Oh the Er-i-e was a rising, and the gin...well, that's personal.

Actually, it was more than fifteen miles on the Erie Canal. Much more when you factor in headwinds.  But now you have that song stuck in your head, don't you?

Day 1: Fairport to Macedon to Palmyra: 12.5 miles
Day 2: Palmyra to Fairport: 12.5 miles

I didn't have a mule whose name was Sal, but I had my husband whose name is Barry, and we needed an adventure for our 10th anniversary, so we planned a trip paddling inn to inn and town to town along the Erie, East of Rochester. You might know that the Erie has recently been designated a National Heritage Pathway; an (ambitious) paddler could travel hundreds of miles from north of Saratoga Springs to Tonawanda, near Niagara. I think of myself as ambitious, but also pretty lazy. I like adventure by day, but I don't want to camp after paddling 15 miles. But neither do I want to pay thousands of dollars for guided inn-to-inn adventures offered by established companies such as Backroads or Butterfield and Robinson.  So my husband and devised our own route from Fairport, NY up to Palmyra (about 13 miles) and back, staying in inns and B&B's. There are several areas of the Erie along which a couple or family of casual kayakers could make such a trip.

We Need Your Help

As part of our effort to reclaim the historic routes for human paced travelers we need someone to adopt this stretch of the erie canal and fill it in for inn to inn travlers.  Maybe it's you?

View Erie Canal--Troy to Amsterdam in a larger map

We Need Your Help

As part of our effort to reclaim the historic routes for human paced travelers we need someone to adopt this stretch of the erie canal and fill it in for inn to inn travlers.  Maybe it's you?
View Inn to Inn on the Erie Canal: Amsterdam to Utica in a larger map

If you know where to stay, where to eat, what to do along this stretch of the erie canal, we want to hear about it.