Riding the trail

Erie Canal Heritage Trail

This post is very long overdue, and many weeks in the making.

From the very beginning, one of the "parks" on my list was the Erie Canal Heritage Trail. Those of you who live in Fairport or Pittsford, or any canal-side town for that matter, know this trail and have probably hiked or biked portions of it yourself.

For those of you who've been living under a rock or who live out of town and happened upon this blog as you wandered the Internet, the Erie Canal National Heritage Trail is a 365-mile paved bicycle path that follows the Erie Canal from Albany and Buffalo. In our neck of the woods, it runs through Fairport and Pittsford.

This summer, my husband and I rode sections of the trail five or six separate times, sometimes by ourselves, sometimes with friends. Mostly, we rode the seven miles between Fairport and Pittsford, parking our car in one of the villages and riding to the other and back. Once or twice we rode a little farther, like the time we continued west past Pittsford to visit Lock 32.

More than once, our bike rides had a purpose: there are so many parks on or near the bike path that we were able to combine a nice day outdoors with park research. But it's such an easy, beautiful ride with so much to see and do along the way that we never really needed an excuse.

In our travels we stopped at a coffee shop in Pittsford and had more than one pint at Lock 32 Brewing Company. We discovered quaint little Bushnell's Basin for the first time. We had ice cream in Fairport, saw a pipe and drum band practicing in a park, watch the Sam Patch go through a lock, explored the historic Old Lock 62, saw geese and ducks, kayaks and canoes, beautiful homes and so, so many people walking and jogging and biking.

The bike trail also dropped at least three terrific column ideas in my lap.

I can't say enough about this community resource. It's beautifully maintained, it goes through two beautiful little villages (and Bushnell's Basin), which offer plenty of restaurants, pubs and shopping, and is perfect for short walks or long bike rides.

I'm not sure why it took me so long to write about this "park," because it's probably at the top of my list.

The gallery below has photos from more than one of our excursions. Some are duplicates from posts about other parks I visited. But others are just illustrations of the beauty of this east-side resource.

The top row shows work being done on historic lock 62, which was abandoned many years ago when the canal was re-routed. Next to it are two shots from newer Lock 32 in Pittsford, when the San Patch came through.

The second row shows dockside images from Bushnell's Basin and Pittsford, and a random beauty shot.

The last row are also random shots of some simple canal delights.