Best 100 Miles

The best 100 miles of the Erie Canal – even with almost endless and torrential rain!

The unseasonal rain has continued but we moved on through locks 29 and 30 just in time to hear that everything below lock 29 is now closed due to the flooding. Water in the canal is 3 to 5 feet above normal and this in turn washes debris into the canal making navigation hazardous.   Rumor has it that the locks MAY open next week – so again we dodged a major delay and continue to move slowly west.  While all the hyperbole in the canal literature might make one suspicious that nothing can be so great, we are here to say – they might have under-represented the truth.  In spite of the rain, we have found this western section of the canal to be most enjoyable and worthy of all the praise heaped on it by the local Chambers.  We are especially grateful to those Chambers for all the free stops with clean showers and restrooms, plus convenient extras like pump outs and laundry facilities. These free walls are also located in scenic towns with friendly and welcoming people. A volunteer on the dock is the norm with information on the local hot spots and maps, etc. In Brockport the volunteers alerted by the lift bridge tender, greeted us on the dock IN THE RAIN!  She helped with ropes and apologized for the weather. With our time on the Erie Canal rapidly winding down, we are already planning our next trip to catch the places we missed or revisit the high points. For us, it is sad to think that so many who do the loop miss this charming section of the canal with all the “PORT” and “classic” towns  - Fairport, Spencerport, Brockport, Lockport, Middleport, Gasport, Orangeport, Palmyra, Greece, and Medina.

Highlights:

Pittsford – free concerts in the canal pavilion next to our boat on Fridays – lucky for us we stayed on a Friday. Claim to fame – more than 50% of the housing in this town is more than 50 years old – most more like a 100+ years young.

 oops - mule?

 

Spencerport –  free concerts are on Sundays – sadly we stayed on Saturday but did enjoy the Texas Barbeque adjacent to the dock and the museum in an old restored trolley building.

 

Brockport – super independent book store and a vintage movie theater a short walk from the canal befitting a college town.  We also caught the farmer’s market on Sunday morning for fresh veggies and local wine. This town boasts another heritage hardware store, Web Stull.  It is not mentioned in the guidebooks, but Steve made the discovery on his own searching for wire and other doo-dads for ongoing boat projects.  In the days of Lowes and Home Depot, it is delightful to find the mom and pop hardware store still alive and full of dusty nostalgia.

Albion – you know you are near Canada when the only TV channel is in French and the best radio broadcasts are from Toronto. The dock is downtown next to Main Street bordered by Victorian three story store fronts in Medina sandstone. While we haven’t yet arrived at Medina, we have seen plentiful evidence of the pinkish sandstone quarried there for construction of houses, shops, churches and other public buildings lending this area a substantial, European feeling. For entertainment our boat rested next to the Police Station and the Fire Department of Albion – fortunately for us they had a quiet night. When a call did go out, a herd of man-trucks invaded our parking lot as the fire truck raced off. The volunteers must come from all over the area and they don’t seem to car pool. It must have been a small “event” since they soon returned and then spent a few hour visiting. Maybe it was all a drill or an excuse to get out of the house on a sunny Sunday afternoon in time to watch the NBA game?

 

 

Lockport – a cool, in every way, tour of the hydro tunnel constructed in the mid 1800’s to power three factories and two Erie Canal museums. Ice cream at the Great Lakes store was a treat. Not so fun were the teens partying in the lock park until the wee hours. Parking  next to the lock in the middle of this big city was not our smartest move although it was a handy location for visiting the classic car show and the historic flight of five locks.