Title: An old Erie Canal spiritual (or maybe not, but it sounded good)
TOP LEFT: Break on the riverside
TOP RIGHT: Da Crew (back) Jerry, Gary, Kathy, Peter, Carl: (front) Jan, Scott
MIDDLE: Gary at crest of Mohawk River waterfall
BOTTOM: View from inside Little Falls lock (40+ feet deep)
A couple years back, I came up with another hair-brained idea (a full-time job for me) to kayak the entire length of the Erie Canal in Upstate NY. Many have probably heard of the canal, but don't know that it was the largest public works project in the world at the time of it's construction in the early 1800's. The canal goes from the Hudson River near Albany all the way across Upstate NY, connecting up with Lake Erie in Buffalo. We decided to paddle Eastbound, as we were more likely to have a tailwind, thus cutting the time down some. Plus, the concept of doing a "flight" of locks ending in the Hudson River just seemed too cool to pass up.
We've done a leg or two each of the past few years, except for last year, when the "500 year flood" destroyed a significant portion of the canal from Utica eastward. So, we sat out the year, and we're off and running trying to wrap-up the paddle this summer.
The core group of paddlers are me, Carl, Scott, and Peter solo, and the spousal units (Kathy, Jan, Pam) relaying it. We get some other day paddlers also, Jerry, Tom, etc. along the way as their schedules permit.
This leg was to be from Ilion to around Amsterdam, including the key crossing at Little Falls, so named because, well, because there was a little falls there. Little as in around 40 feet tall that is! Until just recently, Little Falls was the tallest lock in the world; the Panama Canal is a junior model.
Also at Little Falls is Moss Island, a very good climbing spot with unspoiled rock, and great scenery. As we were waiting for one of the downstream locks to reset, we had a half-hour viewing of scores of climbers working the rocks. Jerry, our resident climber, narrated for us what they were doing right, wrong, and who was going to die that day. Better than having Curt Gowdy around!
We planned to do ~ 40-50 miles during this weekend, in what looked to be good conditions (some tailwind, mid 80's, no rain). Aside from the little falls lock, another highlight was to be dinner Saturday night at Beardsley Castle, an old castle that had been converted into a restaurant. Cool place, mediocre food, lousy service. If you're ever by, stop in and have a drink in "the dungeon"...very cool.
Most of the kayak was actually on the Mohawk River, and the destruction from last year's storm was a sight to see. At many of the locks, 4" thick steel railings were bent like plastic straws, at one the entire lock house (like a WWII concrete bunker) was completely swept away, and we came upon huge trees along the river's banks for miles on end. Nature 1; Mankind 0.
At one point we did over 8 miles in 90 minutes, which is basically like having a boat motor on the kayak. The front wake was so powerful that it was kicking up over the bow. Peter decided to try water skiing off the back of Carl's boat, that is until he realized that his newfound vegetarian lifestyle (AKA eat a whole pizza and an ice cream sundae 7 nights a week) had made him the size of Carl's kayak (4 feet around), with the cholesterol rating mirroring Orson Wells. Luckily the Coast Guard was nearby (why does the Coast Guard patrol inland waterways? shouldn't there be a River Guard or something like that) and they were able to pluck Peter, Carl, and Carl's kayak from the River with on of their helicopters. Peter has vowed to go back to eating pepperoni on his pizza as soon as we get back, which should get him back to his fighting weight. There's only room for ONE LUMPY in this world!
Logistically, the crew paddles basically from morning till dinner-time, and the spousal unit who is off-river brings the boat trailer up to rendezvous with us, and runs some errands to kill time (tracking down subs for lunch, antiquing, finding jewelry stores and outlet malls...). In this case it was jan doing most of the trailer logistics, and that was a good thing. At one point she saved us a FORTUNE by going to 4 gas stations to get gas for $3.17. The other stations were outrageous at $3.18. That damned President Cheney and his oil henchman, they're just robbing us blind.
At one point Jan is driving the trailer about, Kathy is behind in another vehicle, and a large white strip of paper goes flying down the road, just missing Kathy's car, and bounding on by. When the two of them stop at the next jewelry store, they realize that it was the FENDER from the trailer that flew by, and they have to go chase it down. That was problematic for the trip home, as a trailer without a fender basically throws up a 20 foot roostertail as soon as it starts raining; which it did all the way home. Man, did we get some one-finger waves from the drivers passing us; it must have been like driving through a waterfall!
After a long, tedious leg sunday afternoon we pulled out (of the water, you pig), packed up, and headed home (with a brief stopover in Cooperstown to see the baseball HOF). We've got one more big segment to complete later this summer, and then we'll have made the traverse. Next year we're looking at paddling the entire Hudson River, Albany to the Atlantic Ocean via NYC. That could be a very interesting proposition to say the least.
Paddlemeister Lumpy out...
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