New York State has done a good job with the Erie Canal. It also seems to be popular with bicycle tourists. This morning there were two at breakfast in my motel. This evening, the motel told me there was a group of eight last night.

Today had more gravel paths, at least 20 miles. Rather than skip them to find paved roads, I took it easy and cycled the gravel. In the middle, I crossed Syracuse, a city of ~100,000 with a larger metro area.

I was out early and had gravel starting out. Early morning quiet and temperatures in the low 40F range.

The first miles were along Erie Canal Historic Park with many signs such as this one. It shows the original canal from 1825 (4ft deep), the widened canal of 1862 and the modern canal of 1918. The modern canal is north of me so I think I was mostly along the second generation.

Slightly slower riding on gravel, but not too bad.

This is taken coming into Syracuse. They put the bicycle path in the middle of a road with two lanes each way. I saw two bike shops coming in.

I picked something up from an Amazon locker. The timing gets slightly tricky since you want it to arrive before you do, but not too early since they hold packages for two days. This one was inside the store and I wheeled my bicycle right in. Nobody said anything. When I left the store there were two police officers with someone constrained with wrists behind his back. Not sure exactly what that was about, but it made me glad I’d brought the bike inside.

It was a little tricky finding my way through downtown Syracuse but soon enough I was at a path again.

This bridge climbed over a railroad track and the route then parallels a lake. I then went via New York State Fairgrounds, past the water treatment plant and then past a large dump/landfill before being really out of town.

Another picture of an aqueduct. What still impresses me the most is how they need to bring the canal over local streams and engineered this at least for the second canal. Not as certain on the first.

This area was another park area. The park is 50 years old and the canal is 200 years.

It might be 51 years. In a barn along the way was what looked like a float decorated for a Memorial Day parade. The museum wasn’t yet open.

Apparently they’ve had a problem with hitchhiker cats.

Getting warmer but otherwise peaceful cycling along the canal.

I passed the halfway point between Albany and Buffalo. When people see my loaded bike they ask “Buffalo?” or “going all the way?”. There are day trippers along the canal but also enough through cyclists.

A rest stop at Jordan. This seems to be one of the higher points in the canal. Signs said they had difficulty keeping the canal filled until they reduced it another 11ft.

Weedsport has a Dirt Hall of Fame. Not dirt dirt, but apparently dirt drag car racing.

Strava says: 48.81 miles in 5:37:57 for 8.7 miles/hour. 676 feet climbed and 3085 calories burned.

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