The Western Erie

 As I sit in the salon of our beautiful boat starting to verbalize our adventure on the western Erie Canal, it is roughly one day since hurricane Ian tore through western Florida leaving a path of destruction. The images coming out of Fort Myers and the surrounding areas are mind boggling and they hit home as the Fort Myers area is where our daughter and her hubby live and where we started our Great Loop Adventure. Fortunately, Ali and Dylan live a little inland and, although they will be without electricity for a while, they were spared any significant damage. Others we know from the area were not so lucky and have lost their homes and businesses. The boating community was significantly impacted and we have no idea yet what we will find when we get back to Florida this winter to complete our loop. Our thoughts are with all those that have been affected by this demonstration of what mother nature can do.

Although I have titled this episode of our blog "The Western Erie", I could just as easily have titled it "The Road (Waterway) Less Traveled." After leaving Brewerton on the western end of Lake Oneida, the majority of Loopers will travel west on the canal (Oneida River) only about 9.5 miles to where it meets up with the Oswego River. At this point they will leave the canal and turn north on the Oswego to get to Lake Ontario. From there, they will continue their adventure using the canals of Canada, primarily the Trent-Severn Waterway. Some go the Canadian route for the sights of Canada and some of their interesting locks. Others are forced to go that way due to height restrictions on the western Erie where there are many low bridges. For a few reasons, Karen and I decided to take the Western Erie route. Chief among those reasons was that Karen's 98 year old father lives near Cleveland and we wanted to visit him and include him in our loop.  So, while in Brewerton, we removed the upper half of our radar arch, lowered our bimini top, and on 7/5/2022, we set off for our Western Erie adventure with two buddy boats, Perfect Match and Star Dust.

The western Erie has a reputation for being less crowded and more scenic that the eastern Erie and that proved to be true. Our first leg was a 21 mile jaunt along the Seneca River, through 2 locks to a free dock in Baldwinsville. The towns along these rivers are very welcoming to people travelling by boat and often offer free or very inexpensive overnight docking. Some even include electricity and water for free. The scenery along the way lived up to its reputation...beautiful, lush, tree lined river with water lillies, geese galore and more bald eagles. After arriving, our buddy boats and us established what would become our routine.....Tie up, head to town for lunch, walk around  for a bit to see the town, go back to the boat to rest and meet up again later for ice cream!  We noticed right away that the towns along the western Erie were not as depressed as those along the eastern half. The streets and houses seemed to be more cared for and the businesses, shops and restaurants were more plentiful. 

The next day after another 48 miles and two more locks we tied up on another free wall in Lyons. We had heard about Lyons on a podcast for the Great Loop Association. There is a very sweet old guy from Lyons that has become the unofficial ambassador to loopers coming through his town. Through him we heard that Lyons is famous for 2 things, murals and peppermint. On our ritual lunch outing we wandered through town to see the murals. The first mural was commissioned in 2007 by the proprietor of the local Dobbin's Pharmacy as a historical depiction of the passing down of this business through multiple generations. It was painted on the front of the building that still houses the pharmacy and a gift shop. (We found old time pharmacies like this in many of the towns on the Erie) Since that first mural, others have been painted depicting other other scenes and events in the history of Lyons.

In the mid 1800's ,  H.G. Hotchkiss, the "Peppermint King" and founder of the Hotchkiss Essential Oil Company in Lyons, was responsible for 1/3 of all the peppermint oil production in the world. Although we now associate peppermint with chewing gum, the essential plant oils have long been used for everything from liniments to teas and candies to pesticides. 

Our third day on the western Erie was only 25 miles but we transited 5 more locks! Our destination was Fairport which turned out to be our favorite little town on the Erie. We tied up on the wall of a very busy pedestrian walkway. The locals walking by were nice as could be and were very interested in hearing about our adventures on the Great American Loop. That afternoon the ladies went for pedicures and the gents checked out a local distillery. And later... dinner... and, of course, ice cream.

Leaving Fairport the next AM we had to wait for the lifting of a beautiful bridge that was constructed in 1914. Once we passed that bridge, the lift operator then got in her car to lift the next bridge further down the Erie. This set up helped ensure that we would have a slow, leisurely cruise as we would have to wait for the bridge tender if we cruised faster. 

July 8th found us in Spencerport and on the 9th we tied up in Medina. Along the way we passed over the only road to tunnel under the Erie Canal. We had a wonderful lunch that day at Zambistro. This nice little restaurant in small town America could hold its own in any big city. Each of us raved about our meals. After that we wandered over to the Medina Railroad Museum. This little gem of a museum has the largest HO scale train set up east of the Mississippi and possible in all of the U.S. It also housed a very eclectic collection of railroad and first responder memorabilia and even a large pickle! 

We woke up early the next day to start our last day of travel on the Erie canal from Medina to Tonawanda, NY. Along the way we had 4 lift bridges and then came to the double locks at Lockport. These westernmost locks on the Erie were originally a flight of five locks that were completed in 1849. Two of these original locks with their massive wooden doors have been restored. In 1915 the flight of five were replaced by two larger, more modern locks. You may remember we started our journey on the eastern end of the Erie Canal with a flight of five locks. Those locks were a series of five separate locks joined by short sections of river. The double locks, # 34 & 35, in Lockport are joined together by a common door. As you exit #34 you enter right into #35. These two locks combined would lift us 49 feet and being on the inside, the chamber walls seemed immense.  Aside from being the only double locks, they were also the most picturesque/beautiful locks of the Erie. They climbed a hillside on the top of which was the scenic town of Lockport. The town was bustling with tourists eager to watch the boats transiting the locks. There were so many cameras pointed at us we felt like celebrities. 

At the start of this post, I mentioned we had low bridges to pass under. With our radar arch down we got down to just under 15' above the water and some of the bridges were only 15.5' high. We had a few close calls and, sitting at the upper helm, I had to duck more than a few times. At least once I had to abruptly remind Karen to "DUCK" when her attention was elsewhere. Along this half of the Erie we also passed through more areas of the rock lined original canals and remnants of the early canal infrastructure.

After the town of Lockport, the river became much more congested and the banks were lined with houses and docks that required us to keep our speed near idle. These last 7 miles were tedious and seemed to last forever. Although the original Erie Canal ended in Buffalo, the end now is at the city of Tonawanda where it joins the Niagara River. These were the busiest waters we had seen since we left New York Harbor. There were speed boats, slow boats, big boats and little boats. We turned onto the Niagara and immediately got hit by a current of almost 5 miles an hour. The traffic and current combined to make our approach to the Smith Boys Marina quite harrowing. But alas, with the help of fellow loopers we were tied up safely once again. Our last day on the Erie we traveled 36 miles bringing us to a total of 339 miles on the Erie and 2,178 since we started the loop in Fort Myers.

This would be a good place to end this blog post but.....

The next day, Misty and Darrel from "Star Dust" had rented a car and we all went to visit Niagara Falls. The town of Niagara was like a combination of Las Vegas and Tijuana. Large hotels, nice restaurants and vendors hawking souvenirs. And like Las Vegas, the mob played a large role in its development. But, fortunately, the falls themselves were remarkable.... everything we had expected and more. The views from the top were incredible but not to be outdone by the views from the water. We took a ride on the tourist boat, the Maid of the Mist. The boat takes you up to the base of the falls. Everyone is given a poncho as the spray generated by the falls is like a relentless rain. And the wind.... the energy created by the rushing water create what feels like storm forced winds despite it being a clear, mild day.

So, now I'm done for this post... Next up The Great Lakes... will we survive the dreaded wind whipped waves or go down in history with the thousands of ships that have been lost on their waters. I guess you'll have to stay tuned....