Cruising with Camelot

7/11/15 – 7/15/15 The Erie Canal

Bear with me while I inflict upon you a little history. The Erie Canal was originally built between 1817 and1825 and was 363 miles long. It was designed as a man-made ditch and used mules or horses to pull the boats from what was called a towpath. It connected the Hudson River with Lake Erie and other Great Lakes. Today’s version uses some canals (man-made) along with natural rivers and lakes. We will be taking the Erie Canal to get from Waterford to the Oswego Canal. This will only take us through the Eastern Section and about half of the Middle section of the Erie Canal.

7/11/15 Locks 2 – 10 with a stop at Great Amsterdam Riverlink Park

Our first lock (No. 2) was just ahead of where we had been docked for two nights, just beyond the bridge with construction work occurring. I have provided a number of shots of our 34 foot ascent.

I promise I will not do this for each lock. But I will be showing you some additional pictures of other locks that have different looks to them or work differently.

Closed doors to lock beyond bridge construction

Exit doors at top of lock

Entry doors after ascension

Leaving Lock 4 with Lock 5 dead ahead.

Lock 7 with its dam and a boat exiting as we are arriving. We also shared this lock with another boat, the one and only time so far. The last shot is the dam once we were up to the top of the lock.

Lock 9 actually has a traffic bridge above the lock and its dam.

We passed numerous different types of boats and tugs tied to the walls before and/or after the locks. These docking areas are complimentary.

We traveled 7 hours today. We covered 37.3 miles and went up a total of 255 feet. In a normal 7 hour day would usually cover about 60 miles.

We stopped at Greater Amsterdam Riverlink Park for the night. They greeted us with a municipal band recital just outside our boat. The only downfall of this otherwise lovely park was the continual and all through the night train traffic.

7/12/15 Lock 11 thru 17 with a night at the Little Falls Canal Harbor

Lock 14 was a little unique in that it did not have a connected dam. Most of the previous ones did.

The St Johnsonville Municipal Marina (between Lock 15 and 16) appeared to be having some type of bass fishing tournament.

Lock 17 is the largest single step lock on the Erie canal (40 feet), and it is one of only two locks in north America where the lock gate is lifted above the boat. The other is in Canada on the Ottawa River.

40 feet is a long way up

Exit door as it begins to lift

We ran for about 6.5 hours and covered 41.4 miles and went up another 108 feet.

We docked for the night at the Little Falls Canal Harbor.

7/13/14 Locks 18 thru 22 to Sylvan Beach

Locks 18 thru 20 were the last locks on this portion of the Erie to continue to elevate the boat. Lock 21 was the first lock to actually lower us. Note the difference in the look of the approach and entry into this one.

This was my day for noting some great looking restaurants along our route.

Aqua Vino

We traveled for about 6 hours and covered 50 miles and we went up another 57 feet and then came back down 50 feet.

We stopped for the night at the Sylvan Beach Free Dock. This is a really cute little place and has its own Amusement Park. Sylvan Beach is actually on the shore of Lake Oneida which we will be crossing tomorrow.

7/14/15 – 7/15/15 Oneida Lake to Brewerton, NY

We crossed Oneida Lake which is the largest body of water on the Erie Canal system. This crossing of about 20 miles was made in a sprinkle to a downpour. Luckily, it did not get rough, but I didn’t get much in the way of pictures. We are currently on the Oneida River, but this is also a part of the canal system.

Some interesting sites once we entered the Oneida River.