2022 Erie Canal

[colbysmith]

The rail (or taught lines) might be the better way to go, but other than lock 34, I was liking grabbing the ladder. The best thing would be a bow thruster! I’ve got my big ball fender protecting the bow area, but ideally both the bow and stern fenders just hang a few inches away from the wall! With the head we really don’t need bathrooms or shower. And we’d be ok without electric. But it is nice to have! Definitely don’t want to tie off to anything in the lock. That’s true in any river system lock. Even the floating bollards could hang up and cause some serious issues. Colby

[colbysmith]

Well today is my birthday. 65. Where in the hell does the time go? Oh well. I am able to celebrate it doing something I love. Boating. And boating with my wife Rosanne makes it even better. I couldn’t ask for a better gift. We started out the morning by attending Service at the United Church of Pittsford. Earlier I said this church was a United Methodist / American Baptist congregation. We enjoyed the service, and I felt it was very much akin to the traditional United Methodist service. The story of the church can be found at this link: https://ucpittsford.org/our-story. The church has been under the leadership of an interim Methodist Minister. Today was her last day. Next week the church has a new Baptist minister. If you haven’t figured it out by now, both Rosanne and I have a strong faith, each in our own religions, (Catholic and Methodist), but we worship together in both faiths. When we travel, we do enjoy immersing ourselves in the local community when possible. That’s one of the great things about this Erie Canal trip. So easy to stop and get off the boat to check out the history and the people.
After church we returned to C-Traveler, and traveled another 18 miles under one lift bridge and two locks to the small cove here at Palmyra. We had the cove and dock to ourselves for only a short time before one of the packet boats came in. We walked less than a mile to the Akropolis Restaurant for my birthday supper. Good portions, taste and prices. And then over to Chill and Grill for some birthday ice cream! By the time we returned to the boat, there was one more packet boat that had pulled in. So three of us here this evening. I finally looked up why they are called packet boats. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_boat And if anybody would like to charter one: https://eriecanaladventures.com/366-2/ Facilities here in Palmyra include free dockage, electric and water. And there are bathrooms and showers about a hundred yards away. Tomorrow will be a very short travel day. 8 miles to Newark, no locks or lift bridges. But they have nice facilities for free also, including a laundry room. And that will be the highlight of our day. We probably won’t do much else as rain is in the forecast for the day. Colby

Dredging just outside Lock 29's lower gate.



At the Palmyra dock inside a small cove.

[Dora~Jean]

Happy belated Birthday Colby. You are the type of person that makes the most of every minute. My wife is that type of person, me not so much, I worry too much. I hope we cross paths again in the near future.

[colbysmith]

Thanks Steve. I have my own worries, but I do enjoy what I can of life!

Short day of travel today. No lift bridges or locks. Just 8 miles. Light rain all morning, but it stopped around noon. Typical of what we’ve seen here. Forecast for rain all day, but it rains out before noon, and then just cloudy. Saw a big bee hive hanging off a tree just before getting into Newark. Took some photos, but didn’t go up too close as there was a lot of bee activity around it! When we arrived in Newark at 10:30a, there were already five boats on the north wall and one sailboat on the south wall. Unfortunately, three of those boats on the north side were on the lower floating dock. One of them had parked pretty much right in the center of the other two boats, not leaving any room for an additional boat. We pulled up pretty close to give them a hint we were looking for space, and then ended up going to the wall. Way too high for us. However I was able to jump up and started to tie us up temporarily while we figured out what we wanted to do. There is a lower dock on the south side where the sail boat was, but the bathrooms/showers and laundry facility was on the north side. One of the owners of the boats on the lower dock came over and said they could move the second boat up giving us room. I thanked them and we moved over to that dock. Another boater from the high wall was already doing their laundry, but once they finished we got our two loads done. The husband happened to be another Coastie, so we talked about our past history in the Coast Guard. He had been a Ship’s Engineering Officer, while I was a C130 pilot. I think Newark is one of the nicest facilities we have used. They are in the bottom of the Visitor Center here, where we also check in. There are two restrooms inside a coded door entry, one for women and one for men. Then a separate shower room. At the end of the hallway is a small washer and dryer. No charge for anything. Rosanne walked around town some while I did laundry, then we went for another walk after I finished the laundry. The ice cream place across the street from the dock opened at 4, so dessert before supper! Bigger helpings than we planned on, so put half of it away in our freezer for tomorrow! Several more boats pulled in this evening, so the north wall and dock is pretty full. The sailboat is still the only one on the south side.
Colby

This is the big bee hive we saw. Quite a bit of bee activity around it, so we elected not to get too close!


Another C-Traveler photo! On the north floating dock in Newark.


Photo of all the boats in Newark this evening. The boat just in front of me was in the center of the dock when we arrived. They are traveling with the boat ahead of them and offered to pull up to make room for us.

[colbysmith]

Forgot to mention earlier, I checked into purchasing a new window latch. (Remember I lost the one of my sliding window a week or so ago.) Advantec Global is the Diamond Seaglaze parts dealer, the only one I could find that has that part. $35 for the part, $29.76 for shipping. I don't think so! I was able to pull the one off my portside rear window that we never use, and adhere it to my sliding window with some 4000. It's working great. When I get home I'll order a Perko non-locking latch for $11, to place on that rear window. Colby

[ssobol]

It's a bit of a detour off the canal, but we thought the town of Seneca Falls was pretty nice. They've converted a textile mill into the Women's Rights museum. The facilities for boaters are in the lower level of the town museum.

[colbysmith]

We are planning to head down that way in the next couple of days. 😊 Colby

[colbysmith]

Looks like my webasto heater is working again. Not sure if it's just a fluke or what. But I did disconnect and reconnect the fuel pump wiring harness a few times, and now it's working...

Rosanne attended local Catholic Mass again this morning in Newark and then we departed at 9am for the short ride through three locks to Lyons. Total distance six miles. Lock 28B is a few hundred yards from the Newark dock, and then four miles to Lock 28A. Another mile to Lock 27, and then Lyons is right on the other side of it. We stopped and tied up to the western edge of Lock 28A’s lead in wall to go visit the old historic lock 56, known as the poorhouse lock. There is an old canal store on the property that is now a private residence. We met the owner (an older lady who grew up in the building that started out as a residence, and her dad was the lock tender), at Lock 28A when we were heading west a week or so ago. The historic lock 56 is a double set of locks. For more information, you can link to: https://www.eriecanal.org/Lock56.html. The owner, Mrs. Perry, was happy to have company and even drove up to pick us up and brought us back. Otherwise we would have just walked the ½ mile. She gave us a very interesting tour of her home, the locks and shared several stories of the lock and growing up there. After arriving at Lyons, we ate a quick lunch and then headed over to the Peppermint museum, where we had set up a tour with Docent Patricia, otherwise known as….Peppermint Patty! Lol. Lyons at one time was known as the Peppermint Oil capital of the world. Patty gave us another excellent tour of the H.G. Hotchkiss Building, Peppermint museum. Along with stories of how Lyons Peppermint business came about. There were a lot of interesting old artifacts in the building from office furniture to the bottles and shipping boxes that the peppermint oils the bottles were shipped in. The Hotchkiss Peppermint oil business became an international prize medal company. For more information you can link to: http://lyonsheritagesociety.org/about/hotchkiss-building/
We had planned to go bike riding on some trails, but the rain kicked in again. It did stop around supper time, so we rode around town a little bit, and then to Pat’s Pizzeria to pick up a pizza and brought it back to the boat for supper. Then as we were finishing up, one of the hospitality teams (husband and wife) stopped by to welcome us to Lyons, and we conversed about our travels on the Canal. Lyons caters to boaters with free dockage and electric, and then just above the dock is the Fire Department, where we can access restrooms and a shower from 7a-7p (I may be off on the times.) The wall is quite high, but there is a 60’ long lower section, as you can see in my photos. The mist started in again soon after supper, so we put the bikes back up on the roof. (I have just put them in the cockpit of the boat a few times, but they take up space, and we plan to transverse 5 locks tomorrow on our way to Seneca Falls, so it’s better to put them back in the rack on the roof to keep them out of the way.) Colby

View of the old Lock 56 Canal Store as you cruise by on the Erie Canal. This is just before Lock 28A.




Descriptive sign in front of the Canal House on the road side (opposite of the Canal.)


Mrs. Perry and Rosanne walking alongside the Old lock 56


Rosanne and I standing in front of the mural on the Hotchkiss Peppermint building in Lyons.



View of C-Traveler on the lower wall dock at Lyons. Only one other boat here with us this evening. You can see from different angles how high some of these walls can be. Great for the larger yachts. Not so good for the small cruisers! That's lock 27 behind us.




One of the murals in Lyons, this one by the McDonalds near the dock.

[ssobol]

In Lyons, there is also a section of floating dock just east of the east side bridge. That's where we tied up.

[colbysmith]

[colbysmith]

It was supposed to be a cloudy day. But ended up being misty and rainy pretty much all day! There was a geocache right next to the welcome station there at Lyons. I had looked for it on our way west, but thought it was in the rocks after looking in some other possible locations, and those kind of hiding in the rocks caches are frustrating. This morning I thought I’d try one more time, and glared right at it. Can’t believe I missed it earlier. (It wasn’t in the rocks, but right where I also considered it might be…just didn’t see it earlier.) We had locks 26 and 25 to transverse on the Erie, which lowers us going east, and then locks 1, and a flight of two, 2 and 3, on the Seneca Canal, which raise us. Locks 2 and 3 were probably the highest lift we’ve had this trip. Each about 25 feet. Typical turbulence, where the valves are pretty much in the center, and the water pressure actually helps to hold you against the wall. None the less, this time I used the lock cable, which is held taught against the lock wall in a groove. I used my bow dock line, placed it behind the cable, and then held it on my stern cleat. Worked well. There is a lot more floating vegetation in the Seneca Canal. I assume it comes up from Lake Seneca. We arrived in Seneca Falls around 2:30 and after tying up to the wall, went to the visitors center to check in and gander at their small museum. Facilities include electric and water, bathrooms and showers. All free. I chose to stay on the wall, rather than the floating docks at each end, as there are no electric pedestals at the floating docks. A bit of a climb, but doable. After walking through the visitors small museum, we walked over to the Women’s Rights National Historic Park. The displays seem rather timely with current politics. However, women have been fighting for equal rights since the mid 1800’s. And the republicans have been adverse to those rights since the same time! The Rights movement all began in a Wesleyan Methodist Church here in Seneca Falls. (The Wesleyan Methodist Church split from the Methodist Episcopal Church over slavery and rights, and today’s United Methodist Church pretty much derived from the Wesleyan Methodist Church.) The displays in the WRNHP were all very interesting and thought provoking. There is music in the park nearby tomorrow evening, and we’d like to spend more time looking around Seneca Falls, so we’ll spend two nights here. Colby


I forgot to upload this photo yesterday. Personally, I find Peppermint settles my stomach.


Interesting place for this Blue Heron to sit. And I have no idea why that bucket is over the top of whatever is under it!


This bridge is being painted, I think. There is a caution sign for boaters just short of it that says to honk horn. Perhaps so the painters can prepare to spill some paint?


Duck blind near Seneca Falls.


Approaching locks 2 and 3 on the Cuyuga and Seneca Canal.


The next few photos are from the Women's Rights National Historic Park. If any of these bother you, perhaps you need to ask yourself why.










Ok, this one is a no kidding, especially for conversations while docking!


The wall at Seneca Falls.

[colbysmith]

Enjoyed today just hanging around Seneca Falls. A cute town with quite a bit of Women’s Rights history. Also the Town of Seneca Falls may have inspired Frank Capra’s 1946 holiday film classic, It’s a Wonderful Life. Many similarities exist between Seneca Falls, and the fictional Bedford Falls. Seneca Falls has changed since its earlier days. An area called the Flats, was flooded when the new Lock 2 and 3 replaced 5 other locks. The Flats was flooded to become Lake Van Cleef to provide water for the locks.
Some light rain this morning, but by afternoon the sun was shining with only a few clouds in the sky. We rode our bikes on the Ludovico Sculpture Trail, where we saw numerous statues and pieces of art. Also came across two deer and a raccoon. From there we rode over to the National Women’s Hall of Fame. They just moved into their new location, the old Seneca Knitting Mills building. Currently they just had displays on the first floor, but eventually will have displays on all three floors. From there we rode around town looking at some other statues, finding a geocache, looking at some interesting architecture and not finding any open ice cream shops! This evening we will listen to Sam Swanson at Music in the Park. (Looks to be the last seasonal concert.)
Late note. Music in the park was nice. Finger Lakes Hots food truck was there, and better yet, Sprinkle Starship Ice Cream truck was also there! Lol. Good atmosphere, good music, good Rochester Hot Dogs and good Ice Cream. And no rain. All add up to a great night! Colby

Rosanne riding on the Ludovico Sculpture Trail. Rain set back in for a bit.



One of many sculptures we saw along the trail.


The National Women's Hall of Fame is moving into the old Seneca Knitting Mills building, but currently is just on the first floor. By next year they should be set up per this chart.


Transformation of the Seneca Knitting Mills to the National Women's Hall of Fame.


Description of the Flats.


The Seneca Falls Trinity Episcopal Church is the most photographed church in the state of New York. Van Cleef Lake is next to it.


The canal front of Seneca Falls. Look close and see if you can find C-Traveler. (Other than one or two pontoons, we are the smallest boat on the wall.)


Ah, this truck saved the day!

[colbysmith]

On the homeward stretch now! We departed Seneca Falls this morning at 8:30 in the fog. It finally burned off by noon and the sun was out. Also out were all the jackasses going fast. Seems like everyone except us were going fast today. I thought the Canal was slow speed only… Anyway, a number of pontoon boats and smaller fishing or bow riding boats were out today. We traveled back through the three locks on the Cayuga-Seneca Canal, before joining back on the Erie Canal. Total miles to Baldwinsville today, 38 miles. Started getting some things put away for the drive home, as we have one lock and 14 miles to go tomorrow, back to where we started at Pirates Cove Marina in Clay, NY. Rode our bikes over to what will most likely be our last ice cream on the Erie Canal, and then attended a Contemporary Worship service at Baldwinsville First United Methodist Church. Colby


Seneca Falls in the Fog


Osprey nest near locks 2-3


Sunset at Baldwinsville

[colbysmith]

Our last day on the Erie Canal was just as interesting as all the other days. We departed Baldwinsville this morning at 8:30a. A beautiful sunny day. The last lock of our trip, lock 24, was right at the end of the wall we were docked on and was open and ready for us. Some sailboaters I met yesterday afternoon sent me a photo they took of us entering the lock. I can’t remember seeing any swans on the canal earlier, but we saw two groups today. The second group didn’t photograph well, but had a young one with them. (More of a gray color, rather than white.) Around Lake Onadaga we passed the Syracuse Chargers rowing team, as they were taking a break dead in the water. However, soon after, they passed us. (We were doing 5 kts, and they not only caught up, but passed us at a pretty good clip. Probably explains their break when we passed them. Lol!) And finally, before arriving at Pirates Cove Marina, where our truck and trailer were stored, we had a deer swim across the Canal behind us. The ramp at Pirates Cove is a little cockeyed, but I must have backed in right and found a level spot, as C-Traveler loaded out centered. However, the launch was choked with weeds, and while I cleaned most of them off the trailer, I still have quite a few between the hull and the bunks. I got the boat prepped for travel, and then Rosanne made us lunch. We were on our way for our 830 mile travel home around 1p. At our second gas stop, (still about 540 miles away from home) while doing my walk around, I found the right front trailer tire flat. No blow out, but it looked like I had a small slice in the tread. I figured a hole all the way through there. If you remember, I had that blow out on the left front trailer tire on the way out. Fortunate that I had purchased a new spare and Pirates Cove had it mounted for me while we were on the Canal. Ok, do you believe in Divine Intervention? Hear me out. A ways down the road after I changed the tire, there looked to be a bad accident. I’m guessing this had happened about an hour before we passed it. It took me about an hour to change the tire out. Tonight, after supper (we are “boaterhoming” behind a Cracker Barrel and Texas Roadhouse), I decided to put my little compressor on the flat tire and see if it was that slice leaking or not. The compressor is slow, but it pumped the tire up to 65 psi. I sprayed some water all along the tire, including the area of the small slice, and did not see any bubbles. I’ll check the tire in the morning to see if it holds air over night… If it does… it was Rosanne that suggested Divine Intervention… However, new Carlisle LRE tires all the way around are on order. I have just shy of 19,000 on the original Loadstar Karriers (LRD) that came on the trailer, and not impressed with their wear or service life. Colby

C-Traveler entering Lock 24 at Baldwinsville


Swans east of Lock 24


Syracuse Chargers Rowing Club. Notice all the boys laying down resting in the kayak on the left. lol


Deer swimming across the canal. This was between Lake Onadaga and Pirates Cove marina I believe.


Yours truly prepping C-Travel for the drive home. Notice the mustache around the bottom of the hull...


Small slice in the side of my tread. Leak or no leak?


Sunset along I90 near Cleveland

[colbysmith]

Home sweet home. We got back last evening around 6p. Rained most of the way from Cleveland. (And rained all night and part of this morning here!)
Final statistics for our Erie Canal adventure.
C-Traveler’s trailer traveled 1,660 miles for this trip. My F150 burned 176 gallons of gas for a cost of $661. And tolls added another $281. We won’t talk about gallons of ice cream consumed or costs. LOL
C-Traveler burned approximately 85 gallons of fuel (put on earlier at around $3.50/g I think.) She cruised 365 nautical miles, or about 420 statute miles. About 20 miles of that was on the Kicker engine.
We were on the water for 23 days. 4 days road travel. Most all our cruising was at 5-6mph, and I believe the farthest we went in one day was around 50 miles. Most days I’m guessing we averaged around 15 miles. It was a great trip!
The end.

Oh, that last flat tire I posted about the day before. It lost 40 lbs over night and only had 25psi the next morning. So it's leaking somewhere. New Carlisles on order and will be here Wednesday! Now, back to cleaning C-Traveler...