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 we could not spend 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 lock #17.

Lock 17 is impressive. Not only is it the largest single-step lift lock on the Erie Canal, but it is also one of only two locks in North America where the entrance gate is lifted above the boater. The other is on the Ottawa River in Canada. The gate is pulled up over the canal (kind of like a guillotine – I swear we obeyed the speed limit!), and you enter by taking your boat under the gate, unlike all the other lock gates on the Erie, which open like garden gates. We were lifted 40′, which was a little intimidating to look at, but the process was the same as ever. The highest we had been lifted before (your love keeps lifting me, lifting me, lifting me, lifting me higher and higher!) was in E2 and E3, where we locked up 34′ and 35′ respectively. Mostly, the locks have been between 8 & 15′.

After a pretty long and reasonably eventful day, we found a very nice city marina in Little Falls for the night.