It seems impossible that we left Port Ewen just one week ago this morning, traveled up the Hudson River to Troy in a day, then did the “flight” of locks that begin the Erie Canal. We had planned to spend a couple of days at Waterford, so a week ago this evening, we were already ahead of schedule!

We spent Saturday at Amsterdam, then hurried to Little Falls (7 locks, including the 40.5′ lift!) to beat weather coming in. At that point, I needed a break and so we spent two days at Little Falls, doing boat stuff and visiting the area. Dockmaster Mark drove us up to an overlook so that we could get a good view of the waterway we had traveled.

Little Falls was great! But one of my favorite stops was the Canal Park at Lock 20. It was a free tie on the wall above the lock and though the restrooms were unusable, there was water and even electricity hook-up. It looked to be a wonderful trail that along the canal; if we had had the time, I would have loved to have explored this trail.

But we needed to press on. We planned to spend an overnight on the wall at Sylvan Beach, but when we reached the entrance to Oneida Lake it was not yet noon and there was no wind–dead calm. It made no sense to put off crossing this 20-mile long lake to the next morning, and so we went. It was a good decision. We woke the next morning to dense fog.

Yesterday morning we left the Erie Canal and turned north on to the Oswego Canal, spending the night on the wall just above Lock 1. We did 6 locks this morning–all down (which I think is easier than going up, though maybe we’re just finally getting the hang of this locking thing). This evening we are on the wall just above Lock 8. One lock to go… It looks like we have a good weather window for crossing Lake Ontario to Canada this weekend, though we keep watching the forecasts carefully for any changes! Hoping this Canadian high helps!