Buffalo to Middleport

Posting about my ride from Buffalo to Syracuse that I did June 7-11. Before heading to Buffalo I went through Google Maps for each town I would be riding through to look for convenience stores, this worked really well for me. Any comments I make in the posts are about what I encountered, good or not so good. You may be doing the same ride and have a totally different experience.

First day riding was from Buffalo to Middleport on Sunday, 44 miles.

Parked at the Adam Ramp, 343 Washington St. Was a great spot to start and the truck was still there (and dusty) when I returned on Thursday. It's about 5 blocks north of the Amtrak station. I had done some research on the work in the park that has closed a part of the start of the trail so I decided to skip that and just get to Niagara St. as quickly as I could. This worked well, I ran into a couple of other short detours in the first 6 or 7 miles but was able to navigate them with no problem. In some places the trail parallels the road, and in some it is the shoulder of the road, and it was paved all the way to Lockport (31 miles or so).
Got to Middleport and talked with the lift bridge operator for a few minutes and he said I should camp on the south side of the canal, closer to the showers and restrooms. There were also places to charge electronics. Got set up and rode to the Crosby's about a half mile south and stocked up on food and soda. Overall the camp site was okay. It is right behind Main St and many of the 2 and 3 story buildings facing Main have apartments on the upper floors with parking in back. There was quite a bit of foot traffic walking by the camping area, up until 1am. I would also recommend getting your shower in early. The 2 restrooms/shower rooms did not require a key and about 8pm both became occupied and locked for the night. Both occupants were gone by 6am. All in all I got a good nights sleep. Rode back to Crosby's for a breakfast sandwich and soda and got back on the trail by 9am.