D16 NE Good Falls

This trip has had some falls, or on this trip Gloria has had some falls. None of them were good. Today we changed that by taking her to Niagara Falls. She is smiling first, for not falling in our 50 mile ride today; second, because we took an Uber to the falls rather than riding our bikes; third, because the falls are amazing; and fourth, because she is looking across the river to Canada.

The Canadian Geese seem completely unconcerned about the 180 foot fall to rocks and death below. Apparently a few people jump into the river above the falls every year. That doesn’t happen on the Canadian side – since everyone gets free healthcare and mental health care – just on the US side. I read one article about a guy in 2018 jumping in after being spotted by the police going over the railing. He was picked up on the rocks at rivers edge below a few minutes later by searches alive and uninjured but frustrated at his failure to end it all.

The ride to Tonawanda – a small town about 15 miles south of the falls – began in Albion. While the falls take the front page, the ride along the last of the Erie Canal Trail was nothing to sneeze at – especially with everyone panicky about Covid. We were on crushed limestone for about 35 miles, but the last 15 miles were wonderful paved trail.

The Canal has apparently become “thee place” to live. We passed many houses with boat docks, and some with boats that were bigger than our house. At first I couldn’t figure out why people owned boats you could live on and park them in a canal that was little more than 100 feet across. Then I remembered why it was called the Erie Canal. This part of the canal is where the water comes from to fill it – i.e. Lake Erie. Surprisingly, Lake Erie’s average depth is only about 68 feet but it is still a pretty big pond for boats.

Tomorrow we finish the Erie Canal Trail and will be on roads for a few days on our way to our next trail. We’ll almost reach Ohio as we follow the shore of Lake Erie for about a hundred miles and then turn south to Pittsburgh. In Pittsburgh we get on the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) trail which then becomes the C&O Canal Trail that takes us into Washington DC for our final week.