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« on: June 09, 2021, 08:10:37 pm »
The first question is do you want to see Niagara Falls.
If you do not want to, from Lockport follow the Erie Canal Trail to Tonawanda and the Niagara river, follow the trail along the Niagara River, turning left at the river. This will meet up with the directions for going to Niagara Falls.
If wanting to visit Niagara Falls, Follow the route on the map until you cross Military Rd on Upper Mountain, just before the exit for the Lewiston Queenston bridge to Canada. Turn Right on Military Rd rt 265, it ends at Lewiston Rd Rt 104. Turn left on Lewiston Rd Follow Lewiston Rd over the Niagara Power Plant and past Niagara University on the left. Turn right into the Devils Hole parking lot. you will see a pedestrian bridge over the Niagara Scenic Parkway, it is on the left when facing the road. cross over the bridge, note there is no curb cut in the parking lot.
After crossing over the pedestrian bridge, a path will follow the parkway, using the old road. Follow the trail all the way to the Niagara Falls. Google maps has not updated their maps and the satellite pictures do not show the recent road and trail changes here but the path is very nice. After visiting the Falls, you want to enter the path along the Niagara River by 1st Street. This path will take you along the Niagara river and goes under the I-190 Grand Island Bridges. You could take a shorter route by crossing the bridges, there are side walks on the bridges and cross Grand Island using RT 324, this route will meetup further down.
If not using Grand Island, shortly after the 190 bridge the path will end at Buffalo Ave Rt 384, Turn Right on Buffalo Ave. Buffalo Ave will come to a 4 way stop just before the road goes under an overpass. Turn Right staying with Buffalo Ave. There is a short bike path on the far side after turning right, the path end before the next main intersection.
Stay on buffalo Ave, and it turns into River Road RT 265. After the traffic light where it changes names to River RD, the first Park Gratwick Park a bike path will start on the right, you will see the Niagara River here. Take the bike path, first it moves close to the river then moves back to River Rd. Later when you see Autozone on the left and Key bank on the right (at Goundry St traffic light) leave the wide path and either join the road or ride the sidewalk next to the road to cross over Tonawanda Creek. Immediately after going over the bridge make a U Turn onto the sidewalk/path going down, make a left on the path keeping the water on your right.
This is where the Lockport-Erie Canal Trail rejoins. If follow the Erie Canal Trail, after you cross over a Pedistrian bridge, at the second light (river Rd), with Rite Aid on your left, you will see a bike path on your right going down and under a bridge, take the bike path.
Follow the Trail, you will see the I-190 bridges to Grand Island soon, this is where the Grand Island route rejoins.
The trail stays along the River stops at Hamilton st and Dann st, this is a ways up, and the path becomes part of Dann st. The pedestrian bridge ahead has been locked at times so take a left on Hamilton St, and make a right on Niagara St RT 266. You can turn right onto the swing bridge to Unity Island and take the path or stay with Niagara St and turn right with Niagara st.
the Unity Island route will rejoin after crossing a draw bridge at Robert Rich Way and turning right onto Niagara St.
Niagara St turns into Busti Ave before going under the Peace Bridge. just before the Peacebridge overpass a bike path will appear on the right, take the bike path, it turns into a pedistrian bridge going over the I-190, this bridge is relatively recent and I don't believe that the ACA Maps have rerouted for it.
Take the path, it goes along the waterfront, and ends at Erie St and lakefront Blvd. Turn right on Erie St and take the next left onto Marine Drive or the sidewalk just beyond You should see the USS Little Rock, USS Sullivans and the USS Croaker ships of the Naval & Military park. Take the pedestrian bridge over to Canal Side and keep close to the water. Take the path around the rail yard, it joins a path at Ohio St, stay straight on path along Ohio street.
Take Ohio St over the Lift bridge and bridge over the railroad tracks, Ohio St will then turn and go under Rt 5. end at Fuhrmann Blvd, the is a bike path on the other side of Fuhrmann Blvd. turn Left on bike path. This path will go several miles along RT 5. It has been extended to Dona St, but google hasn't updated their maps. There is a side walk on the far side of Rt 5 but there is no shoulder or side walk on the right side of RT5. Rt 5 can have some heavy traffic in this area and is only 2 lanes wide in this direction. Regardless turn right on rt 5 or cross over and use the sidewalk, There is a narrow section on the sidewalk due to a train overpass shortly further on. After the train overpass the road widens and has a wide sidewalk on both sides.
If you crossed over for the sidewalk, you will want to back to the right side either at the light before the pedestrian overpass or use the pedestrian bridge to get on the right side. There is a bike path starting near the bridge, get on the bike path, cross over Gateway Blvd and take the bike path till it ends at Hoover Rd. This is also an recent change but google sat view shows it. Turn right with Hoover rd and stay with it until it ends at RT 5 and Big Tree Rd. Turn Right on Rt 5. Soon the NT route will connect to RT 5.
I did a RidewithGPS route from Lockport to Evans Center, and it follows almost exactly with the above posted Erie Canal trail route. The difference is where I note the Route 5 heavy traffic with sidewalk on left side. I have personally ridden the listed rout along rt 5 many times without issue but one must ok with traffic. The South Park Ave that Ridewithgps routes on is also heavy traffic, I don't know about sidewalks or shoulders on that route tho.
I just saw your posted route. Most of the route will be on trails, mostly paved, with the exception of the section on Niagara Street, Niagara Street has a very large sidewalk on the right. It is not the most secenic but I don't know of any other route except to use unity island.
Jeff