July 23 – Biking the Towpath

Since we had seen the canal from Fairport for a short distance westward, I thought we would start our ride farther east and ride to Fairport before turning around. From Palmyra to Fairport there are two locks and I had read some blogs that made it sound interesting. Westward of the lock we had been to yesterday, the captain had said there wasn’t much to see for a long way.

It was a mistake. This section had very little but trees to look at. There were no town to go through with interesting homes. There weren’t even many boats to look at. I think we saw 4 during our entire ride.

Even worse this section of the canal has many long straight sections. One was 4 km long stretching off to infinity.

We should have duplicated the trip yesterday. Today we ended up going about 45 km.

To make it up to ourselves we drowned our sorrows in ice cream. The crew on the boat yesterday had told us about a place that we had to try in Fairport and I had read in a blog about another place back in Palmyra.

Except for the ice cream this post is going to sound a bit negative so I apologize in advance.

This bridge over nothing was actually over the place where the canal used to run before it was widened and moved.

When we got near the first lock, we couldn’t actually see it. It was on the other side of an overflow channel and an island. We could see this small waterfall as the water went down into the overflow.

This section even had a highway right beside us.

Crossing a bridge to the other side.

Here is what we could see of the one lock that we did pass close to. The lock keeper looked very bored.

The grass and reeds towered over us.

This was from part way up the very long straight section.

The section heading into Fairport was paved so we really got moving here.

We found a nice spot near the crooked lift bridge for lunch.

Near a dock in town, these guys were trying to do a catch and release on a huge fish. It was not reviving very quickly.

The boat of choice for cruising the canal.

It was a short ride to Abbots Frozen Custard for desert.

It’s hard to read but here is their explanation.

We had a three scoop cup. Black Raspberry, Banana and Chocolate Almond. It was very good. Smooth and very creamy. Jennie especially liked the chocolate because it was full of almonds.

There are quite a few locations in the Rochester area. Highly recommended.

Heading back. To infinity and beyond!

At around kilometer 38 our butts needed a break so we walked for a while. The rest made a huge difference.

Back at Palmyra we loaded the bike on the car and drove over to the Chill and Grill “just to take a look”.

Definitely not a chain.

Needless to say… This was their kiddie cone.

I lopped the top half off into the cup for Jennie. We felt guilty for doing it but it was really good.

There was a grocery store across the street and we needed a few things before our move tomorrow. While I was waiting I saw this interesting use of blue patterned tape.

Both sides, even.

We are getting spoiled by all the great days we have had. It was a good day. The weather was just right, we had a nice easy ride for some good exercise and ICE CREAM!