The Erie Canal has a long and storied history. If I had stopped to read all of the historical markers and other information displayed on the trail, I wouldn’t have been able to make much progress on my route. As it turned out, there were a few things that slowed me down today, and I didn’t need any more.

But I do want to show you a few signs dealing with the period of over a hundred years during which the canal was built. Construction of the “Great Embankment,” an important mile-long stretch of the canal, was completed in 1822. This was an enormous undertaking, but it was started and finished all within that year. In 1809, Thomas Jefferson had called the idea of the canal “a little short of madness,” but the canal’s engineers never gave up on the idea.

The Greece Junction lock to the Genessee River in the Rochester area was the last section statewide of the Erie Barge Canal to open, in 1918, nearly a century after the Great Embankment was built.

Shortly after I left my hotel near Pittsford, NY last night, I stopped at the Towpath Bike Shop, conveniently located next to the canal trail, and got some advice from Jarrel there on my bike tires. The good news is that my tires are not leaking by more than a normal amount considering the daily use and the weight I’m carrying, but the bad news is that they are fairly thin where “the rubber meets the road.” Jarrel said I should replace the tires on a day when I’m prepared to leave the bike at a shop for a couple hours because there is “no way” that I would be able to make it to the West Coast on these tires. Point noted. Jarrel also put some lube on my chain, and said he once discovered on a bike trip that a person can use Chapstick to lubricate a bike chain if nothing else is available.

I met quite a few people on the trail today, especially around Rochester, where there is a really confusing confluence of several bike trail systems that cross two waterways on several different bridges. A number of us were lost, including some experienced cyclists from the area who were doing multi-day trips out of places like Albany and Rensselaer Polytechnic University. The signage actually made the situation even more confusing–it was pretty crazy. I found myself going in circles for over an hour before I finally found a way to the canal trail heading west with the help of the compass on my iPhone.

The photo below shows a nice guy who was out for the day biking with his wife and son. He originally stopped me to ask for directions, and I explained I was probably more lost than he was. Nevertheless, we both strategized about how to get where we wanted to go and headed in separate ways at a three-way trail junction. But then–surprise surprise–we bumped into each other again about 30 minutes later, when it turned out we were both finally going the way we wanted. This guy’s son has autism, so they ride on a “buddy bike” for kids with disabilities, and his wife rides on her own bike.

Late in the afternoon, I met Nick Peterson, who is riding cross-country from west to east. Nick is 50 years old and is a rowing coach. He had 110 lbs. of gear on his bike but has definitely been traveling a lot faster than I am–I think he said he had been on the trip for 44 days so far. We exchanged contact information, and he said I should look him up if my route takes me near Missoula, MT, where he lives. Nick’s route took him through the Twin Cities, where he stayed with some friends for a few days and said he really enjoyed his time there.

In case you should think that these bike trails along the canal are populated only by a bunch of jocks, or wannabees like me, I thought you might be interested in a couple of examples of art and music on the trail. Here are two signs that were put up by an art collective, inviting trail users to “suggest a good song, or leave a positive note for another wonderful stranger!”

And here was a concert just getting ready to start across the canal as I passed Brockport, NY around 6 p.m.

Unfortunately, I was too tired to stop for the concert, and I was overdue for my check-in time at the Rosewood Bed & Breakfast in Holley, NY. With the time I had spent figuring out what another cyclist referred to as the “rat’s nest” of trails in Rochester, and also navigating lots of water on the trail due to heavy rains that required me to bike on the grass alongside the trail in numerous areas, it was 7 p.m. by the time I got to my B&B. I only clocked 40 miles on my odometer for the day, but I felt just as exhausted as I have after 100-mile Century Rides in the past couple years.

I will have another whole day on the Erie Canal Trail tomorrow. As today’s experience has shown, the trail isn’t perfect, but it is a great way to get away from traffic, experience some significant history, and meet other people on bikes.