Day 32 - From the Falls to the Canal

The Niagara River Recreation Trail (35 miles) in Ontario, Canada is one of the worlds great places to ride a bike.  The bike routes follows this paved trail past the falls & great views before crossing back to NY at the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge.  We then connected with the Erie Canal route through upper NY for the rest of the day to Rochester.  It was fascinating to see the canal locks at Lockport, an historic Erie canal town.  There is a bike-able Erie canal trail starting at Lockport heading east, however it is not paved & not great for road bikes; hybrid or mountain bikes would be fine.  I tried but quickly found hwy 31 which follows the canal.  Thoughts for the day:

1. Niagara Falls really is impressive.  I've only seen the falls about 3 other times, they seemed even more impressive from the Ontario side.  Even though the immediate area is way too commercialized, they are breathtaking to see.
2. Family support sustains us all through so many things.  My parents don't use Google maps, but they do visit the local AAA office to get the state maps, spread them out on the kitchen table, and track our journey.
3. I learned the presence of Niagara Falls helped necessitate the building of the Erie Canal.  The falls precluded shipping goods from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie on the Niagara River.  The country also needed an east-west shiiping route from the Atlantic.  What determination & hard work to dig the 363 mile canal during the 8 years from 1817-1825.

Erie canal locks at Lockport

 Into apple orchard country

 Lake Erie was 1 foot deep forever

 SUP on Niagara River

NY is the #3 grape producing state behind CA & WA

another red barn pic