Day 48: Fultonville to Utica

92km/58m, 5hrs 10mins, 17.9kph/11mph, 295m/959ft of climbing.

Another day spent dodging showers, with varying degrees of success. The amount of rain there has been here in recent days is really astonishing. One storm seems to follow another, and when it rains it really rains. But it is supposed to be fine for the next couple of days.

My informant about the Erie Canal Trail was certainly right about it being historic. There are various remnants of the revolutionary war, for example. Mostly, however, it feels like a memorial to America's lost industrial might. I am in the "Rust Belt", and while the trail is scenic enough, evidence of post-industrial decay is everywhere. The towns I have gone through - Amsterdam yesterday, Little Falls, Mohawk and Utica today - remind me of the Lancashire textile towns. Huge derelict buildings, hollowed-out town centres, precious little sign of recovery. And the comparison is apt, because textiles was a dominant industry around here, too. I'm staying in a nice place in Utica, but the inner city is devastated. There are big regeneration projects under way, and the Mayor has apparently christened it "the renaissance city". Good luck with that, is all I can say. The Utica population declined by 40% between 1960 and 2000. It put me in mind of a Springsteen song. I can't remember the title, but it contains the line "all the steady jobs are going, boys, and they ain't coming back."