A Bike Trip To Remember––

400 Miles On The Erie Canal

By Kaaren Valenta

Remember the kindergarten ditty that went “15 miles on the Erie Canal –– low bridge, everybody down”?

Ester and Cliff Nichols of Pilgrim Lane in Sandy Hook did more than 15 miles. They participated in a more than 400-mile, eight-day “Cycling the Erie Canal” bike event last month. Ester biked 437 miles from Buffalo to Albany, N.Y.; Cliff drove the “sag wagon,” fixing flat tires and picking up flagging bikers.

Ester Nichols, 60, loves bike tours. She biked 280 miles from Cumberland, Md., to Washington, D.C., in six days a few years ago and has done many tours in the 37 years she has been involved with the Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts. She found the Erie Canal tour on the Internet.

An annual event organized by the New York Parks and Conservation Association, the tour follows the canal along the Canalway Trail and scenic rural roads, usually alongside the operating canal, sometimes along the towpath of the old canal.

“The trail is flat because it follows the old railroad bed and canal,” Mrs Nichols said. “But we had to do about half of it on roads because the trail isn’t finished, although [New York] Governor George Pataki said it will be done by 2005.”

There were more than 400 cyclists ages 2 to 81 representing 38 states on the tour and also many different kinds of bikes. “There were recumbents, two- and three-person bikes, children in carts behind parents, and even a man who had only one leg,” Mrs Nichols said.

One biker from Texas came on a brand new $2,000 bike that broke down along the way.

“He bought a $500 bike –– a ‘throw-away’ bike –– to finish the ride,” she said.

A wedding took place along the tour with the bride and groom and their attendants in biking gear and the flower girl on a tricycle.

“The bride had her veil sticking up out of the back of her helmet,” Mrs Nichols said. “They invited all 460 bikers for the reception –– cold water and cookies.’

Fortunately the weather cooperated.

“It was a fantastic ride,” Mrs Nichols said. “We tented every night and enjoyed the different evening settings at various schools and colleges. Our dinners and breakfast menus were provided in the cafeterias and we enjoyed the facility swimming pools after a hot day.”

There were more than 300 tents in the tent cities set up by the bikers.

“At 5:30 every morning all you heard was the sound of tent zippers,” Mrs Nichols said.

Mrs Nichols said she averaged ten miles an hour, one day covering 70 miles. Because her husband followed the bikers, he usually did not arrive until she already had the tent set up.

“On the 70-mile day Cliff didn’t arrive at the tent city until 8:30 pm because there were two older women who were determined to finish,” Mrs Nichols said. “But he was a life-saver for many bikers. This is the first trip he accompanied me on, but he enjoyed it so much that he wants to go on the next one.”

This year’s “Cycling the Erie Canal” marked the fifth year of the event. More information on the event, including how to sign up for next year’s tour, is available on the web at www.nypca.org or by calling the New York Parks and Conservation Association at 518-434-1583. Next year’s tour is scheduled for July 11–18.