Erie Canal thru Oneida Lake

 Going back over a week....friends took a picture of us in front of the Statue of Liberty! We look rather tiny...

 The Canada Geese are rather prolific along the Erie Canal!

 Lots of deadheads...

Hurricane Irene devastated the Canal last August. The State of NY has done remarkable work getting the Erie Canal back running. In the front of this picture you see what used to be part of the wall connected to the lock that you could tie up to. All the earth, rocks, roadways in the background have all been added recently. The Mohawk River actually re-routed itself in areas so the dams weren't effective in holding back the flood waters. 

 At Amsterdam divers were searching for a boy who drowned trying to save his brother, who ended up safe after all.

 The first 20 locks of the 22 we have done kept raising us up. This one almost spilled over!

 The NYS Thruway parallels the Mohawk River, often crossing over it. I remember the old Beech-Nut plant in Canajoharie from my many trips up and down the Thruway...it is such a sad sight, showing the decline of most of the towns along our journey. We spent one night at a free dock in Herkimer and were just a stone's throw from the Thruway....lots of traffic noise!

 Lock 17 is only one of two bridges in North America that has a gate that lifts up over the entrance, instead of a gate that opens to each side. The other one is in Ontario. This lock lifted us the highest...40 feet. The other locks averaged around 20 ft.

The canal was tranquil...

 and this is mostly what we saw for hours on end.

 Lock 21 was the first lock that had us going down....the river started flowing to the west towards  Oneida Lake, the largest body of water on the Erie Canal. We crossed the lake early so we had winds and waves going with us.

 We said good-bye to Stan and Colleen on Next Endeavour, a 48 ft. catamaran. We caught up with them in Troy, NY, and have traveled with them through the Erie Canal, after being together way back at Coney Island.

We are at a marina in Brewerton, NY, just outside of Syracuse. They have a courtesy car so we have been stocking up on groceries and even had haircuts today! We have 9 more locks before we reach Oswego and the shores of Lake Ontario. Then we wait for a calm day to head to Trenton and the start of the Trent-Severn Waterway.