Suncat Trader Cruises: Sun Cat/ Trader Update 6/17/07 on the Erie Canal

Hi All,The last week and a half have just flown! We are presently in Sylvan Beach, NY which is on the eastern shore of Lake Onieda, north and a bit east of Syracuse. This is mile 128 of the Erie canal.We left Kingston after my lat update and spent a night in New Baltimore. We stayed there primarily to see the "historic district" which sounded good in the guides but turned out to be 5 houses! From there, we passed through our first large lock at Troy and went to Waterford where we spent 3 pleasant days.

Waterford Visitors Center -the start of the Erie Canal

There is a lot to see and do there and it was a good place to reprovision. The highlight of our stay there was a visit with Greg and Bill Gardiner and Bill's wife Kathy. Greg and Bill lived across the street from us when we lived in Gloversville, Ny in the mid 1950's and we had not seen each other in 40 years. Last Sunday, Bill and Kathy and their daughter Bailey traveled with us up the Waterford locks ( all 5 of them) which raised us about 170 feet above the Hudson River. Bailey is now a qualified power boat driver.

The Falls of the Mohawk in Waterford

We stayed Sunday night at lock 8 and then proceeded on to Canajaharie where we spent 2 nights. Lock 8 is largely out in the country with some train and road noise but a nice stop. At Canajaharie we hiked almost 2 miles up to Canajaharie Gorge which was very pretty and would be spectacular with more water running. I remember visiting there as a kid. I couldn't help but think how much my brother, the train enthusiast, would like it there as a train ran on the opposite side of the canal every 15 to 20 minutes.

The dock at Canajaharie

The next night we stayed at lock 16 which was another pretty stop along the canal. We rode our bikes along the canal bike path back to St Johnsville where we toured the local museum which is in the library and bought some local bread and cheese at the store. After that we went to Herkimer which was another free dock but much too close to the NY Thuway to be called pleasant.

Our guide explains food prep and storage at Herkimer home

The next stop was Ilion which is a pretty village with a nice municipal marina. There we toured the Remington Arms factory and were joined by son Stepehn who also was able to tour the factory. That afternoon, we took Steve's car back to Little Falls where we toured the home of General Nicholas Herkimer. It was a very informative tour of how the most prosperous colonists lived in Revolutionary times and the house was wonderful to see. General Herkimer is famous for commanding the colonial troops at the battle of Oriskinay which stopped the British advance down the Mohawk in much the same manner as the victory at Saratoga stopped the British advance down the Hudson which would have divided New England from the rest of the colonies.

Our limo ride

The next day we took Steve's car to Sylvan Beach topre-position it for us to drop him off here today. Where it was Jean's Birthday (a special landmark) we took a limosine back to Ilion for the fun of it. It was kind of cool to have the limo pull up in both marinas and Jean and Steve got a kick out of it as did some looper friends of ours. Last night we spent at lock 21. Skipper Bob's cruising guide describes it as very quiet and it lived up to that and then some. The grounds were beautiful and there was no highway or train noise. This morning we traveled the remaining 6 miles to Sylvan beach and said good by to Steve.The last few weeks the scenery has been outstanding - a reminder of how beautiful and varied upstate New York is.

We hope everyone's summer is going well. We're having a wonderful time here in New York State.

More pictures from the Erie: