We have almost been en route for a week now, and since we’ve entered the Erie Canal, our days have been filled with the quiet waterways, beautiful greenery and quaint canalside towns of upstate New York. The leaves are just starting to change, and although the evenings and mornings are chilly, the days heat up to sunscreen weather by lunchtime.
These have been our views for 7-10 hours a day lately:
Occasionally we transit a lock (we have ~35 to do to get all the way down to the Hudson River, more on those to come…), but otherwise we mostly motor along, taking it all in. Although it looks easy enough, it’s a very narrow and shallow channel (7-12 ft deep, and maybe 100 ft wide) and it takes steady concentration to avoid the various logs, shallow spots and curves the canal throws at us.
Each night we end up at a small town and tie up to one of their free docks (sometimes with free water, pump out and power too!). So far we’ve been to Holley, Fairport and Clyde, NY. These towns often have a lot of historical significant with the original Erie Canal (you can read more about that here) and we’ve enjoyed exploring these stops after our long motoring days.
Mark and Tara at the Fairport dock
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Fall flowers in full bloom / bicycle wheels to edge the gardens
We also have loved seeing the old canal barges and tugs that worked for the New York State Canal System, as well as the local boats who make this place their summertime home.
Canal selfie. Canalfie.
Home sweet home!