Day 24 - Niagara Falls, Canada to Brockport, NY 6-14-2011

We had a wake up call at 5:40AM and packed up, ate breakfast and headed on our way by 6:45AM.  We bicycled 5 miles to Queenston where we needed to get on the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge to go back through customs and back to the U.S.A.  Well we saw signs for where cars are suppose to go but we had a tough time figuring out where bicycles were suppose to go to get on the bridge.  In fact we ended up biking 4 miles out of the way and then bicycling around the parking lot of customs before a man in a county dump truck came and asked us where we were trying to go.  We told him and he said follow me.  So here we are on our tandem with the B.O.B following this big red dump truck through the parking lot and back out to where we needed to cross the bridge to the U.S.A.  Thank goodness for that guy or we may still be in that parking lot trying to figure out where we needed to go.

Once we crossed the bridge we stopped at customs and we were given the okay to continue on our way.  We bicycled for 18.5 miles and arrived in Lockport, NY where we were able to get on the Canalway Trail which is a very well maintained packed finely crushed limestone trail that we bicycled on for 41 miles today.  What a great way to travel when you don't have to worry about traffic - in fact other than a few bikers and several walkers we had the trail to ourselves.  Oh, there were also a LOT of geese on the trail but they always managed to move out of our way but sure leave a mess on the trails.  The 41 miles along the canal trail had very beautiful scenery with views of large farms, a few boats on the canal and a lot of water but the scenery didn't change much throughout the 41 miles.

Due to the limestone trail and the headwinds our mileage came a little harder than expected.  We ended up biking from about 7:00AM to 5:15PM and did 75 miles during that time with probably an hour or so of time off the bike during the day.  When we first started out this morning it was 57 degrees and cloudy so we had our fleece on for most of the morning.  In the afternoon the sun came out and it warmed up very nicely so it was very comfortable temperature for biking.

We now have bicycled 1,507 miles since leaving Chippewa Falls, WI on May 22nd and we have another 720 miles to go before we reach  Bar Harbor, Maine.  However, we have the hills of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine to bike over before we get to the coast so it could be an interesting couple of weeks coming up for us.

We have decided that we will be renting a vehicle from Hertz Rent A Car to get back to Wisconsin.  We've reserved a small SUV and John feels he can dismantle the bike enough to be able to fit in the back end of the SUV.  We have reserved the SUV for the 1st of July from Bar Harbor, Maine and will be returning the vehicle to Hertz in Madison, WI on the 8th of July.  We will either bicycle home from Madison or beg one of our family members to come and get us. lol

Here we are wandering around customs trying to figure out how to get on the bridge to cross into the US.  The signs are all over for cars to get across the bridge but we had a tough time finding any signs for bicycles.

Here we are wandering - how hard can this be???

Finally a worker came and asked us what we were doing and he said we should follow him and he would show us where to go to cross the bridge into the US.

Huge tractor and equipment out in the field - the white spots are seagulls!

We stopped at the locks along the Erie Canal in Lockport and watched this boat load of grade school students as they went through the locks.  

Here they are filling the locks so the boat is raised up to continue up the river!

Lockport, NY

John watching the boat in the locks!

Bicycling down the canal - we bicycled for 41 miles to Brockport and tomorrow will have another 30 miles or so to bike on it before we have to go back to biking on the road.

There were geese all along the canal trail and of course where there are geese there is a lot of mess!

Great way to bike - no traffic and peaceful environment!

This was a playground set that we saw along the Canal - isn't that neat!

Here we are biking along and in this spot there was no curb or anything so we had to be careful to make sure we didn't end up going for a swim.

In the afternoon the sun came out and it was just beautiful biking conditions!

Orchard along the canal  - we are not sure what they are growing here but John thought that it might be hops!

Sign along the canal stating that thsi was the northernmost point on the Erie Canal!

Sailboat on the canal!

Gorgeous scenery!

75 miles later we finally arrive in Brockport, NY where we will spend the evening!