Chidong Zhang's WA2MA Bike Trip

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Photos: at the bottom of the page

It was refreshing to ride on the Erie Canalway Trail along the Erie Canal with completely different sceneries from the past, especially the bridges and locks. The trail is paved west of the Lockport, where there is a sharp drop of the elevation of the trail. Because of the large change in the water level as well, the ship lock there has five flights. Normally, a ship lock has one flight.

Part of the unpaved trail has loose surfaces, which slowed me down a lot. I switched to a paved road on the other side of the canal and switched back two miles after. The surface condition became much more reasonable for me.

I settled tonight at a beautiful campsite next to the canal. It was managed by the welcome center of Brockport. It had everything a bike camper may need: hot shower, laundry, wifi, and restaurants/bars nearby.  The only drawback is that it is in a public area. People walk by until very late into the night. I heard a lady tried very hard to pull her dog away from my tent. The dog must have wanted to mark its territory on my tent! I had with two neighbors, one is a bike camper, the other are a couple on a boat. The bike camper, Mark, was from Buffalo. This was his first bikecamping trip. He wanted to ride from one end to the other along the canal. He was in his sabbatical from his teaching in a Law school at Buffalo. We had dinner together. He told me that you must put blue cheese on chicken wings in Buffalo. It’s an insult to say someone (e.g., the quarterback of an opposing team) puts ranch on his wings.

The couple was on their way to transport their sailboat to Buffalo for a sailing vacation in the lake summer next year.