New York City to Niagara Falls
Jun 10, 2023
This cycling trip from New York City to Niagara falls follows the Hudson River Valley north from New York City to Albany and then west along the Erie Canal Trail to Buffalo (or Niagara Falls) - a distance of about 806 km (557 miles). I had postponed the trip several times for various reasons. This time I feared it might be postponed once again due to the thick smoke from Canadian wildfires which blanketed the state of New York. News reports cautioned about the dangers of outdoor activities like cycling. Fortunately, at the last minute some rain and a change of wind direction led to a marked improvement in air quality. So, I carefully packed the minimal amount of cycling necessities and headed to the airport for my non-stop flight from Portland, Oregon to New York's JFK airport. Alaska Air checked in my bicycle at no extra cost. I arrived at my hotel in the Jamaica area of Queens at 11 pm.
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June 11.
I unpacked and assembled my bike. My plan was to leave early the next day, so I spent the day relaxing, reading, repacking and adjusting to the 3 hour jet lag. The big news for the day in New York was the National Puerto Rican Day Parade with a million participants.
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July 12
This was my first day of cycling. I wanted to start early, but ran into an unexpected problem. I had called the Best Western Jamaica Inn near JFK airport several weeks before and asked if I could store my empty bike bag there during the trip and return for it at the end. They told me then that would be fine, but now they told me they could not store it. I took my bike bag by Uber to a storage unit rental company, and left it there for $65. So, I got a late start, but was finally on the road about 9:45 am. I followed a good bike lane along Queens Boulevard and a small ferry from Astoria across the East River to 90th Street in upper Manhattan. I wound through the streets and found a new name for the bike lanes in Manhattan - "parking lanes". The George Washington Bridge across the Hudson River had a wide and excellent bicycle lane separated from traffic. It was overcast but I was not used to the high humidity and worked hard as I followed the up and down hills of NY State Bicycle Route 9, which is basically a wide shoulder on auto route 9. I passed through the town of Piermont and past sprawling huge mansions overlooking the Hudson River. It made a stark contrast with some of the neighborhoods in Harlem I had passed through earlier in the day. By 3 pm and after 36 miles I arrived in the town of Nyak only to find that the last two miles to the hotel was a steep all uphill. I awoke from my nap with excruciating leg cramps. But, these quickly passed and I had a pleasant evening .
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June 13th.
To avoid the leg cramps I suffered yesterday, I resolved to take it slow and drink plenty of mineral- fortified water. I left Nyack about 7:30 am and headed down the highway toward the Hudson River. It was a beautiful warm morning and the trees along the river offered welcome shade. I followed the bike trail north at least 8 or 10 miles along a bluff above the river. There were some short steep sections where I had to walk the bike up but overall it was a lovely quiet ride through the forest with no people in sight. I encountered a friendly female deer standing in the trail. After traversing sections of compacted gravel trail, paved trail, and highway I turned east and crossed the 100 year old Bear Mountain Bridge back across the Hudson. The route continued to follow highway 9 north, sometimes with a shoulder lane and sometimes uncomfortably with none but always with moderate traffic. After 40 miles I finally arrived at 2:40 pm in the town of Fishkill (Dutch for Fish Creek) - population 2500 and my stop for the evening.
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June 14
I hoped to reach my next destination of New Paltz before the forecasted afternoon thunderstorms, so I left the hotel at 7 am and followed Highway 9 north. Again, it was lots of up and down with busy traffic. I had planned to meet my cyclist friend Sue at Lola's Cafe in Poughkeepsie at noon. But with the rain forecast I hoped we could make it earlier. I arrived at Lola's at 9:15 and relaxed with a large coffee. As the rain forecast sounded severe, I left early to try to beat it. Sue decided to wait for the showers to pass and met me at about 5pm at our destination for the day - New Paltz, New York. Sue was a very strong cyclist who completed the TransAm across the U.S. the previous summer.
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June 15.
We left New Paltz at 8 am with only a cup of coffee onboard. We cycled along the Wallkill Valley Rail trail and crossed the Rosedale Trestle Bridge, which had the highest span of any bridge when it opened in 1872. We then followed NY Bike Route 32 for 2 hours to Kingston. There we found a lovely diner and a full breakfast. North of there we followed a separated bike lane on the long and scenic Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge across the Hudson River. We took the Greenway Trail through a wooded area and the campus of Bard College. We rejoined NY Bike Route 9 riding on the shoulder north to Clermont , Livingston, and finally to Claverack where we had reserved a BnB for the evening, but no one was there and by phone we only got a recording , so we called a hotel in nearby Hudson and were able to get a very nice room for the evening. The total distance for the day was 53 miles.
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June 16
We spent most of the day on the Albany-Hudson Electric Trail-some paved and some on compacted sand and gravel. We stopped about 10 am in the village of Kinderhook for a late breakfast. The electric trail gets it's name from the fact that one of the first electric trams was built there in 1899 powered by a nearby hydroelectric dam. It connected Albany and Hudson New York until 1929. The last hour and a half we spent in a light rain. We missed a turn coming into Rennseller just east of Albany where the hotel for the evening was located and ended up back tracking up a long hill to get to it. But all in all it was a good day covering 41 miles.
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June 17
The early forecast was for rain all day. But then it changed to afternoon showers so we decided not to spend a second night near Albany but to continue northward toward Cohes ahead of the rain. We followed the nice paved Mohawk-Hudson Bike trial along the west side of the Hudson River and arrived at Cohes Falls scenic overlook mid-morning. But, with rain still a likely possibility we called and reserved a hotel room in Latham not far from the Albany airport and called it a short day after only 21 miles.
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June 18
We started out at 8 am and after cycling about 3 miles on a highway we realized we were headed in the opposite direction of the route. So, we made a U turn and rode back past last night's hotel. After a couple of miles we turned west onto the Mohawk Hudson Bike trail, which near Schenectady became the Erie Canal Bikeway. The entire day was spent on paved and relatively flat trails which included encounters with blue herons and turtles. About 3 pm we reached our destination of Amsterdam New York after a distance of 40 miles.
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We followed the Erie Canal Way Trail all day. It ran along the Mohawk River past several active locks with boats passing through. Many sections through the forest offered glimpses of deer and many rabbits scurried out of our way. We stopped at a diner in the village of Canajojari for a late breakfast and I was surprised at how inexpensive meals are in the small towns along the canal. After a mostly flat 43 miles we arrived at 2 pm at our destination of Little Falls, New York.
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June 20
We got off by 7:15 am while it was still cool and followed the Erie Canal Bikeway West until reaching Rome New York. The trail was mostly paved and flat, although some parts were fine compacted gravel. We passed several active locks with pleasure boats passing through. We planned to stop for breakfast in the small town of Mohawk, but there was no place there and we ended up with "breakfast pizza with egg" at a gas station. We passed by Utica. I had been searching for a bike shop to top off the air pressure in my tires, but for several days there was nothing convenient. We arrived in Rome at 1 pm and checked into the hotel. After some relaxation we walked across to the nearby Fort Stanwix National Monument. It is a reconstruction of the 18th century fort built on that site. It first served the British as a defense in the French and Indian War and then later as an American fort during the revolutionary war.
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June 21
On this longest day of the year we left Rome at 7 am and joined the Erie Canal Bikeway. We headed west for our destination of Syracuse - 47 miles away. The trail almost the entire way was finely packed gravel. Some of it ran along the new canal with active locks, but most traveled the old canal towpath beside a smaller swampy old canal. We made a stop at the State Historical Park of Chittenango Landing. It's a reconstructed series of buildings from the canal days of the early 19th century with displays and an active blacksmith shop. The afternoon temperature reached 80 and the lack of shade necessitated some frequent stops. As we entered Syracuse we located the Syracuse Bike Shop. They were very helpful. They filled my tires up to the recommended pressure and gave us some welcome cold bottles of water. We reached our hotel in Syracuse at 3 pm.
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June 22
No cycling today, but a day of R and R. We walked a mile to a café for breakfast, did some bike maintenance, and went to the Syracuse Erie Canal Museum. It was quite interesting with many displays showing the history of the canal construction and it's economic impacts.
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June 23
We left Syracuse at 7:30 and hooked up to the Erie Canal Trail. Most of the way followed the old stagnant canal on fine gravel. We didn't locate a breakfast place until 10 am when we reached the village of Jordan. There we found a friendly little café called Peace and Love. Back on the trail along the canal and in about 5 more miles and we reached our destination of Weedsport - a total distance of 27.6 miles. We stayed at the Roadway Inn on main street right next to the bike route and a hardware store where I picked up a couple of small items for the bike. Just across the street was Cooks Village Diner with some excellent traditional American food.
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June 24
Rain was in the forecast again, so we left at 7:30 and as we headed for the Erie Canal Trail we encountered a light shower. This cleared and then returned again later as we followed the canal westward on a mostly fine-gravel path. I labored against the high humidity as numerous bunny rabbits and an occasional groundhog scurried across our path. We passed through the towns of Clyde, Lyons and Newark and reached our destination of Palmyra after about 47 miles. We stopped for lunch and an ice cold lemonade at the cozy Muddy Waters Café before cycling another mile to reach our hotel for the evening.
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June 25
We wound our way through the south side of Rochester on a paved trail and then joined the gravel canal trail again. The afternoon heat was increasing. We stopped in Spencerport for an ice cold soda at the Clutch Tavern next to the canal. When the waitress found out how far we were cycling she gave us free drinks.
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June 26
We had a quick breakfast at Tim Hortons and followed streets to join the fine gravel trail along the Erie Canal past many flocks of Canada Geese on the trail to our destination of Lockport - a ride of 45.8 miles. We stopped at Middleport for a break and ominous thunderclouds rolled in. I thought I had lost my wallet on the trail, so I backtracked about two miles, but found nothing. Then as I turned around I saw ominous clouds coming in. Lightening, strong wind, and a torrential downpour moved in before I had time to don my rain gear. As I arrived back at Middleport I was soaking wet. As we waited for the rain to let up, I reached in my small handlebar pack - and there most thankfully was my wallet. We waited an hour and then I put on rain gear and headed up the trail in a light rain. Soon it subsided and we made the final 8 miles into Lockport, struggling through the wet stone dust trail which was like peanut butter. Then a final uphill climb to the hotel where we arrived at 6:30 pm. Very tired indeed
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June 27
We planned a short day today. Our route took us along the canal for just a couple of miles and then on the highway shoulder the rest of the way. We paused several times under the shelter of trees and waited for showers to pass. By 11 am we reached our destination - the Econolodge in east Niagara Falls - a distance of 13.7 miles. A heated outdoor pool was a treat after days of cycling. Also the hotel had a washer and dryer for our accumulated laundry and was nice enough to allow us to wash our very dirty bikes with an outside garden hose.
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June 28
Today was sightseeing in Niagara Falls. We took an Uber to the falls State Park, located the little hop-on-hop off trolley, and for $3 rode around to the different falls viewpoints. The whole area was very commercialized, which didn't surprise me. Everyone was taking advantage of a scenic wonder to make some money. The wind from the north brought haze from the wildfires in Canada and decreased the air quality considerably.
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June 29
Overnight the wind shifted back from the south and cleared smoke from the air. We awoke to a beautiful sunny day and at 8 am left our hotel riding mostly on streets to the south and then picking up the shoreline bicycle trail toward Tonawanda. There Sue continued on to Buffalo determined to finish at the very end of the Erie Canal Trail before retracing back to Tonawanda. I turned east following the ECT to a Sleep Inn hotel in north Amherst. Overall my ride was only 15 miles on the flat.
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June 30
I cycled 2 miles south where I picked up a rented minivan and put the bike in the back for a 7 hour drive back to New York City. Since it was Friday and the beginning of the fourth of July holiday weekend I ran into some heavy traffic as I entered the NYC area. I picked up my bike bag from the storage unit, drove another couple of miles to my hotel near the airport, and disassembled and packed my bike.
July 1
Check-in for Alaska Airlines was a breeze and they again took my bike bag with no extra charge. The flight home was uneventful and as usual, I was glad to be home.
Summary
The trip was a great success. We had no mechanical problems - not even a flat tire. We only experienced a couple of hours of heavy rain on one day. On cycle trips I am often impressed with the differences between the areas I pass through and my home of Portland, Oregon. In this case I noted the scarcity of coffee shops and nice restaurants. Those restaurants we found were mostly fast food and not of very good quality. The weather was more humid than home and even the rain was different as it occurred mostly as scattered thunderstorms which came and passed. The wetter summers in New York State seemed ideal for large green lawns and I had never seen so many houses surrounded with several acres of lawn to mow. There were some hot and humid days and, if I were to do it again, I would choose April or May, rather than June.
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