600 cyclists reach Medina, head east through rest of Orleans on Monday

Photos by Ginny Kropf: Jose Corte of Long Island, left, and Yang Chen of Queens pose with their bikes in front of their tent, set up for the night at the Clifford Wise Intermediate School.

MEDINA – More than 600 bikers and 106 support staff are spending the night camped on the grounds of Wise Junior/Senior High School on the Cycle the Erie Canal ride from Buffalo to Albany.

This is the 27th year for the ride, which left Buffalo Sunday morning and will end in eight days in Albany. The ride also celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Erie Canal.

The 400-mile trek over eight days is organized by Parks & Trails New York. This year there are cyclists from 37 states between the ages of 8 and 84. The tour this year also celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Erie Canal.

Tents are set up all around Wise Intermediate School, including these in front of the school. Setting up their tent, in green shirts, are Kathy and Eric Medlin of Jamestown, N.C., first-time riders on Cycle the Erie Canal.

Medina has annually been a designated overnight stop for the bikers, who come from all parts of the country. They are headed 62 miles east on Monday to Fairport.

Some, like Michael Burke of Edenton, N.C. have completed the ride multiple times, while others, like Christy Greening of Mickleton, N.J. are participating for the first time.

Burke grew up in Binghamton, and has biked in this ride more than 20 times. He loves the overnight in Medina, and looks forward every year to the band Pocket Change. Dinner is always wonderful, he said.

Christy Greening of Mickleton, N.J. arranges her tent for the night during the stop in Medina on the Cycling the Erie Canal ride.

Greening learned about the ride last year from a man she met on the CNO Canal ride from Maryland to Washington, D.C. He told her he does that ride one year and the Erie Canal the next. Greening is riding alone and said she has met a lot of solo riders.

“Next year, we joked us solo riders should all get Solo cups to identify us,” Greening said. “We consider this ‘summer camp for adults.’”

The Medina Tourism Committee, chaired by Jim Hancock, helps to welcome the cyclists for their stay in Medina. Hancock and wife Barb, Barb Gorham and Jan Smith, and Dawn Borchet and Isabella Zasa from Orleans County Tourism answered questions and provided information at the information tent.

Michael Burke of Edenton, N.C. registers as Orleans County tourism director Dawn Borchet watches in the tourism booth set up on the grounds of Wise Intermediate School.

Zambistro’s was hired by Parks and Trails New York to provide Sunday night supper and breakfast before the bikers started on their way Monday morning.

Hancock praised the support from the Medina school district, which made everything possible.

“Without the wonderful cooperation of the schools Grounds Superintendent Kevin and his assistant Cindy, we couldn’t do this,” Hancock said.

At 4 p.m., Orleans Hub editor Tom Rivers gave a presentation on Medina sandstone and interesting sites to see in Orleans County.

He showed pictures of many sandstone buildings, including the First Presbyterian Church of Albion, the tallest building in Orleans County at 175 feet; the Pullman Memorial Universalist Church with at least 41 Tiffany windows; the Medina Armory, now a YMCA; three churches in Medina made of sandstone and other sites in Orleans County and beyond.

He said sandstone is not just a local thing, with many churches and mansions in Buffalo, and sandstone in the steps of the Capitol in Albany and part of Albany City Hall. Medina Sandstone is prominent in many canal communities, near and far, and could be readily shipped from the quarries in Orleans County.

(Left) Jim Hancock, left, chair of Orleans County Tourism Committee, chats with Dylan Carey, director of Policy and Planning for Parks and Trails New York. (Right) Orleans Hub editor Tom Rivers gave a presentation in Wise school auditorium on Medina Sandstone and attractions in Orleans County. Here, he holds a picture of the historic Presbyterian Church in Albion.

Rivers explained there were about 50 quarries in Orleans County during its peak between 1890 and 1910, with quarrymen coming from Britain, Italy, Ireland and Poland. Two quarrymen, who went home one winter to the Isle of Guernsey, came back and were lost when the Titanic went down April 14, 1912. There is a monument for those two – William Doughton and Peter MacKain – at Hillside Cemetery in Holley/Clarendon.

Rivers described Albion’s historic Courthouse Square, and the 1822 lighthouse in Charlotte, the oldest known sandstone structure, which is still standing strong. Rivers also described the Soldiers and Sailors monument in Mount Albion Cemetery and the Medina Sandstone used in Hamlin Beach State Park by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Rivers told bikers about Albion being home to the world’s first Santa Claus School and the first Free Methodist Church in the world, and explained the Cobblestone Museum was a short ride north of Albion.

Leaving Medina, the bikers were advised to look for the canal culvert, the only place in the world where a road goes under a canal. Rivers also said someone had discovered markings in the stones, some with initials and others with crosses.

He also said in 1825 the canal was four feet deep and 40 feet wide. Now it’s 12 to 14 feet deep and about 120 feet wide.

“It really was a ditch,” he said. “In Holley, the bend was too sharp and had to be straightened out.”

Of 16 lift bridges on the Erie Canal, seven are in Orleans County.

It is the hope of tourism professionals in the county that the bikers’ interests will be peaked and they will make a return visit.

Such is the case with biker John Zawistowski of Jamestown, Pa.

“This is my first time here,” he said. “I heard about the Railroad Museum and the sandstone, and I’m going to come back.”

A sea of tents is spread out on the lawn at Wise Intermediate School in Medina, where more than 600 bikers are spending the night on the Cycle the Erie Canal ride.