- This lake behind me was once one of the most polluted lakes in North America.

Swimming was banned in 1940.

Fishing was banned in 1970.

At one point, it was so oxygen-deprived that fish couldn't survive in large portions of the lake.

Companies were dumping millions of pounds of waste year after year into it: ammonia, mercury, chemical brine.

Now, what if it made a comeback?

And what if I took a dip in it?

Find out on this episode of "Rolling Thru."

Also upcoming in this episode, we'll encounter some peril, find some pasta, and discover a surprising party city.

And we'll do it all in 68 miles.

This is "Rolling Thru" a bicycle travel show.

(upbeat music) We start the day on a sunny, but brisk morning in Seneca Falls.

An overnight storm came through and brought the temperatures down.

Oh, it's brisk.

- Yeah.

(upbeat music) - So, it's nothing like getting the blood pumping in the morning to stave off the cold, even if that means emptying the tank first thing.

(upbeat music) ♪ Check outside and see what's going down ♪ (Pat vocalizing) - We say goodbye to this historic town.

- From the movie?

- Cool.

(bell ringing) (rider peddling) An angel just got its wings.

And press on east to eventually link back up with the Erie Canal today.

For now, we take in some classic country views and smells.

♪ Fork in the road, man, I'll take the middle ♪ - Love that smell.

- That's country, baby!

(rider chuckling) That smell puts food on the table.

- Love it.

- Out here, the soil is rich.

It's the kind of land that's perfectly suited for growing.

But this landscape hasn't always been in balance.

At the north end of Cayuga Lake, there was once an enormous marsh teeming with wildlife.

But when nearby canal systems were dug in the 19th and 20th centuries, it reshaped the water here.

All that new infrastructure actually lowered water levels and drained much of the marsh.

Habitat shrank, wildlife declined, and what had been a vast wetland became dry and dead.

But this is also a comeback story.

So that's why we're at the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge to see what happens when we decide to work with the ecosystem instead of against it.

And why protecting places like this still matters.

♪ Ro-ro-roamin' ♪ - Historically, it was known as a swamp.

We like to refer to it as the Montezuma Marshes.

(Andrea laughing) So we have a complex of wetlands, not just wetlands, though.

We have grasslands, shrublands, and forest.

So we're really trying to provide a variety of habitat for a diversity of wildlife.

- So what type of wildlife do you have here?

- So, at Montezuma, we really are focused on managing the land for migratory birds.

We'll get tens of thousands of waterfowl migrating through here in the spring and the fall.

There are songbirds and we also have marsh-nesting birds.

- So this is a bird watcher's paradise.

(Pat laughing) - It's certainly a destination.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

(Andrea laughing) - It's a bird watchers destination.

Yes.

- Why are the marshlands important to birds?

- This is a great stopover, a really critical stopover point for migratory birds coming from all the way down in South America, traveling all the way up to the Arctic.

- So they know that this is the safe spot.

- This is the spot.

- This is, like, the rest stop, they're, like, this is vacation for the summer.

- It really is.

And so we're really working all the time to make sure that we have the diversity of habitat.

- Yeah.

- We want to make sure that they have the right mix of food and shelter, enough room, and some level of, let's call it comfort.

It might surprise people to know that Montezuma is, as it is today, is mostly human made.

We have to manage it.

And so that means making sure the water levels are at the right spot so that we are providing enough water for the animals to do their thing, and also for the plants that they need to grow, and to provide them with the food that they need.

And so when we drain a pool, it mimics a drought, but what that does is expose the soil to sunlight and then the seeds can grow.

And so we can refresh the marsh with fresh, new plants, and then we bring water back in.

So we drain it, say in the springtime, after the spring migration, everything grows back through the summer and then we fill it back up for the fall migration.

So historically, the Montezuma Marshes ran all across the northern Finger Lakes.

And in the early 1900s, the Cayuga-Seneca Barge Canal was constructed to connect Seneca and Cayuga Lake to the Erie Canal system.

When they did that, it changed the hydrology of the area.

So the water moved differently over the land and the marshes drained.

So, what happens when water goes away?

Life goes away, right?

So over time, people began to realize, like, "This isn't rich with life anymore."

There were reports, you know, back in exploratory days where the sky would black out from the flux of waterfowl.

And when, you know, you go from that to not much of anything, it's alarming.

So, in 1938, the US Fish and Wildlife Service established Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge.

So we bought a few thousand acres.

And that was, of course, during the time when the Civilian Conservation Corps was doing a lot of labor projects around the country.

And what we do, we buy land from willing sellers and we restore it.

You know, nature really is resilient and has a drive of its own.

And we can do a lot of things that hinder it, but we can do a lot of things that help it.

- So it could go from being destroyed to being returned to beauty, to being conserved.

(upbeat music) After leaving Montezuma, it's a short ride on country roads again, until we link back up with the Empire State Trail.

We survived.

- [Greg] Scariest sound of my life right there, boy.

No, it was cool.

(upbeat music continues) - And we're riding along the original, historic Erie Canal.

Originally it was only four feet deep, and we will learn about that today at the Erie Canal Museum.

It's 40 miles to press on until Syracuse.

But after seeing some twigs and branches on the ground, we learned that the storm last night was actually a microburst.

So we just missed it, but there was a microburst in this town last night, and as you can see, it takes down huge branches.

These microbursts are really intense storms - little cells that roll through, can cause flash flooding, high winds.

They're really intense.

But, yeah, good thing we didn't encounter a falling tree branch yet.

Notice the operative word there was "yet."

We encounter a few obstacles without much challenge.

(upbeat music continues) But you didn't think we'd get off scot-free, did you?

So let me take my bike over first and then we'll come back for that.

(upbeat music continues) Oh, shoot.

That's a huge tree.

- Shhh.

That's a huge-ass tree.

- We're going to have to lift the e-bike.

All right.

(upbeat music continues) It's going to be too heavy.

We're going to take the road.

We're taking the road.

Luckily we can double back to a section of country road that briefly runs parallel to the trail and then link back up at the next trail head.

But mile after mile, we continue to push our luck.

(upbeat music) - I can help you folks get your bikes over.

- There you go-- - You grab on this side.

- [Biker 1] Yeah.

(upbeat music continues) (heavy breathing) (Pat panting) (upbeat music continues) - [Biker 2] We appreciate it.

- Eventually the forested trail opens up to signs of the city.

We increase the tempo, because we're running late for lunch, and I'm really looking forward to this meal, not only, because I need the carbs, but I'm sitting down for a pasta dish with Matt Read.

He's the host of "Spatchcock Funk," a live fire cooking show built around a great concept - Good food, done right, with the backdrop of a party.

They break down technique and make the case that how we cook matters just as much as what we cook.

(upbeat music) I know I'm biking across New York State and I'm really trying to teach people about sustainability, but I also think it's pretty overwhelming.

And a lot of people have this sense of dread, because they don't know what they can do and what they can't, and they think they have to be perfect.

And I don't think that's true.

So what I really want to explore on this episode-- - On this episode of "Spatchcock Funk..." - "Rolling Thru..." We're going to dive into it.

(upbeat music continues) I don't think everybody's ready to get on a bike and go across New York State.

(Matt laughing) - I mean, you're saving some energy and gas by riding your bike here, but people get intimidated, because it's a large, large thing going on.

- Yeah.

- So instead, the small steps though, you can do to make yourself feel really good, but it's good for everybody.

- But they're those little, tiny things and those little adjustments that help.

- That flexitarian approach I love, because one thing I've done for a while, I was vegetarian.

I did vegetarian for 40 days just to see if I can manage it.

- Yeah.

- And I can cook.

But it's a challenge, right?

So, like, take small... Like, it's like eating a big, huge sandwich.

It's intimidating, but it's take one bite at a time.

- Yeah.

- So, for me, that might be meatless Mondays, right?

Or you think, "Okay, I try "to only have red meat, like, twice a week," and I love red meat.

- Yeah.

- But those type of small steps, you build a building a brick at a time, right?

- I cut out pork and beef.

I miss it all the time.

- Sure.

I'm sure.

- But I take the flexitarian approach.

So if I go somewhere and somebody has prepared it for me-- - Yep.

- I will eat it.

Because I don't want it to go to waste either.

- Right.

- Because then I see that as wasteful.

- You're defeating your mission.

- Exactly.

Exactly.

So I think there's this, like, flexibility people need to have about it.

- I think so too.

And the flexibility thing, I think, I'm going to use the word "stretch," 'cause of the great stretch bread here, but people need to stretch how they make things work, right?

There's a lot of places around here and the idea of it is nose to tail, right?

You're using every single part of the animal like corned beef and we cut off fat.

We'll render that fat and save it.

Because, I mean, if you're making home fries and you've got, like, beef fat to fry 'em up in, you're going to feel all right about that.

But the same for veggies.

So here's something that people should think about.

A green onion, right?

Use that from nose to tail.

The white end of it, you can cook.

That's great in potatoes, right?

The greens great for garnish.

But also, when you have leftover green onions, plant 'em.

They will regrow themselves.

Another thing that we do is, I have in my yard, we use this in the show to save us money.

I have an herb garden.

So everything we use fresh herbs, 'cause that cost adds up over the course of the year.

And then, if you're in a city, you can do an herb garden on a windowsill.

It does not need to be outside.

It can be right in your kitchen.

So there's a lot of ways that it helps you with your budget, but it's for the environment.

- But also it's, like, a little bit of a flex, because-- - Definitely.

- People come over and you're like, "Well, yeah... "Oh, no, that's from my garden."

- So there's the flex like, "Look at the extra step I took," but it's like, "I took this step for you" to make your food taste even better.

Meanwhile, the world's a little bit better and healthier for it.

And everybody wins.

- Restaurants are doing little things.

And I know Pastabilities where we're at now, they have a bakery across the street sourcing their own bread there.

That's another little, great way to get into it.

And I think that relates to what I think is a good analogy.

It is this idea of, like, the imperfect loaf.

No two loaves are going to be the same.

- Oh, I love that.

I love that analogy.

- It can split.

It can have some holes in it.

It doesn't make it taste bad, but it's imperfect.

And that's okay.

And that's, like, an ethos to sustainability we could adopt.

- That's such a great term.

And actually the imperfect loaf makes me happy.

And one of my favorite things ever is walking down the street here and seeing someone come across the street with a big basket full of those loaves.

And I'm like, "I'm trying to be healthy," and then I buy, like, three of 'em.

- And that adds to, like, the community aspect too.

Downtown Syracuse, you have people, like, walking with loaves of bread on the street.

- Yeah.

- It smells good.

- Yeah.

- It's, like, one less truck on the road that is, like, just carting, like, sugar bread to your table.

And, like, you get to go out, talk to your neighbor, like, wait in line at the bakery across the street.

And there's a community element to it.

- There really is.

Like, our show is about bringing people together and we use food and alcohol as a central point.

And we have themed parties.

But it's a common denominator for everybody, right?

But what you're doing actually in "Rolling Thru" is you're rolling through these towns, right?

And you're really bringing a sense of community.

It's like, "Hey, you should come through here."

And that's how this kind of works.

That's how you and I met.

And you're going to keep having these relationships.

And it continues to spread.

Fostering community is what your show, our show, what really everything should be about.

- With full bellies, we're back on the bikes and make a U-turn heading back north from the city where we spot storm clouds gathering on the horizon.

Where we're headed is, like, right in that-- - Over there.

- Open patch.

- I see.

Yeah.

It says light rain soon.

- So we peddle faster hoping to outrun them.

(upbeat music) - Pasta was good, but, woo!

- [Pat] It was a lot, I think.

- Yeah.

♪ But in the end it will be fine ♪ - That hike up that bridge, oh, man.

That was nice.

- I feel like a big boy right now!

(Greg laughing) ♪ We're going somewhere I don't know ♪ - This is how all the paths should be in all of America.

This wide, this smooth.

- With overhead lights, solar panels.

(friend laughing) - Yeah.

Be on all night.

It's all good.

Get that solar power.

- Dude, if this was all like this, everyone would be doing it.

- Hell, yeah.

- We're heading back to the shores of Onondaga Lake.

Long before Syracuse rose around it, this water was the spiritual and political heart of the Haudenosaunee.

It provided fish and wild rice for sustenance.

And it's where the peacemaker is said to have united the nations under the Great Law of Peace where the Onondaga became the keepers of the central fire.

Fast forward to just a generation ago, and this same lake was known as one of the most polluted in North America.

So from its shoreline, we're taking a look at how one of the largest environmental cleanups in the country's history is working to repair decades of harm.

And how we're never too far gone.

(upbeat music continues) - In the '20s, '30s, '40s, there were no limits to how much material you could just dump into Onondaga Lake.

So there were just pounds per day of mercury being dumped directly into Onondaga Lake.

- Nice.

- Other kind of volatile or organic compounds just being dumped.

Industrial byproducts just being dumped as well as a growing community just dumping sewage directly into the lake as well until it became an industrial chemical sewage cesspool.

And Congress took action and passed the Clean Water Act, recognizing that, yes, Americans want to have swimmable, fishable, and drinkable waters.

So you can have important laws, but you need to have people that make that actually happen.

All that, all those chemicals were dumped in here in the sediment, in the soft dirt.

And so that gets into the bottom in the beginning of the food chain.

And then that just bio magnifies up the food chain.

- [Pat] And what did that do to marine life?

- To the fish?

It made them not healthy.

- Yeah.

- And full of mercury and unhealthy to eat.

There was a do not eat anything out of Onondaga Lake for quite some time.

And and so that mercury, so over 2,000,000 cubic yards of material was dredged out of this lake.

That material is stored safely and secured, and engineered away.

So it wouldn't be recontaminating the site.

The barge is also releasing something that will also further reduce the methylization or the availability of that mercury in the food chain.

- Oh, we are getting rain soon.

- Cool.

- We can wrap this up.

We'll-- - Look at that.

It's coming.

- At least that storm missed us... barely.

It's cool to be able to sit here on this lake, have this conversation, have a storm roll by north of us.

It's obviously very windy, but it feels great.

I mean, I know I biked 50 miles today, so my core temperature's up a little bit... (Pat laughing) - Yeah.

- But to me this is sublime.

Rain falls on everyone, but cleanup bills shouldn't.

- Maybe taxpayers shouldn't be responsible for industries that made a lot of money by externalizing their cost of disposal on the public resource.

Maybe they should be the ones that are responsible for paying up their own mess.

- They did it.

- Okay.

- They can clean it up.

- They did it, so they can clean it up.

And so they're the ones that footed the bill.

Let's make sure that we hold polluters accountable, Let's make sure we clean up our mess, and let's enjoy the resource that is right here in our community.

- What are the greatest achievements to come to where the lake is now?

- I think the incredible biodiversity.

The eagles have returned.

They are roosting.

They are here all the time.

It's amazing.

And the fact that we can learn the message that there is a true cost.

When you don't clean up after yourself, it doesn't go away.

Somebody's going to have to clean it up.

We have to think about how this is going to impact our future selves, whether that's you, or your children, or those that come after you.

So what I always like to say is, you're only as good as those that come after you.

So if you want something better, be brave, be bold, and be positive, and move forward, and possible is what we can make it.

- Excellent.

That's it.

That's a mic drop.

- Okay.

Cool.

(Dereth laughing) - The story of Onondaga Lake cleanup makes me feel hopeful, because despite untold amounts of pollution destroying ecosystems, if we assume responsibility and take action, it's possible to undo much of the harm.

And that's key, especially for this area and the surrounding waters, because upstate New York's story is central to it.

Onondaga Lake's cleanup isn't just about one shoreline, it's about understanding how we've used and misused the waterways that we changed or built in the first place.

Long before highways, these waters were the infrastructure.

They carried trade, industry, and ideas.

And as we continue along it, it now feels like a time to dive deeper, to understand how a 19th century ditch transformed an entire state and what that legacy means today.

(upbeat music) So we're heading back into Downtown Syracuse again to the Erie Canal Museum.

(upbeat music continues) I'm standing in what was once the Erie Canal.

It ran right through Downtown Syracuse and it helped fuel decades of growth for the New York economy.

So to understand just how big a deal it was, I'm sitting down with Natalie Stetson at the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse, New York.

- Prior to the canal opening up, it would cost about $100 to move one ton of cargo from Buffalo to New York City.

After the canal opened up, it cost about $10 to move one ton of cargo from Buffalo to New York City.

And you could do it in about six days, as opposed to multiple weeks.

- So I imagine, because of the price drop there, it led to it being a very big deal.

- So it cost $7 million to build it.

And they paid for that $7 million within nine years of it being constructed.

So when the canal opened in Syracuse in 1820, there were about 250 settlers that lived here.

And they lived largely in buildings on stilts, because we were swampy.

By 80 years later, by the turn of the century in 1900, there were over 100,000 people that lived here.

And so today, when you come through, it might look like the canal was built through Downtown Syracuse or Downtown Rochester.

But actually those places didn't exist.

They built around the canal.

One of its many, many nicknames is the Mother of Cities.

Because many cities just blew up, grew up right along the banks of the canal.

In many ways, that prosperity, that posterity, all those things that can be good.

- But I feel like something undiscussed often with the canal is an ecological destruction.

It was dug by hand, right?

- [Natalie] Yeah.

- But they're digging through very sensitive environments and the ecological environments.

- Right.

- So, like, what happened to everything across the state?

- But it is all something that I'm certain they weren't thinking about 200 years ago.

The canal was built through land that wasn't inhabited by settlers.

It hadn't been settled yet.

There were indigenous people that lived up here and had lived up here since time in memorium.

It had been the home of the Haudenosaunee, and they used, and worked, and lived with the land, rather than making the land work for them.

And when the canal came through, it was a much different thought process, a much different way to look at what is here.

The people who built this canal were thinking about more manifest destiny, "This is what we were meant to do is control this land "and build this canal.

"This is what has to happen."

- The Erie Canal shaped New York for better and for worse, but two centuries later, the canal still runs through the state, but not exactly in the way its builders imagined.

It's also just great for recreation now too.

I mean, we've been going for days.

(Pat laughing) - Yes.

- And we're going to continue to go for days.

So I think that's another, I think, promising future.

- The canal provides a lot of irrigation to the farmers out there to help irrigate their farms, to irrigate golf courses, you know, things that need water.

And New York State works really hard to try to make sure that they are managing this water system, taking care of it.

So the the canal is seasonal, which may be surprising to you that the canal is not open through the winter in upstate New York.

But during that time is when the state does maintenance on the canal.

The system is 100 years old, and you can't just log onto Amazon and purchase a gear you need to operate a canal lock.

- They're making custom parts.

- They make custom parts.

It's incredible just to watch the work that is done in maintaining this historic waterway.

- I think about this as we work our way across the rest of the canal, and I'm happy to do it and celebrate the bicentennial.

- Yeah, the bicentennial, it's a big thing, and now that the canal has its claws in you, you're going to be thinking about it the rest of your life.

- Yes, I will.

(both laughing) (upbeat music) The museum closed for the day and we wind up in Clinton Square, a fountain that was once the spot where the canal ran right through downtown.

And I'm greeted by an incredible turnout for Syracuse Bike Party, a weekly ride that truly lives up to its name.

They turn the city into one big rolling celebration, bells ringing, music playing, neighbors riding shoulder to shoulder.

♪ And ship them off to Frisco ♪ - So we joined them.

♪ In the sun ♪ ♪ 'Till all the world was done ♪ ♪ Get red roses and ship them off to Frisco ♪ ♪ Because what ♪ ♪ Because Old Lee was a smiling, driving man ♪ - [Pat] What do you think?

- This is fun.

♪ Old Lee was a smiling, driving man ♪ ♪ Driving man ♪ ♪ He drives him in the city ♪ - Dude, I know.

This is nuts.

♪ Yeah, Old Lee was a smiling, driving man ♪ (horn honking) (upbeat music continues) ♪ Old Lee sure liked his whiskey ♪ (upbeat music continues) (people cheering) (bells rattling) - Uh-oh.

(friend crashing) - Oh, damn!

Are you all right, dude?

- Yeah, yeah.

- [Pat] He's back in action.

- Yeah, buddy.

- [Pat] He's okay.

♪ Spent the night with the captain's wife ♪ ♪ 'Cause Old Lee sure liked his whiskey ♪ - [Pat] There's a theme that keeps resurfacing today that makes me hopeful and that makes me smile.

It's people showing up for one another.

For a cleanup... or two.

For a shared meal, or simply just for some fun.

♪ He drives 'em in the city ♪ - [Pat] We all live on this land together.

So stewardship means more than just the environmental, it's also the communal.

- I can't stop smiling.

- Dude, that's what this is about.

- This is cool, man.

(people cheering) (upbeat music continues) - [Pat] We can help paddle one another's canoe and push our pedals together.

On the next episode of "Rolling Thru," we'll soak in the sun and some lake views, eat the largest burger I've ever seen, and then have to climb a really big hill.

♪ Left for him ♪ ♪ He felt a pain within ♪ ♪ It was about the time he hit old San Fran ♪ ♪ Where the railroads didn't have no use for him ♪ ♪ Sing it ♪ ♪ Old Lee was a smiling, driving man ♪ ♪ Driving man ♪ ♪ He drives 'em in the city ♪ ♪ Yes, he drives 'em across the land ♪ ♪ Old Lee was a smiling, driving man ♪ ♪ Driving man ♪ ♪ Because Old Lee was a smiling, driving man ♪ ♪ Driving man ♪ ♪ Well, Old Lee was a smiling, driving man ♪ ♪ Old Lee was a smiling, diving man ♪