Cleveland to Buffalo

[armandorod]

Fairly new to bike touring.  Looking for information/advice on biking from Cleveland to Buffalo later this year (fall).  Plan is to continue on to Albany, NY on Erie Canal towpath. Will probably arrive in Cleveland by Amtrak from Washington DC. 

[aggie]

ACA has the route from Cleveland to Buffalo mapped on the Northern Tier route section 9.  Since you are fairly new to touring the map provides lots of useful information.  It will give you info on hotels, camping, meals and more.  There is a map book for the Erie Canal route from Parks and Trails New York that has similar info but not as compact.  Be aware that with the current pandemic places listed may be closed or operate with reduced hours.  There may also be other restrictions on non-residents depending on where they are from.
I highly suggest you call Amtrak to make sure you can take a bike/baggage to Cleveland.  I had a trip planned to start in Cincinnati but it is now an unmanned station and no baggage service was available according to the person I spoke to.  Amtrak is reducing service across the board so it may be necessary to be ready for changes they make.

Good luck.

[jcostanz]

Gov. Cuomo has listed DC along with 36 other states as travel restriction states requiring 14 day quarantine upon entering NY.  This restriction for DC just went into effect.
Also note that the Adventure Cycling Northern Tier route heads into Canada, The Canadian border is currently closed to all non essential travel thru late August, and by judging the past renewals it is unlikely to open this fall.  There are several recent posts in the Routes forum including the first sticky and the Northern Tier Map #10 listing detour options for the section into Canada.

I would recommend making reservations and confirm the availability of overnights.  New York opened up camping for tent campers only 1 month ago, so if you plan on camping make sure the campground know that you would be tent camping as some may have not opened up their restroom/showers due to the forced closure and late opening. 

Bring Masks as most places in New York are not providing and New York is mandating all persons wear a mask indoors.

[aggie]

Using section 9 does not have any of the route going into Canada.  It will take you from Cleveland to Orchard Park (just outside of Buffalo).  You can look up a route through Buffalo to get to the Erie Canal.  There is a bike shop in Hamburg just before Orchard Park that may be able to give you a route into Buffalo.  Might be nice to take a short detour to Niagara Falls.

The Amtrak station is within a block of the ACA route to Buffalo so it will be convenient to begin riding the route once you arrive assuming it isn't late at night.  If you get in late there are a number of hotels close by since the Cleveland Brown's stadium is next to the Amtrak station.

[armandorod]

Thank you aggie and jcostanz, and apologies for the delay in responding.