The Empire State Trail goes North-to-South and East-to-West across the New York State along the Hudson Valley Greenway, Erie Canalway, and Champlain Valley Trail. The most popular route to take is the Hudson + Erie (about 560 miles), which is what we did plus a little extra back-and-forth.

There is certainly no need to bike this quickly. I'd recommend ~60 miles a day, but we chose ~100 miles per day because of the wedding deadline, and also because we are cheap and wanted to do the Hudson Valley portion in the first two days since there was no free camping at the time, and there were 2 warmshowers hosts available 100 miles apart.

Day	Mileage	Destination	Sleeping Location	Notes
0	-	Rockville Centre (Long Island)	The Somers family home	We considered biking from Long Island to the start of the route, but opted for the LIRR train because the road looked dangerous and unappealing at 5am
1	112	Lloyd (Hudson Valley Greenway)	Warmshowers host	My favorite part was passing Poughkeepsie and going over the "Walkway over the Hudson" bridge. Super cool experience and lots of bike facilities. Thank you Bill for letting us stay in your backyard!
2	105	Waterford (Hudson Valley Greenway)	Waterford Visitor Center	Highlights included biking by a cement factory in Rosendale, going through Bard College (they have a super cool-looking theater), and taking at dip at Stuyvesant falls. We noted that there were quite a few stonedust / gravelly portions today which felt slow, and also a LOT of sun exposure (but that's true of the whole route). There's also a significant on-road portion, but it all feels very safe with few cars. We initially planned to stay with a Warmshowers host in Albany, but they ended up being unavailable. Luckily, this visitor center was nearby! Great facilities, showers for a fee.
3	104	Utica (Erie Canalway)	Hotel	It rained all day so I can't say too much about the trail, but in general the Erie Canalway does OK when it's wet - occassionally you'll get a steep downhill (specifically on Mohawk Hudson Bikeway right before Jeff Blatnick Park) but the water wasn't pooling badly during light-to-medium rain. Highlights include 1 wipeout, 2 flats, and 1 MILLION snacks at the hotel. Recommend eating local dish Chicken Riggies or checking out Sazon Frank for amazing hospitality and Dominican food
4	51/100	Fayetteville/Savannah (Erie Canalway)	Green Lakes State Park	We initially planned 100 miles, but Shep's achilles was so swollen we reassessed and biked to a park instead. Shep would bike 30 miles to his relative's house, rest for 2 nights, and then bike 30 miles to the wedding on Day 7. I would bike all the way to Buffalo on my own, and come back to the wedding!
5	130	Brockport (Erie Canalway)	Motel	Shep was so kind to take the tent and sleeping gear, and I booked it 130 miles to Brockport! Syracuse is so fun to bike through (it does have a couple on-road parts), as are the canal towns like Pittsford and Fairport. The scenery can feel mundane at times when you're looking at the same canal for hours on end, but I really can't complain when it's all off-road. Also there's a really lovely REI sitting right on the trail near Rochester - great bike tune-up spot!
6	80	Buffalo (Erie Canalway)	Warmshowers host	About the same as yesterday, the canal looks quite similar no matter where you are!! If you're biking west, you might feel a lot of headwind especially as you near Buffalo. I stayed with a warmshowers host Marshall who went out of his way to make me fall in love with the city. Would recommend Southern Junction (South Indian-inspired bbq) and Butter Block (bakery).
7	45/121	Canandaigua	Wedding Hotel	OK I had initially planned on speed-biking 121 miles to Canandaigua with the glorious tailwind, but I had a little too much fun last night and needed help from Amtrak to make sure I got to the wedding in time!

Use Amtrak to complete your trip! The Empire Service and Maple Leaf both go between Manhattan (Penn Station) and Buffalo and allow carry-on bicycles. They stop at many points along the route which also provides some peace of mind if you need to bail.


This is a popular trail and it seems like most people have heard that biking east (so, not the way we went) on the Erie Canalway is the preferred direction because you're way more likely to have a tailwind the whole way. I kid you not on my way back from Buffalo (when I was biking east), I averaged 17mph whereas I could barely get over 11 on the other days.

This does mean that you will want to book your Amtrak tickets as soon as you can if you want to bike east - I met a couple who originally wanted to take the train from Manhattan to Buffalo, and then bike back home, but all the bike tickets were sold out so they had to bike in the other direction.

Here's a list of things we brought! It's listed generally per-person, except the group gear. I'm not getting paid or anything by these companies (though @REI I would appreciate a sponsorship especially since half this stuff got stolen recently hehe)

I was super happy with our packing setup - it felt as lean as you can get with panniers! A couple tips:

I highly, highly recommend this route - it's super beginner-friendly, has signage at every turn, and is mostly off-road. I hope I've provided you with some guidance, and the resources above are wonderful for trip planning. Thanks for reading, and feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Happy riding!

PS: If you're into art + biking, consider donating to the East Coast Greenway (Maine to Florida route) in exchange for some of my artwork! More info here.