of South Canisteo, which marks the southern end of both Colonel Hills Creek and a valley formed by the waterway. The route continues generally northerly through the creek valley to the outskirts of the village of Canisteo, where the creek valley gives way to a larger one surrounding the nearby Canisteo River. At this point, NY 36 curves sharply to the northwest, passing over Colonel Hills and Bennetts Creeks prior to entering the village as Main Street. In the center of Canisteo, it intersects the northern terminus of NY 248. Past NY 248, the route leaves the village and continues northwest along the lightly populated banks of the Canisteo River to the city of Hornell, which NY 36 traverses by way of a divided highway built to bypass Hornell along its western edge. (Prior to construction of this arterial and the new Canisteo-Hornell route, NY 36 followed Dineen and McBurney Roads north of Canisteo, along an abandoned and unenlargeable stretch along the Canisteo River, entering Hornell via Canisteo Street.) NY 36 heads north through the residential southern half of the city to Hornell's commercial central district, the site of a junction with Main Street and NY 21. For the next , NY 21 overlaps with NY 36, following it through Hornell's residential northern half, across the Canisteo River, and past pockets of development in the surrounding town of Hornellsville to a junction roughly south of NY 36's interchange with Interstate 86 (I-86) and NY 17. (Prior to the construction of the arterial, these routes ran along Seneca Street in Hornell and Seneca Road in North Hornell.) NY 21 breaks from NY 36 and proceeds to the northeast along an unnamed road; NY 36, however, continues along the bypass to I-86 and NY 17, where the two roads meet at I-86 and NY 17 exit 34 via a full cloverleaf interchange. Past the interchange, the divided highway narrows into a two-lane, undivided highway that continues through lightly populated areas of the town to the village of Arkport. In Arkport, NY 36 intersects the eastern terminus of NY 961F, a reference route erroneously signed as a touring route, at West Avenue. Formerly, this intersection hosted the southern terminus of NY 70, which originally followed what is now NY 961F northwest to Canaseraga. North of Arkport, the Canisteo River makes a turn to the west while NY 36 continues to the northeast, running