Beyond Farpoint - I Mean Fairport - Biking the Erie Canalway

Hi Blog. We spent the last couple of days in the rig replacing fried appliances and making campground reservations. The rain that kept us inside most of yesterday let up this morning. We decided to take another spin on the Erie Canalway. When last we rode, we started at Palmyra and made it as far as Farpoint (a/k/a Fairport.) Today, we hoped to go Beyond Farpoint.

We stopped at a few places on the way to Main Street in Fairport - Best Buy, Old Navy, Bank of America and The Landing Bar and Grill.  After all, we needed a little liquid fuel for our afternoon adventure. Here is a picture of the Fairport Trailhead looking west.

Here is Kathy stopping to chat with one of the locals.

Just outside of Fairport, we noticed this converted barge. We liked the name on the side - Low Bridge. For a nominal fee, you too can rent this barge and cruise up and down the Erie Canal.  If you are curious about the layout, click the link. It has everything including the kitchen sink.

However, I think we prefer the bike path. We've talked about perhaps someday backpacking, or in this case bike-packing, the entire length. You can just ride from town to town, stay in hotels, bed and breakfasts or camp at the lock stations. We saw our first bike-packer today. Would have loved to ask him about his trip, but we were going in opposite directions.  Just two ships passing in the night.

So we are riding along just outside of Fairport, we notice these cute little townhouse built right next to the canal (price $277,000). At first we thought they would be really great, until the freight train came by and blasted its whistle. We looked further and noticed the train was practically in the front yard. So, those townhouses are off the list, but this little trailer sitting down next to the water would be nice.

Then again, just a little further down the trail we came across a rather large horse farm complete with RV parking lot.  We wouldn't even have to get rid of our rig. We could just park it next to these others.

Before long, we came upon the Great Embankment - a man-made earthen structure one mile long and 70 feet high over the Irondequoit Creek Valley. Without the Great Embankment, the Erie Canal would have had to be routed through Lake Ontario. With the Embankment, canal boats could pull their cargoes all the way from Buffalo to the Hudson River. That time and cost advantage gave New York's canal an overwhelming advantage over Canada's competing canal system that DID include Lake Ontario. Here is the Cartersville Guard Gate, near Pittsford, NY, used as a flood gate to protect the Great Embankment. Normally the gate is open, with 15 ¼ feet clearance.

Richardson's Tavern is a historic Erie Canal inn and tavern located in the hamlet of Bushnell's Basin in Perinton, Monroe County, New York. Believed to be the only remaining establishment from the canal's earliest years, it dates to about 1818 when it was a stop on the stage coach route along the Irondequoit Valley and Irondequoit Creek, between Rochester and Canandaigua. Several expansions occurred during the 19th century. The tavern operated as a hotel until 1917 when it was converted to four apartments. In 1978, after having been abandoned since 1972, it was converted for use as a restaurant, Richardson's Canal House. The restaurant opened on Valentine's Day 1979. It has become one of the most noted restaurants in the county, and has even garnered nationwide recognition.



The concrete liner of the Great Embankment makes it like the world's largest swimming pool.

Here we are standing on top of one of the two spillways built it the side of the canal. In case of emergency (i.e. a leak in the embankment or flooding rain), the guard gates would be lowered and the spillways opened. This one hasn't been used in years.

Here we are heading back into Fairport.

The smoke stack from the old American Can factory dominates the landscape.

We just can't get enough of the fall color.

"Lo-ow bridge, everybody down, Lo-ow bridge for we-re going through a town; And you'll always know your neighbor, You'll always know your pal, If you've ever navigated on the Erie Canal"