the Way of the Turtle

27.8 Mile Ride on the Erie Canalway Trail, Camillus to Jordan
Monday, August 25, 2008

Two of the fun things about spending lots of time outdoors are seeing new places (something I've done quite a bit of this summer!) and revisiting places I've already been (ditto!) This summer I've spent quite a bit of time on the Erie Canalway Trail, a 380 mile path that when completed will run from Albany to Buffalo with very few (and fairly short) on-road segments. At the present time approximately 70% of the off-road portions of the trail are complete.

For obvious reasons I ride the sections in the Albany-Schenectady area most frequently, but in the summer I also try to spend time on some of the more distant portions. This year I've ridden most of the trail from Amsterdam to Fort Plain, a section between Utica and Oriskany, and a short portion in the Old Erie Canal State Park between Chittenango and Manlius. I've also ridden some of the sections near Rochester, heading both east and west.

A number of years ago (in either 2003 or 2004) I rode a section between Camillus and Jordan, and found the trail conditions to be widely varied... some parts were easy riding, one section was singletrack so overgrown that I needed to walk my bike in spots because I couldn't see what I might ride into in the undergrowth, and another stretch was a complete mud-pit. Needless to say, I hada pretty good time... Back in March 2006 I also rode a bit around Jordan, but ended up doing a lot of that ride on roads because the trail surface was too loose to ride without incredible effort.

The decision of where to ride today was a tough one - I also wanted to ride the Ontario Pathways trail, especially since they've opened a number of new trail segments since I last rode there in August 2005. But in the end the Erie Canalway won out, mostly because it's a bit more distant from Rochester - there's at least a slight chance I may convince Ann to come ride Ontario Pathways with me sometime this fall.

I parked at Warners Park, near the midpoint of the ride I hoped to do, and headed east on the trail toward Camillus. The stone dust was a little thick in spots, but I was still able to ride comfortably on my road bike. After about a mile and a half, the path merged with a fairly bumpy dirt road, and at about 2 miles I found myself at the Camillus Erie Canal Park. The main feature of the park is the Sims Store Museum, a rebuilt canal store which also has numerous exhibits about canal history. I spent a few minutes wandering around the exhibits, then continued east along the path.

The next notable point I passed was the Nine Mile Creek Aqueduct, which used to carry the canal across Nine Mile Creek.