Walking Erie Canalway Trail: A Search for 7 Wonders, Bathrooms and Beer to Stop CMV: Celebrate Erie Canal Bicentennial: Ask Me About Canalway Challenge!

Lisa Saunders, a Canalway Challenge Ambassador, shows off the back of her T-shirt, which encourages folks to speak to her about taking their own Challenge!

Lisa and Jim Saunders seen completing their 360-mile Canalway Challenge walk with their "end-to-ender" sign at the Erie Canal "East End" marker in Albany on April 23, 2025.

I just became an "end-to-ender," having walked 360 miles between Buffalo and Albany to complete the Canalway Challenge. When we commenced our journey five years ago, we assumed walking a mostly level path would be easy – but there were challenges! We've been chased by mosquitoes, biting flies, hissing geese and lightning. We've endured torrential downpours, floods, ice, blinding snow, chafing underwear, and aching feet. Yet, we found a way to persevere and enjoy the beauty and engineering marvels along the way. My book, Walking the Erie Canalway Trail: A Search for 7 Wonders, Bathrooms and Beer to Stop CMV, shares our adventure and struggles along the way ("Read sample to learn how and why we endured!).

Now I'm a Canalway Challenge Ambassador and excited to report that everyone can take a Challenge, with a goal that can range from 1, 15, 90, 180, 200 (only during bicentennial) and 360 miles (Challenges found on the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor website). My mom completed the One-Mile Challenge with me pushing her in a wheelchair. I am registering my walking grandson for the One-Mile Challenge with the hope I can encourage him to add his one mile to complete the 15-mile Challenge (kids can also become Junior Rangers). People can sign up as an individual or as part of a team. "People with disabilities and their family and friends are invited to take the 1st Mile Challenge or get going with Virtual Miles" (eriecanalway.org/explore/challenge). Those who find it difficult to get on the trail can exercise at home and earn up to 15 miles by watching 15 trail travel videos. Finishers of the various Challenges receive a certificate, magnet, sticker, and Erie Canal 200 commemorative patch. (More info on Canalway Challenge at Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor: FAQs and www.facebook.com/ErieCanalway/ or in my interview with Ashley Quimby-Simoni, Communications, Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, on SEC-TV at: "Erie Canalway Challenge.")

I had registered my 360-Mile Challenge with my husband as a team: “Lisa & Jim Saunders to Stop CMV, #1 Birth Defects Virus.” The website helped me keep track of our miles, where we stopped and started, and favorite sites along the way. When we finally reached Albany on April 23, 2025, I visited New York legislators asking them to pass a bill dear to my heart (my light-hearted, one-minute video shows how we advanced our cause on the Trail.) When we reached more than halfway across the state, I shared my story in the 30-minute video, “Hiking the Erie Canalway Trail, Vote on 7 Wonders, Stop CMV."
In my upcoming speaking engagements (noted below my signature), I will discuss how my husband and I walked the Erie Canalway Trail between Buffalo and Albany and the issues faced by sedentary folks seeking to become "end-to-enders." I will also share my investigation into where my Great Aunt Rebecca allegedly drove into the Canal and how my ancestor Jacob Leach, an engineer and a distiller of whiskey, helped plan the opening of the Canal in 1825 with Governor Clinton's boat parade. I will feature my choices for "The 7 Wonders of the Erie Canalway Trail" and explain how anyone can take the Challenge, which ranges from one to 360 miles.

My next goal is to take the 15-Mile Challenge as a kayaker, so perhaps we'll meet on the Erie Canal!
Sincerely,
Lisa Saunders, Canalway Challenge Ambassador and author of Walking the Erie Canalway Trail: A Search for 7 Wonders, Bathrooms and Beer to Stop CMV
LisaSaunders42@gmail.com

Upcoming presentations include:
Tuesday, July 15, 7pm, Schroeppel Historical Society Museum, 486 Main St., Phoenix, NY
Tuesday, August 5, 2025, 6pm, Jordan Historical Society, 15 Mechanic St, Jordan, NY.
Friday, August 15, 12:30pm, Baldwinsville Public Library
Weds, Sept 17, 2025, Noon, Baldwinsville Rotary Club, The Wood on Canton St., Baldwinsville

In addition to "Walking the Erie Canalway Trail," Lisa is the author of several books, such as "Mystic Seafarer's Trail," which features her defeat as a sailor when she abandoned ship.

Photo caption for the following images

Jim and Lisa Saunders pushing Mary Ann Avazian on the Erie Canalway Trail in DeWitt for a photo shoot for Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor. Photographs by Call of the Loon Productions.

NOTE TO: local parks, businesses, recreation departments and canal sites:

If you wish to promote the Canalway Challenge in your community, I can have the following supplies sent to you:

Outdoor banners (3' x 6'). Banners will arrive directly from the printer, rolled up in a tube.

Posters (11" x 17"). Usually mailed in a cardboard envelope so they don't get wrinkled.

Rack Cards

Trail Cards

Stickers

If you just want a flier size hanging for the wall, click here: Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor :Promotional Toolkit

Please give me your address where they should be sent, or contact:

Ashley Quimby-Simoni, Communications & Outreach Manager, Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, at Ashley_Quimby-Simoni@eriecanalway.org (for my interview with Ashley, click on "Erie Canalway Challenge").

Media coverage of our 360-mile Challenge