Perfect Day on the Great Loop

The Erie Canal

Waterford - docked for the night on the city wall. The lock is in front of us.

It's all coming back to us.... it's been a long time since we've done locks...... and there are ALOT to do in the next few days.

The Erie Canal just opened May 1 for the season.

We spent the first night on the Erie Canal tied up at the wall at Waterford. This is considered the beginning the Erie Canal System - we bought our canal system pass here. There were probablay 15 boats tied up on the wall with us - all of us beginning the Erie in the morning. The wall was actually pretty nice - electricity, water, restroom/shower - all free. Everyone was very friendly.

We did the Waterford Fight in the morning. That is a system of 5 lift locks in a row, each about 30 feet tall. You only go about 1/2 mile between locks. They raise the boats from the Hudson to the Mohawk River. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get through these 5 locks and go 5 miles.

Almost everyone here is Canadian and they are returning from long voyages. They head down for the winter, back up for the summer. You hear lots of French. Everyone we talked with had been down in Key West or the Bahamas.

There are quite a few sailboats here - more than we have seen since the Delaware Bay. They all have their masts down and are carrying them to get under the low bridges.

Waterford is kind of a sad town. There are are many big, old beautiful buildings here. At one time this place was a bustling center of manufacturing and commerce. Everytning was transported down the canal and this was the center of it. Now all that is gone and the town is dying. There are few jobs, most young peope have moved away. The buildings are now shabby, in disrepair and its obvious the people have little money. We saw an old 4 story brick house that looked fairly nice for $28,000.

We went to dinner here at a little, not fancy, local diner that was highly recommended by the visitor center. They advertised $2.00 eggs and toast. Not expecting a whole lot I was totally shocked to get the best seafood platter meal (scallops, shrimp, fish) beautifully presented I have had anywhere so far. You never know, appearances are deceiving.