. For the most part, we seem to be on the wrong side of the highway, but we passed a few well-kept historic buildings on our walk to dinner along with a lot of very run down ones.

We decided to go out to a restaurant called Laci’s for tapas for dinner. Upon arrival, we realized we should have made a reservation, as when we walked in, it was completely full. However, they offered us a place on the porch as a consolation prize, and we were happy to sit in the fresh air, out of the noisy chatter indoors, with the air slightly cooler than during the day, surrounded by greenery and this beautiful mural.

The manager, and former executive chef, took our order, apparently his first time ever doing so. He has worked for the restaurant for 10 years and worked his way up from busboy to his current position.

The food was good, and the service was even better. Because of a small delay taking our order for more food after our first four dishes, the manager comped the plate of sliders which we finished up with. We would all absolutely recommend this restaurant if you’re in Syracuse.

We headed back to the hotel, so I could write the blog, and we could have an early night. Our ride is 100 km tomorrow. We’re going to try to set off by 7am, again – the high will be a few degrees cooler, but we might have to contend with rain.