Originally Posted by
mantelclock
When I rode across NY a few years ago with my son, we found SR 31, which follows the canal for much of the length, to be a much better surface to ride on.
Sounds like my experience. When I did ACA's Northern Tier tour in '99 we left Niagara Falls, ONT, hit the trail at Lockport and spent the night in the dorms at SUNY Brockport. At that time, the trail surface was really unpleasant in places. Some of us ended up getting off and riding the roads. Not sure which ones we took. We just knew we wanted off.
The next day we continued on the trail to east of Rochester before leaving the trail (at Fairport maybe) and heading up to Lake Ontario. I found the trail mind numbing. My most recent long trail experience was the Mickelson Trail in the Black Hills. If that's a 10 scenery-wise the portion of the Erie Canal I did is about a 3 or 4.
OP: No. You may not legally camp along the Mickelson.