New York Canal Resource GuideNew York Canal Resource GuideIt is a challenge to hunt down good local maps, but there is a wide selection of printed maps and online maps available. This Resource Guide will identify the best sources of good bike maps – all are excellent and most are free.
Statewide – On-Road Maps
The New York State Department of Transportation has signed several on-road bike routes. Most important are: Bike “5” which is your guide to the Erie Canal, Bike “9” which is your guide to the Champlain Canal, and Bike “17” which crosses the Southern Tier of New York, along the Pennsylvania border and ties together the southern ends of the Chenango Canal, Chemung Canal, and Genesee Valley (Canal) Trail. NYSDOT has three excellent free maps of these three bike routes. Click on “Bicycle maps.” NYSDOT has begun to sign a number of additional bike routes including Bike “11” and Bike “19” and as these are completed, information will become available at the above website.
Statewide – Off-Road Canal Trails
The New York State Canal Corporation operates the four canal divisions still in service in New York State (Erie, Champlain, Cayuga-Seneca, and Oswego). The Canal Corporation is funding and overseeing the development of the off-road Canalway Trail segments along these four canals. For the 500 miles of operating canal, these are the most comprehensive off-road canal-trail oriented maps that are available. The map is free.
In addition, the Canal Corporation has published two helpful “Inn-to-Inn” brochures. One covers the Erie Canal in Albany, Schenectady and Montgomery counties while the other covers the Erie Canal between Palmyra and Lockport.
The Canal Corporation has also sponsored a detailed trail guide to the Erie Canal which is available through Parks & Trails New York. Their excellent guidebook titled Cycling The Erie Canal has a wealth of information and detailed maps of on-road and off-road routes along the Erie Canal.
Finally, you can find a lot of useful boating information at this website which can be very helpful if you are arriving by boat or would like to take a boat cruise along the canals.
Statewide – Finding Local Bike Clubs
The New York Bicycling Coalition (NYBC) is a statewide nonprofit bike advocacy organization that maintains the best Web linkage to dozens of local bicycle clubs. Most local bike clubs in New York either have useful bike route information posted on their websites, or have contact points identified to ask for advice. Go to the site and click on “Links.”
Urban Areas
There are nine Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) in canal territory: (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica-Rome, Albany-Schenectady-Troy, Elmira, Binghamton, Ithaca, and Glens Falls). Each has a bike guide to their local metropolitan area. As these urban areas are the most difficult areas for a stranger to find the best and safest bicycling routes, these detailed metropolitan maps can be very useful. The general website is: http://nysmpos.org. You’ll need to go there first, track down the specific area you are visiting, and then contact the appropriate organization. The website is user-friendly, and this is well worth doing as the localized mapping is excellent. Two examples are:
The Capital District Transportation Committee (CDTC) is the source of the essential off-road Mohawk-Hudson Bikeway map. Useful off-road trail information is also available at other MPO sites.
In addition, several MPOs have excellent maps rating their on-road urban street networks. Perhaps the best is the Greater Rochester Area Bike Map, from the Genesee Transportation Council. The map offers bicycle-safety ratings of all local streets. Go to http://www.gtcmpo.org/. Click on “Maps Of The Region”; Click on “On Street Bicycle Ratings.”
County Tourism
Every county has valuable tourist information at its website or at a website of a county Chamber of Commerce. Rather than list them all, it is easy to just do a keyword search by typing a county name into your favorite search engine. You will find a lot of useful, current information about local sites-to-see, where to eat or stay, and other useful information. A few New York counties do offer special, useful bicycle-touring information at their websites. The best ones include:
Madison County Click on Travel Info, then on Bike Tours. A wonderful list of ten scenic bike tours will come up entitled “The Ridges of Madison County.”
Cayuga County Good source of county trail maps.
Finger Lakes: An excellent guide to on-road cycling in six counties — Cayuga, Ontario, Seneca, Tompkins, Yates, and Wayne counties is available at: http://www.finger-lakes.com/. Enter the site and click on “Biking And Hiking.” This is a great 32-page multi-county guide.
Other Useful Map Resources:
Canadian maps: Welland Canal
Public transportation can provide you with some options in your travel: you can plan an out-and-back trip, bypass a busy urban area, or just rest some tired legs. Some long-distance and intercity buses will handle bicycles, unboxed, in the baggage compartments. These services stretch all along the Chenango, Oswego, and Cayuga-Seneca Canals. Also, buses will handle bicycles along Bike “17” at the southern-most tips of the Genesee Valley Canal (Olean), the Chemung Canal (Corning and Elmira), the Cayuga Inlet Canal (Ithaca), as well as the D&H Canal. Along the Champlain Canal, there are five boat and ferry options to make your ride more enjoyable, as well as the Adirondack passenger train. The key advice is to contact the provider before you go since bicycle policies vary widely. The good news is that with some homework, you can get some good assistance on your trip.
Intercity Buses
Short Line Bus Company (SL) is an intercity bus company with biker-friendly policies. SL operates all across New York’s Southern Tier, more or less along “Bike 17” from Olean on the west, through Corning, Elmira, Ithaca, and Binghamton, and across to Bike “9” at the Hudson River and New York City. This helps tie together the southern tips of the Genesee Canal (Olean), the Chemung Canal (Corning and Elmira), the Cayuga Inlet Canal (Ithaca), the Chenango Canal (Binghamton), and the D&H Canal (several places). They also operate along the old Chenango Canal all the way from Utica to Binghamton. They will accept unboxed bikes, but it is best to contact them in advance. In addition, CoachUSA operates from the foot of the Genesee Canal at Olean to the Erie Canal at Buffalo, and has the same bicycle-friendly policies.
There are other bus companies such as Greyhound and Adirondack Trailways, which closely follow the Erie Canal, that will carry boxed bicycles as baggage, or occasionally accept bikes, unboxed. More and more companies are becoming bicycle-friendly as time unfolds. So check them out if you need help on your trip. Boxed bikes are not convenient for a return trip, but will work for an outbound trip. In that case, box your bike in a disposable box, or a box the bus company will make available to you. Then ride the bus outbound, dispose of the box on arrival, and bicycle back to your start point.
Urban (City) Transit
All of upstate New York’s urban transit operators carry bikes on buses. This is a big help in congested urban areas, especially on weekdays when streets can be very busy. Perhaps the most important one for cyclists is “CENTRO,” in central New York. In the Syracuse area, CENTRO can move your bike from the Erie Canal trailheads in Camillus and DeWitt to the Erie Canal Museum, downtown. In addition, they offer valuable long-distance services from Syracuse, along the entire Oswego Canal and also along the Cayuga-Seneca Canal. The urban buses have bike racks and the long distance buses accommodate bikes unboxed in the luggage compartment.Contact them for details on exact routes and schedules. In all cases, however, don’t just “show up” unexpectedly. It is best to make a contact in advance of your trip.
Boats And Ferries
You might want to take a boat excursion at one of your stops along the way. All of these are beautiful rides. A few will allow you to take your bike along, making a one-way boat ride possible. A few options are:
Canal Cruises
Mid Lakes Transportation Company
Colonial Belle Tour Boat - Fairport
Lockport Locks and Erie Canal Tours
Ferries
If you are cycling north along the Champlain Canal and Glens Falls Feeder Canal, there are some attractive boat and ferry options. No reservations are needed for any of the ferries, but a reservation should be made to cross Lake George. These are:
Trains
Amtrak operates all along the Erie Canal (Buffalo to Albany) and all along the Champlain Canal network (Albany to Montreal). The Adirondack, between Albany and Montreal, has special equipment to handle unboxed bicycles. Along the Erie Canal, you may have to box the bike and check it as luggage. Be sure to contact Amtrak before showing up at a depot at 1-800-872-7245 or at their web site.
Here are some important sources of information. To supplement the resources provided in this book, merely type a keyword into a Web search engine and you will locate all sorts of detailed information. A search will be the way to find the operating hours of a museum, the schedule for packet boat rides, or the date for a community’s canal celebration.
Statewide
This is New York State’s official state parks website. Many historical sites and all state parks can be traced through this website. You will find historical information as well as valuable maps and detailed schedules of operation.
This is New York State’s official tourism website, with key links to all tourism all across the state. It is truly comprehensive, with information about bicycling, and useful links to tourist, county, and accommodations.
Statewide Canal Information
National Park Service Erie Canal web site
Encyclopedic canal history hosted at University of Rochester
Erie Canal
Waterford Harbor Visitors Center
Mohawk Towpath BywayOld Erie Canal State Historic Park
Lockport Canal Museum: No website. Call: 716-431-3140
Champlain Canal
http://www.champlaincanal.net/ and http://www.champlainbikeways.org/
Saratoga National Historical Park
Crooked Lake (Seneca-Keuka) Canal
Chemung Canal (Catherine Valley Trail)
Friends of Catherine Valley Trail
Genesee Canal
Friends of the Genesee Valley Greenway
D&H Canal
Wayne County Historical Society (Pennsylvania)
National Park Service D&H Canal Roebling Aqueduct
D&H Canal Museum, High Falls (New York)
Haudenosaunee
Six Nations Great “links” page
Oneida Shako:wi Cultural Center
Dutch Colonial History
New Netherland Museum and the Half Moon
British Colonial History
Johnson Hall State Historic Site
Finger Lakes
Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge
Buffalo
Website addresses have a habit of changing frequently. If for some reason a link identified above does not work, then search on a keyword to locate the new web address.