July 29, 2018
Day 74 Medina, NY
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Today, we started our trip along the Erie Canal. We left Amherst riding through a very pretty wooded park.
We were soon riding on the Erie Canalway path. From Amherst to Lockport, it had a nice paved surface. At Lockport we encountered some construction, but were able to follow local streets to the canalway.
Lockport presented some of the greatest challenges to the Erie Canal designers. The Niagara Escarpment rises 60 feet here. The solution was to build five locks in a row, called the "Flight of Five". Originally, there were two sets of locks, one for eastbound and one for westbound traffic. One of these remains.
We watched a demonstration of the manual operation of these locks. They even had a mule towing the boat!
Adjacent to these oldest locks from 1825 were the newer, larger locks completed in 1912. These are still used for recreational boats.
Past Lockport, the trail surface is crushed stone. We didn't have any trouble riding on it, but it is much less comfortable than pavement.
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Tomorrow we will have a rest day here in Medina. It's been a little over a week since our last day off and we are looking forward to a day of relaxation.
Today's ride: 38 miles (61 km)
Total: 3,442 miles (5,539 km)
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