2021: Biked the Erie Canal trail from Buffalo to Cohoes. Well worth the time. And mostly a very pleasant experience, with just a few caveats. Trail improvements are ongoing and signage along the trail is not always up to date, so check your route carefully, especially where it is on-road. The initial section from downtown Buffalo is grungy city streets, but that improves with a great, mostly off-road trail all the way to Lyons. Lockport to Spencerport is fairly exposed, but from there on to Lyons is generally pleasantly green and shaded. From Clyde to Port Byron and through Syracuse were onroad and not always clearly signed and were the least pleasant. From the east side of Syracuse all the way to Cohoes was a delightful and beautiful ride, with the exception of finding one's way onroad and with poor signage through Rome. All in all (despite my caveats) a good, local, human-powered bucket-list endeavor, with thanks to all the communities along the way and everyone maintaining and improving and filling the gaps in the trail.

Rode trail from Fair Haven to Cato (7/25/21). This trail is essentially an ATV trail. There are numerous spots that have deteriorated due to erosion. A 29r with front and rear suspension might enjoy pedaling this trail.

I would rate this trail a 5 for its excellent condition, but I have to give it a 4 because the pretty views were blocked by the woods. Easy parking at Lock 4 in Waterloo. The "tunnel" walkway under the highway at the Seneca Lake State Park is open so you can ride right through the park and along the waterfront of Seneca Lake into Geneva. This is a really nice ride for an afternoon, peaceful and showing how nice Upstate New York can be,

Did the entire 23 mile trail to Canandaigua and back… definitely recommend a mountain bike or as I have, a decent front suspension on a hybrid with knobby size 40 tires. The final 7 miles(16-23) to Canandaigua are the best ride with mostly smoothish dirt. The roughest part are miles 11-16 to Canandaigua… spine jarring and butt banging… mostly grass and fairly rough 12 inch wide single trail over that stretch. Be prepared for fairly slow 7-8mph going… I tend to average 15 to 16 mph on the mixed gravel/pavement of the Erie canal trail between Fairport and Brockport… I averaged only about 10mph on this 46 mi. round trip. But nice scenery and time on Canandaigua lake is worth the effort as a pitstop

Signage coming into Rome traveling east, or leaving Rome traveling west, is non-existent. Expect to travel on busy city roads. Trail Links is a bit better than the Erie Canalway booklet in navigating this, but it’s still a challenge. Lots of construction in Utica and the trail east of Leland Ave is closed.

The trail in Cleveland has had serious construction while water lines are put down. East of Cleveland the trail is closed, but west is open but pretty bumpy due to ruts. We didn't find a designated parking area so we parked roadside. It was a nice enough ride, no other bikers but frequent ATVs. Lots of birds, open fields and woods but there are nicer trails. We had a surprise - the Grace Tyler Winery is adjacent to the trail and we took a break there.

We rode this trail from the Seneca Lake State Park in Geneva to Waterloo and enjoyed it a great deal. Some people have said the trail is hard to find, and I think it was two years ago when we were first there. This time, though, it was simple: We entered the park at the main drive (Park Rd) off of Route 20. It costs (as of May 2021) $7 to park for 24 hours, and there is a kiosk at the entrance where you pay and get a ticket to put on your dashboard. We could have parked for free in the visitor's center, I suppose, but we thought $7 was a fair price to pay to help support the New York Park System, especially since we're not NY taxpayers.

Once we got our ticket we followed the road to the left until we saw the sign for the trail access. Just beyond it there was parking. We could have parked anywhere there--could have parked at the Welcome Center as well--and ridden the paved road along the waterfront, but we chose to ride that part the next morning. We just wanted to get on the trail since they were predicting rain.

We followed the signs to the trail. Don't be discouraged by the path that leads to the trail itself--it is ballast (difficult for me to ride in) followed by a boardwalk type of path that leads over the railroad track and under the highway. It's not bad, but I was envisioning an entire trail like this and wasn't thrilled. After we got past that very short section, though, the trail became packed limestone dust and it was a joy to ride on. Good exercise but not over-challenging for two folks in their early 60s with hybrid bikes. From this point to Waterloo is only about 4.5 to 5 miles. (Apparently the 10 mile distance shown in TrailLink includes the paved path around the north end of Seneca Lake.

We road to Waterloo, saw the canal lock, and rode back on a nice level, well-maintained trail. It should be said that the trail rises slightly from Waterloo to Geneva, so the return trip was slightly more strenuous than the outbound trip, but the incline really is very slight.

Just as we got back to Geneva it began to rain so we left for the day. We returned the next morning (we still had time left on our parking pass) and bicycled along the northern end of Seneca Lake. It's a wide, asphalt path that was quiet in the morning (a few joggers). The views were lovely and we rode the length twice. At one end (beyond the visitor's center) there is a tunnel that leads under the road and into Geneva, so if you wanted to ride into town it would be easy. The visitor's center itself, by the way, is lovely with good food and a lot of places to sit and just enjoy the lake view.

The creek is pretty nice, but overshadowed most of the way by the adjacent noisy interstate. Also, much of the asphalt has tree roots running under it, causing the trail to be quite bumpy.

I live close to one of the sections of the trail so I walk it with my dog often. But we also venture out to the other parts. I’ve actually done all of it twice with many sections much more. It’s a great trail for walking a dog. There are some really beautiful parts and I am looking forward to seeing them through all of the seasons.