This is admittedly a bit overdue, but I would like to thank Barbara Burk for her story about the 25th annual Cycle the Erie Canal (CTEC) ride in the Aug 20, 2023 Westside News. That was the stimulus for me to begin preparation for the 2024 CTEC ride… which I successfully completed with this year’s CTEC group July 14, 2024.
A recently retired engineer, I have always lived near the canal and wanted to see more of the technical and historical details that made the canal possible. I surmised that although I had not even been on a bike the past 20 years, riding the entire canal on bicycle would allow a close-up view of features you might not see from a car.
Beginning last fall, I spent time weekly at the “Y” on the bike simulator building up some stamina. This spring, I was doing practice rides on the canal path working up to 20 and 30 mi rides. (CTEC rides are about 50mi a day over the 7&1/2 days.) The PTNY web site has a suggested training schedule and much other very helpful information (see https://www.ptny.org/cycle-the-erie-canal/annual-bike-tour).
As I recall, we had about 520 riders and 98 volunteers this year. Riders aged 10 to 86, 6 children 15 and under, making the average rider age about 61, and riding every kind of bicycle you can imagine, including some 3-wheel, tandem, and many e-Bikes. There were riders from Canada, many families riding together, and a 3-generation family from Wisconsin. I was quite surprised to meet people doing the ride for their 10th and 12th time.
There was usually musical entertainment each night at the camping grounds, and all the provided meals were quite good. All of the towns where we camped had special events scheduled and transportation available for those wanting to venture out. Many of us stopped in Spencerport for lunch, but I need to confess I was disappointed with the missed opportunity of the Canal Museum and Depot being closed that day. Rome had a whole block party for us on a main street with a band in the gazebo and food trucks. All in all, it was quite an enjoyable week every place we visited or stopped.
I did post a few daily photos and updates on a separate Facebook page created specifically for my ride for many friends and family following me that week. It’s a public page – you can search for “7 Days & 7 Years” on Facebook if you are curious.
If you are considering riding the canal, don’t let the 50 mi / day scare you off – that’s only 25 in the morning and 25 in the afternoon, with mid-morning and mid-afternoon breaks, so only 12.5 mi in a stretch… and it’s not a race. I was always arriving later to the camp sites with some people arriving after me.
With the 200th anniversary of the Canal coming up in 2025, it might be a good year for it. According to the PTNY web site, it’s scheduled for July 12-20, 2025.
