When a couple of baby boomers commenced walking across New York State between Albany and Buffalo on the Erie Canalway Trail, they assumed walking a mostly level path would be easy – but there were challenges.
Jim and Lisa Saunders have been chased by mosquitoes, biting flies, hissing geese and lightning. They endured torrential downpours, floods, ice, blinding snow, chafing underwear, swollen knees and aching feet.
When they noticed buzzards circling overhead, they knew they must looked tired. Yet, they found ways to persevere and enjoy the beauty and engineering marvels along the way.
Using images taken along their trek, Lisa published Walking the Erie Canalway Trail: A Search for 7 Wonders, Bathrooms and Beer to Stop CMV (2024), which features the history of the Erie Canal and issues faced by modern sedentary folks seeking to become “end-to-enders” – those who walk, bike or kayak the entire Erie Canal.
She showcases intriguing sites along the Canal and what she believes should be declared the “7 Wonders of the Erie Canalway Trail.” She discusses how her ancestors, father and son, Jacob and Augustus Leach, contributed to the success of the original and expanded Canal.
Jacob Leach, a miller of flour and distiller of whiskey, helped plan the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 by welcoming the Seneca Chief boat parade and Governor Dewitt Clinton into Lyons, NY. Lisa also shares her investigation into where and how her great-great Aunt Rebecca drove into the Canal over 80 years ago, ending her life.
Congress established the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor in 2000 because the canal “facilitated the movement of ideas… like the abolition of slavery and…women’s rights… across upstate New York to the rest of the country.”
For example, the Women’s Rights Movement initially started, according to Westside News, “with the ‘canal boat campaign,’ Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her fellow suffragettes hung pennants from boats while traveling from town to town, making speeches. Later, Susan B. Anthony and other upstate New York women rode bicycles along the towpath to spread their message.”
Lisa believes the Erie Canal still has the ability to spread ideas beneficial to the nation because it’s accessible to boaters, walkers, bicyclists, and folks using wheelchairs (Lisa’s mother took the One-Mile Canalway Challenge using her wheelchair).
Jim and Lisa were determined to become “end-to-enders” on the Erie Canalway Trail because they have a “women’s rights” message to move from “upstate New York to the rest of the country” – that women have the right to know how to protect their pregnancies from congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV), a leading cause of birth defects.
They hope that by sharing their story, readers will become fellow towpath travelers on the Erie Canalway Trail.
Lisa Saunders, now a “Canalway Challenge Ambassador,” can still be found walking various sections of the Trail with her friends and family.
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