Erie Canal & Niagara Falls - Page 2

 

FRIDAY

 

There is a lot of waterfowl in these waters - mostly mallard ducks and Canadian geese.  We see lots of mommy and daddy birds, leading their little chickees thru the water, or resting on the bank.  Yesterday, while bicycling, I disturbed one goose family, and the momma goose chased me down, hissing aggressively!

But, they can be noisy.  Way too early this morning, we were awakened by quacking ducks, right outside out boat!

Today we head for the town of Holley, a six-hour journey away.  That will be our furthest point to the west.  The day starts out cold, with a light rain falling.  I must don a few extra clothing layers, and my heavy sailing jacket.  Good thing I packed it.

Everywhere are these trees - we think they are cottonwoods - covered with clusters of tiny white blossoms.  This time of year, they shed their blossoms by the zillions, which catch the wind and fly around and land everywhere!  The surface of the water is often covered with a white layer of it.  Sometimes the air is so dense with these flying blossoms, it looks like snow.  And the fragrance can be overwhelming!

By mid-afternoon, the rain finally abated and the sun came out.  The weather is magnificent!  It's about 73 degrees (while back in Texas, the temps are in the 90s).  We tie up to the dock - we are the only boat here!  There is a park and a lovely pond right next to the canal.

 

One of the premier attractions in the town of Holley, we were told, is the waterfall.  So we follow the signs and - lo and behold - this is one serious waterfall!  Definitely worth the long journey to get here.  The locals are also out, snapping photos, including some couples that we presume are either headed to the prom, or to the altar, whatever.

 

 

After a bit of Googling, we learn that the Holley waterfall is actually man-made!  I went searching for the water source, and found it not far from where we were docked.  There was an underground culvert that fed water straight from the canal, and down into a gorge.  The water flow below was monstrous and scary.  (It reminded me of the place in Les Misérables where Inspector Javert killed himself.)

 

SATURDAY

In the middle of the night, the honking of geese awakens us.  I got up and went outside, thinking they might be on shore and I could chase them away.  Nope - they're in the water.  So we turn on the boat's air conditioner, to try and drown out the din and get some sleep.

Today we will journey back up the canal to the east, hopefully stopping at some of the interesting places we saw on the way here.  The weather is glorious, and there are multitudes of people out on the trail lining the canal, walking, jogging, and bicycling.

On the way up here, we had noticed an attractive spot on the bank called Henpeck Park.  So we pulled in, tied up, and indulged in a pleasant picnic lunch.

 

It's fascinating what the engineers had to do to build this canal.  The terrain may rise and fall, but the canal must be, you know, level!  So when the terrain goes down, they had to build big levies to hold in the water; it was common to look down onto the rooftops of homes alongside the canal.  

But when the terrain went up, they had to cut thru the hills.  In one section they call the "rock wall", there are tall bluffs, sometimes as much as 20 feet tall, where workers had to remove an awful lot of rock and dirt.  And this was all done 200 years ago, before the days of heavy earth-moving equipment!

And of course, when the terrain elevation changed substantially, the engineers had to build a lock.  Today, we had two of those @#$% locks to traverse, and going this direction, we would be going down.  We found that this was tougher because, when the water is up at the top of the lock, it's more difficult to find something to hook on to.

After about five hours of travel, we pulled up to the dock in Pittsford, another spot we had identified a few days earlier as a potential stopping point.  At sunset, there was a live band playing just across the canal from us.  We sat at the dock and listened, imbibing on our sundowners, as the day ended.

SUNDAY

We made the hour-and-fifteen minute trip to Fairport, another town on our must-visit list.  Fairport's big claim-to-fame was the Main Street Lift Bridge, the only one in the world where one end is higher than the other.  The bridge frame has no right angles!  At night, it's all lit up.

 

As a bonus, Fairport had a big annual celebration going on called "Canal Days", where they celebrate the Erie Canal, bigtime!  There was a rumor that we might not find dock space to tie up, but we got there early in the day and had no problem.  As the day progressed, many other boats arrived and tied up.  By days end, it was one big boat party.

 

 

There were tons of people there, and hundreds of vendors hawking all sorts of knick-knacks and souvenirs to separate visitors from their money. 

 

And OMG was there music!  Live bands everywhere, from school bands to pros, out there to entertain all us music-lovers.

 

And of course there was all manner of carnival food too.  But Joan and I abstained, choosing instead to grill up some juicy steaks we had purchased earlier.  (The boat also came with a propane grill.)  We indulged in a bodacious picnic supper, right next to our boat.