- 42 miles
- 6 hours 21 minutes
- 6.6 average speed
We traveled with Star Dust and Rose Cottage again today. We went through 6 locks for a total lift of 95 feet.
Our last lock today was Lock E17 which is the highest lift lock on the canal at 40 feet. All of the locks we have gone through up to this point have gone smoothly. Once we had pulled into Lock 17 and Ellen had grabbed her rope, the boat began moving backwards. Kevin came around and yelled, “Ellen, what are you DOING?” to which Ellen replied, ” What do you MEAN what am I doing?” It turns out that as Kevin was leaving the lower helm to come out and grab his rope he had inadvertently shifted from neutral to reverse! He quickly corrected and saved us from running into the back gate.
Some more phots taken by Star Dust and Cottage Rose:
There was just enough room on the wall at Little Falls for the three of us to tie up but we had to move a boat forward a little bit for Kevin to be able to dock our boat. The lock master and our friends moved the boat, not thinking there was anyone on it. Actually, the man was napping and the woman was working and neither of them even knew the boat had been moved!
Later, we were sitting on the boat and unwinding from the day of travel when Ellen spotted Jane and Tony on Clean Cut passing by outside the window. We had not seen them since New York City so she jumped up to go shout “hello” to them as they passed. They had planned to stay here and weren’t sure where they would go since the wall was full by the time they arrived. We offered to let them tie up to our boat which the marina does allow. So they turned around and did just that! After they were safely tied up to our boat, we enjoyed talking with several other couples on the wall and then the four of us went across the street to a food truck and had dinner.
The next day we biked to the quaint town of Little Falls and had a wonderful breakfast at That Little Place on Main.
We then biked on the Erie Canalway Trail to the Herkimer Home which was built in 1764. General Nicolas Herkimer was an American Revolution hero who led the defense of Fort Stanwix (which we will visit at our next stop in Rome, NY) at the Battle of Oriskany in 1777. This battle was one of the bloodiest battles of the Revolutionary War and had families fighting against each other. Herkimer’s leg was wounded during the battle but he kept command of the battle. His leg was later amputated and he died 10 days later from complications of the surgery. He is buried in the cemetery on the property.
We stopped at Lock 17 on the way back to get a view from the top. We noticed on NEBO that Michael from Gratitude, whom we had met in Annapolis, was on his way to the lock so we waited to watch the lock masters empty the chamber and take pictures and videos of Michael locking through.
Pivot was docked just north of the lock and we met the cute young couple, Jen and Elliot, and their dog, Ollie. It turns out they live only a couple of miles from us in Atlanta. We didn’t realize it at the time but they are Scho & Jo who have a great vlog detailing their Great Loop adventure. We have heard about them from several Loopers but had not yet watched any of their videos on YouTube. A while later we saw them pass by where we were tied up.
We spotted our first deer across the canal from us.
Every Thursday in the summer at the marina there is a Cruise In where many antique cars are on display. We enjoyed walking around and looking at all of the beautifully restored cars. There was even a 1918 Harley Davidson motorcycle. After we looked at all of the cars we biked to town for dinner and a flight of beer at The Copper Moose and later watched the parade of cars drive by.
The following day we had a full day of boat cleaning and laundry followed by an amazing dinner at Beardslee Castle. We had a dickens of a time getting an Uber to the restaurant and no luck getting one back to the marina. The owner of the restaurant was kind enough to let the hostess take us back. We were extremely grateful we did not have to walk 6 miles back to the marina in the dark and rain!
Beardslee Castle was built in 1860 as a replica of an Irish Castle. It survived two fires before being purchased by the current owners in 1994 who renovated it and opened it as a restaurant. It is also a popular wedding venue.
