Before you get any crazy ideas – no, I am not cycling the Erie Canal. No, a group of about 700 people – median age of 63 – are cycling the Erie Canal. They made it to Brockport this morning.
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As the chair of Walk!Bike!Brockport (group of college/community folks interested in promoting active transportation in the village) I work with the Village Welcome Center to welcome the cyclists to Brockport with water, live music, and a free post card service. Erie Canal riders could fill out the post card, and the village takes care of postage.
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The tour is operated by Parks and Trails New York which has been doing this for 24 years. I asked a couple riders why they like the tour, and what I heard was the accessible trail (not a lot of hills), evening lectures about history and civil engineering, and getting to see small town communities along the way.
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The village has been working closely with PTNY over the last few months as a pilot Erie Canal Trail Town. We are exploring ways to increase tourism and use of the canal in order to build sustainable economic futures for canal towns. Erica – who is part of the PTNY team working with the village – is also on the bike tour this year.
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All in all, the event was quite a blast. When you think of it, all we did was stand outside a trail, cheer on bikers as they make their way through a 400 mile tour, and provide them with a little bit of local Brockport hospitality. Simple pleasures like this is why I love living in Brockport.
Very cool.