One of the traits I inherited from my father is a need to exercise anywhere I go. His exercise was jogging: he ran nine marathons. Mine is cycling. So when it came time to visit my dad’s new senior living facility in Buffalo, I started looking at what might be fun to ride while I was in the area. I had visited Buffalo a few times, but never ridden there, and I really had never done any traveling in western New York. I started looking around, and the proximity to Niagara Falls, the Erie Canal and the Finger Lakes helped inspire a plan; cross over into Canada on the Adventure Cycling Association Northern Tier route, ride up Niagara River Parkway (which looked good for cycling when I took a drive up to Niagara-on-the-Lake a few years back), connect with the Empire State Trail along the Erie Canal, head down to Ithaca, then work my way back through the Finger Lakes.
The trip would have three phases. Nancy didn’t have time for the whole expedition, so phase 1 would be five days riding Niagara Falls and the Erie Canal, staying in B&Bs, and end in Rochester where Nancy would take the train back. My friend John, with whom I’d ridden the California Coast way back in 1998, would join in Rochester. We’d have four days riding and camping together, at which point he had to grab his own train back. That would leave me with five more days to head back on my own through rural Western NY.
I was looking forward to seeing some new terrain and having some new experiences.
