Jack Tar Adventures

Link to our route for the day: https://share.nebo.global/voyage/7a09e11a-6548-4f49-9b4b-37b66942f013

We hit our first Lock for the day almost immediately after leaving Amsterdam, where we could see Guy Park Manor when we got to the top.  The main estate was built in 1766 by Guy Johnson, a nephew and son-in-law of Sir William Johnson, who was the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs. During the American Revolution, Guy Johnson, who was a Loyalist, fled to Canada, and the estate was confiscated by the state. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

We passed a piece of the old lock system just west of #11 near Schoharie Creek, which includes remains of an original Erie Canal aqueduct (four stone arches we couldn’t see from the water).

Between locks, we wound our way through more serpentine sections of the Mohawk River.  It’s a very rural area with a few farms on the hilltops.  Interstate 90 was immediately to our south, and the train tracks immediately to our north, so we listened to the constant swoosh of the highway with intermittent train horns.  You can run, but you cannot hide from the trains.  We have seen and heard them usually right next to us for most of the Erie Canal.

A NY State barge pulled in ahead of us in lock #14.  He gave us plenty of room behind him, then very kindly radioed for us to pass him as we pulled out of the lock.

It was much quieter for the hour before we approached what we thought was our last lock for the day, so we could hear bird song. We saw two eagles and then several herons perched on driftwood, fishing for their dinner.

There were many beautiful yellow irises all along the riverbank. I was disappointed to discover that they are an invasive, emergent aquatic plant that aggressively pushes out native wetland species.

We had intended to tie up for the night on the lock wall just after lock #16, but we were informed by the lock master that in this section of the river, there are concerns about erosion along the river embankment, so there is no spending the night at the lock. They also enforce a strict five mph speed limit between the two locks, and they only lock on the even hours to reduce traffic. If a lock master decides you have reached a lock too soon, they have the authority to make you wait two hours! So we put-putted along at 5 mph until we locked up through #17 and found a very nice city marina in Little Falls for the night.