We have continued to move forward everyday on the western end of the Erie Canal, albeit slowly. Today we hope to complete the Erie Canal and arrive in Buffalo, NY. At that point, we will have been traveling for seven straight days. It is time for a rest day before we start the next phase of our journey, which is the approximately 210 miles of open water in Lake Erie following the southern shoreline.
Over the past couple days we've had great places to stop for the evening, with power and water and every so often there is some interesting scenery and history along the canal. The big change over the last couple days is the increase in the number of bridges.
ERIE CANAL - DAY #7
On Sunday, we completed just two locks (#32 & #33), which lifted us a total of 50' and navigated our first four lift bridges. We traveled 32 statute miles over the course of six hours between Fairport, NY and Brockport, NY. It seems the name of every community along the Erie Canal ends in "port".
What was notable was the significant increase in the number of bridges. We went under 55 bridges and five guard gates. The increase in bridges was particularly notable around Rochester, NY.
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| A series of pedestrian bridges near Rochester, NY |
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| The doors at the opposite end of the Lock 32 chamber didn't seal completely creating a waterfall effect. |
As the guidebook had indicated, the Bridge Tenders cover more than one lift bridge and balance east and west bound boat traffic through an area. When we arrived at our first lift bridge, the Bridge Tender was at another bridge. We waited about 30 minutes for him to arrive and open the bridge for us. Happily, there was a place to tie up and wait so we were able to get off the boat for a few minutes and stretch our legs while we waited. Once we passed through, the next life bridge was 3 miles away and Bridge Tender let us know he'd meet us there in 30 minutes to lift it for us.
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| Waiting for the Bridge Tender to arrive to open the lift bridge for us. |
The Bridge Tenders work together and once you are within their section of the canal, they want to know how far you are going for the day and call ahead to the next Bridge Tender to let them know you are on your way. Once we get in the system for the day, most of the time, the Bridge Tenders will hail us on the VHF radio and welcome us to their community by name before we can call them. They are a very helpful bunch. Upon hearing our planned destination for the day, one Bridge Tender recommended a different town for an overnight stay with better amenities and we took his recommendation and changed our plan slightly for the day.
Probably the most impressive welcome we received was from the volunteers that staff the Welcome Center in Brockport. Each town is a little different, but all are most hospitable and most of them have a free wall to stay for the night that includes electricity and water. We have enjoyed the reprieve from the high transient fees we experienced on the east coast and our average cost per foot for dockage is dropping as we continue to benefit from free overnight stays on the western end of the Erie Canal.
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| Brockport Welcome Center |
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| Complimentary dockage in Brockport. We even benefitted from shade which helped the A/C catch up from the heat of the day. |
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| A peaceful view across the Erie Canal in Brockport |
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| MMS docked in picturesque Brockport |
During our travel day, we passed through what is known as the Great Embankment Project, in Bushnell's Basin. This project is famous as it entailed filling in sections of the Irondequoit Creek Valley, 70' deep and one mile long by hand, joining natural ridges and creating an earthen aqueduct for Clinton's ditch. Before this project was completed, Bushnell's Basin was a terminus point of the Erie canal. Cargo was offloaded, moved overland, and then reloaded to continue on the Erie Canal. Traveling through the one mile section of the canal was very interesting. The walls in that area are so old!!!!
ERIE CANAL - DAY #8
Yesterday was a mundane day on the Erie Canal. We traveled just 4.5 hours, covering just 30 miles. We went under 32 bridges, including seven lift bridges, and six guard gates. We had MMS tied up by 1:30pm and went for a walk to find some lunch before the afternoon rain set in.
We are both feeling a bit fatigued from traveling in the canal at reduced speeds, roughly 6mph, and constantly scanning and navigating debris. Daily we seem to strike 2-3 submerged logs, sending terror through both of us. When we hear the "thud", our Captain jumps to put the engines in neutral, we float over the log, wait for it to surface behind us and then resume navigation. As the Captain puts the throttles in drive, we both hold our breath, hoping to feel no shudder and for no propeller damage as we slowly resume speed. So far we have been very fortunate and we don't believe we have sustained any major propeller damage. We also navigated partially submerged storage containers, construction barrels, etc.
There are sections of the Erie Canal where homes on either side are below the canal walls, which is a very strange sight. As we travel along sometimes just outside of the canal walls there are rooftops. There is even a section, Culvert Road, that was built in 1823 and is listed in Ripley's Believe it or Not. The road passes UNDER the Erie Canal. Of course we were in the canal and didn't experience the road beneath us, but the guidebook says the ceiling of the tunnel drips on cars as they pass under the Erie Canal.
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| Culvert Road to the North |
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| Culvert Road to the South |
Hilary has passed time the last two days, keeping track of bridges and alerting Bert when we are approaching a lift bridge. Below is a sample of a page in the book from a day's travel, marking the bridges, including the distances in-between and the bridge heights.
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| One page of bridges from Day #8 Beginning of the day Note the lift bridges |
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| Same page of bridges from Day #8 End of the day The times are tracked on the page as we proceed. It passes the time and gives Hilary something to do. |
As stated in the beginning of this post, today should be our last day on the Erie Canal. We will enter the Niagara River heading south to Buffalo. We have just three locks left and estimate covering about 55 miles today over about 9.5 hours. Stay tuned to see how the day turns out.
