I did a section of this trail a couple of years ago with a friend of mine. Road my Surly Midnight Special. It POURED almost the entire trip (I think we pretty much just followed a slow moving weather system from west to east). That said, the fire departments that pop up along the route allow camping on their property and let us use their showers before we set up our tents. After a long slog through cold rain, a hot shower (with firehouse water pressure!) is quite an experience. For those that do camp on this route, I highly recommend just calling the fire department in whatever town you’ll be sleeping in and checking with them.
Jim On Sunday, June 29, 2025 at 5:18:36 AM UTC-4 Marc Irwin wrote: > That's a great ride. I did it a few years ago. I was camping and the > free campsites available all along the way were a real convenience. Don't > worry about your saddle, all the Brooks saddles I've had over the past 50 > years have been soaking wet at one time or another. They all survived. > > Marc > > On Saturday, June 28, 2025 at 8:00:37 PM UTC-4 [email protected] wrote: > >> I’m not much of a poster here, but thought I’d share a trip report as a >> way of participating. Two friends and I had a great time riding the Erie >> Canal trail from Buffalo to Albany during the second week in June. This was >> my first overnight bike trip since about 1987, and I’m really glad to have >> done it. I rode my 2023 Hillborne, and the bike was very comfortable and >> trouble-free. My fellow travelers made the trip on a Trek 520 and a Kona >> Super Jake CF gravel bike. We opted to ‘credit card camp,’ staying in an >> Air BnB and hotels along the way. We made the trip in six days, which felt >> like a good amount of time to not feel rushed but also challenging enough >> to make the trip feel like an accomplishment. >> >> The Erie Canalway Trail follows various versions of the Erie Canal across >> New York State, roughly at the latitude of I-90. It is mostly flat and >> surfaced with smooth crushed stone. I had Gravelking SK tires in 700X43 >> and, other than my rear tire coming apart in Rochester, these were a good >> choice. I didn’t register how old my tires were I guess…about 2000 miles >> since I’ve owned the bike, and perhaps many more miles by the previous >> owner. Miraculously, there is an REI store directly on the trail in >> Pittsford. >> >> There were some detours and on-road sections, but the majority of the >> 360-ish miles were off-road. Due to the locations of some of our hotels and >> some random wheeling around, I rode about 400 miles over the six days. >> >> 06/12/2025 - Buffalo to Albion - 68 miles >> >> 06/13/2025 - Albion to Palmyra - 67 miles >> >> 06/14/2025 - Palmyra to Syracuse - 72 miles >> >> 06/15/2025 - Syracuse to Utica - 70 miles >> >> 06/16/2025 - Utica to Amsterdam - 70 miles >> >> 06/17/2025 - Amsterdam to Albany - 47 miles >> >> >> The Erie Canalway is celebrating its bicentennial in 2025 and the National >> Parks <https://eriecanalway.org/explore/challenge> people are trying to >> make the most of it. We registered our trio as a team and earned some cool >> swag for being End-to-Enders. A great book about the Erie Canal is The >> Wedding Of The Waters <https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393327953> and >> having a little knowledge about the project made the trip even more fun >> (for me at least). >> >> We had perfect weather other than on the final day into Albany when it >> rained buckets on the ride from Amsterdam. With a non-negotiable pick-up >> rendezvous of 1230pm, we pushed through the weather and it was a really fun >> experience, especially knowing that it was the final day of the trip. My >> B17 may never be the same, but everything else performed perfectly in the >> storm. I ran Ortlieb low-riders on a Tubus Tara rack in the front and a >> BagsXBird Tail Grab classic on the bars. The Ortlieb Back Rollers were >> really too big for this trip, and though they were only half-full, I still >> brought too much stuff! >> >> Anyway, if you’ve ever considered making this trip, this would be a great >> year to do it! I’d be happy to share any info that might be helpful. >> >> [image: IMG_3947.JPG] >> >> [image: IMG_3971.JPG] >> >> >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/bd0f902a-52e1-4d13-96a5-35cb23606652n%40googlegroups.com.
