Day 85. June 26 Waterford NY and the Erie Canal

 We stayed today at the Waterford dock.   Started our day enjoying the small farmers market and live music here in the dock area.  Quite a few locals also enjoyed the morning here.  

Waterford is a small town which was originally settled by the Dutch for trading furs with the Mohican Indians of the area.  The town became a shipping hub in  the 1700’s as sloops from New York would travel up the Hudson to Waterford.  The town expanded as the shipping grew and in the early 1800’s shipping expanded further with the construction of the Champlain Canal, connecting Lake Champlain to the Hudson and the Erie Canal, connecting the Great Lakes to the Hudson River.  Thus Waterford became the connection point for the Hudson River and all point north and west.   Besides the shipping economy, Waterford also had textile mills, iron works and constructed fire engines.

Next we walked to the juncture of the Hudson and Erie Canal and took a picture of the sign providing directions to the boaters to either stay on the Hudson and go up the Champlain Canal or turn left to enter the Erie Canal.  

 Now a little background on the Erie Canal.  The Erie Canal is a 524 mile inland water route connecting Waterford to Buffalo, New York.  Along the way you pass through 16 counties, 200 cities/towns and two Great Lakes. Originally the Erie Canal was a ditch only 4 feet deep and 40 feet wide, hand dug through the forests, swamps and mountains connecting the Hudson River to Lake Erie.  There were 83 locks which allowed the barge traffic on the Hudson River to rise 571 feet at Lake Erie.  This humble “ditch” as it was called, opened up  a water route to the Great Lakes and the Midwest.

The Erie Canal has operated continuously every navigation season since 1825.  It has been enlarged twice and route changed to include the natural Mohawk River and Seneca River. The locks have been reduced in number and modernized.  Today the Erie Canal has 35 locks and has a controlling depth of 14 feet and is from 120-200 feet wide and is 340 miles long.  Our boat will have to get used to bring in fresh water for the next 6 weeks!

We walked the trail to the next two locks, each raising vessels 33-34 feet.  Enjoyed watching the locks work today compared with how the original 40 foot canal operated by mules pulling the barges on the tracks still visible along the older canal section.  Apparently barge owners would rent mules from local townspeople for 25 cents or the barge owners would use the front section of the barge as a stable for the mules they owned.

Old spillway on Erie Canal

Picture above is canal boat used in the 1900’s by the lock masters. Bill had to rest from so much walking.

As we were walking back along the locks we noticed Pivot in Lock 2 so we waited to take a few pictures of Jen, Elliot and Ollie in the lock. Was fun to see their expression as their boat rose above the lock wall to see our familiar faces!!

Tomorrow we will go through the first 5 locks which are collectively called the Waterford Flight. This series of locks raises or lowers boats the greatest height in the shortest distance of any canal in the world.  We will rise 169 feet in less than 2 miles. It takes about two hours to complete  all five locks.  

Bill took some night shots of the wall at Waterford.

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Day 86.   June 27.        On to Blain’s Marina.      5.8 Nm.        Total 1819

We left the dock wall at Waterford later as we waited for showers to pass before we headed into the fight of 5 locks.

      We locked thru the Waterford Flight with a 28 foot power boat and it took us just under two hours to rise 30-35 feet in each lock for a total of 169 feet.   Was amazing to look back in the lock and see how far we had risen.  Got some good shots as we locked through.

After the locks there are two guard gates which help regulate the water levels in the flight.  The second guard gate also guards against some one entering the lock while other boats are locking from the opposite direction. This gate was lowered as we passed through as another set of boats were ready to go up the flight from Waterford.

After completing the lock flight we entered the Mohawk River.  The river is mostly wooded with sections of homes visible from the canal.  In this section the Erie Canal path continues along quite close to the edge of the canal.  Further along the path route it meanders close and then away as the terrain along the canal changes.

After going under we turned into Blain’s Marina and got the holding tank pumped out and then tied up to the dock.  Will stay here while we travel to visit our new Grandbaby Avery in Atlanta and of course her Mom and Dad.