For some, it’s for their health. For others, it’s the natural beauty. And for a few thousand recreation enthusiasts every year, it’s the Challenge.
Runners, hikers, cyclists and kayakers regularly use the Erie Canal and the accompanying trails and paths throughout the 524-mile Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor for exercise and exploration.
But Corridor officials upped the game for outdoor fanatics in 2019 with the launch of the Erie Canalway Challenge. The program enabled individuals to set personalized goals of traveling between 15 and 360 miles along the Canal or trails — and rewarded them with badges and certificates when they achieved their marks.
“It’s really designed for fun and fitness,” said Challenge program manager Ashley Quimby-Simoni. “The goal is primarily to get people out and enjoying the canal system, to have fun, to get outside and to participate in fitness as well. So, it has a little to do with public health and a little to do with tourism.”
In 2023, Challenge participants registered for 1,700 challenges and logged 350,000 miles combined. Since 2019, the program has tallied 1.6 million miles of activity and generated an estimated $4 million in economic impact.
Cyclist Derrick Pratt has participated in the Challenge for the past six years and has earned the 360-mile End-to-Ender badge twice, commemorated by a sticker he proudly displays on his water bottle.
Pratt was already passionate about the Canal as the education and public programming director of the Erie Canal Museum, where he regularly leads public discussions and workshops. The Challenge offered him something new when it came to exercise and riding his bike.
“I just wanted an excuse to be able to get out on the trails, something to motivate me,” Pratt said.
New York native Danielle Dirks also cycles the trail. Dirks grew up near Lockport’s Flight of Five Locks and, as a child, considered the Canal a place of respite where she could simply go and read a book. Still, she never explored the Canal much beyond Lockport.
Once Dirks started dating someone who enjoyed the outdoors as much as she did, they looked into the possibility of going from one end of the Canal to the other. Then they discovered the Challenge program.
Dirks said she was less motivated by the personal goal aspect and rather saw it as a way to appreciate a significant part of the state she grew up in.
“I was very much a fan of the beauty of the Canal rather than seeing her as some sort of outdoor thing that I needed to conquer,” Dirks said.
Dirks completed the End-to-End challenge in eight days on her bike and then tacked on more miles by hiking Canal trails when she had time. If given a choice, she prefers to hop on her bike.
“If I’m looking for a place to ride my bike, I’ll take it down to the Canal because I know what the path looks like,” Dirks said. “You know it’s going to be gorgeous.”
Sara Catalano would rather take to the water, having kayaked the Canal for six years. She first did so after planning a trip through different areas of the Canal with her mother, eventually signing up for the Challenge.
