Erie Canal Closed

toyman · Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2009 1:34 pm Post subject: Erie Canal Closed

Don't know any more than is here - Hours or days ??
http://www.nyscanals.gov/news/notices/index.shtml

jlastofka · Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2009 9:13 pm Post subject: Canal probably not closed

Your subject heading caught my eye, but it looks like it's a case of Chicken Little saying "the sky is falling".

If you look at the link you posted, the text there says "Canal Closure E8 and E9". I looked at their maps and I see E8 and E9 are locks just west of Schenectady. What do you want to bet that just those locks are closed for some accident or maintenance?

It doesn't sound like "the canal is closed". (unless of course you're between E8 and E9 at the moment....)

Maybe someone familiar with canal operations can enlighten us regarding this kind of thing. I'd like to go there and cruise some part of it some day. Learning more about it before then would be fun.

Jeff

Valkyrie · Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2009 9:29 pm Post subject:

Actually, if you look closely at the posted link, it states not accident or maintenance, but "closed for police activity" which would concern me. If I am in transit and encounter such a closure, not knowing what is involved, the length of time of closure or if there is a continuing problem, as there has been in the past with smugglers transitting the canal for the Great Lakes I would want to know about it. A number of years ago I locked through a good portion of the canal with a trawler that later was boarded and seized with a large quantity of drugs hidden in a false keel by police in a marina in Erie, PA. It was two slips down from me at the time.

"Sky is falling"? I see a C-Brat passing along a link that allows us to be informed about a potential problem. A number of us will be on the Canal in August and if we were facing such a closure at a lock or the entire Canal, I would be grateful for the heads-up.

Nick
"Valkyrie"

toyman · Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2009 9:37 pm Post subject:

I guess your point of view changes with your surroundings, CA is different than heading up the Hudson, as I plan next week. It looks like I may go up the Champlain rather than turn left for the Erie.

mcc272 · Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2009 11:14 pm Post subject:

I suspect that the Erie will be open in a day or so. It was not the sky that was falling but rather a plane.

Jun 14th, 2009 | SCOTIA, N.Y. -- A small plane plunged into the Mohawk River in eastern New York with three people aboard Sunday, and at least two were found dead after the aircraft sank in 30 feet of water, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.

The Piper Cherokee went down near Scotia around 2:30 p.m., shortly after taking off from the nearby Mohawk Valley Airport, FAA spokesman Jim Peters said. Scotia is about 20 miles northwest of Albany.

Generally, when it is closed for police activity, it is only closed for a short period. I suspect they will have to retrieve the plane before they reopen but that should not take long.

Valkyrie · Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2009 11:14 pm Post subject:

Toyman,

Don't bail on the Canal yet, but give them a call and check out the situation first. I have run the Canal three times and we are going back for the fourth in August with a number of Brats. Believe me, it is well worth the trip and like going back to America of the 50's and 60's with small town friendliness, hospitality and rural grandeur. Imagine going through the countryside with the canal actually above farmers' fields and great wings of irrigation water coming from pumps dropped into the canal.

It's a place of kids jumping from the the lift bridges into the water right next to a "No Swimming" sign while local cops drive by, smile and wave. Running the Canal right after it was opened in the early spring of '89, it rained for weeks and I was coming home after a two-year cruise on my sailboat and everything on board seemed wet, damp or mildewed. A short time after I tied up to a town wall at dusk, an elderly couple knocked on the hull of my boat. She had a big pot of steaming water and he was lugging a long extension cord from their house. Their comment: "We thought you might need these tonight."

Don't pass on the Canal!

Nick
"Valkyrie"

jlastofka · Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:52 pm Post subject:

I guess I should have put a little smiley next to my "sky is falling" comment.

I see now that if you're planning to cruise the length of the canal, then having some portion of it closed is similar to having the whole canal closed.

Anyway, I've learned some more about the canal. I really would like to do it in the next couple years or so.

Jeff

Champ · Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 8:23 am Post subject: Canal Closure

Canal was temporaily closed due to a small plane crash into the river. Monday the plane was pulled from the bottom and the waterway should be open very soon if not already.

Frogpawg · Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 10:34 am Post subject:

as of yesterday there is no longer a notice stating it is closed, very short duration closure, less than 20 hours, which I have found to be the case more times than not, they don't screw around on the canal.