It’s cool out and there is a slight wind but overall the skies above are sunny and clear. I didn’t have any trouble getting Sally and myself down the rocks and back into the water outside the RV park this morning. A quick four miles so far this morning and I’ve made it to the little town of Holley. There is another lift-bridge to pass under here. The feel and appearance of this town fits with the experience I was imagining much of the canal to be. A slower pace of life. Just a quaint little place. There are docks for the motorized variety of boats, but there is also a lower dock for canoe and kayak travelers. more...

The other morning as I’m leaving Red Rock Ponds RV Campground, my seventeen foot, orange, sea kayak in tow as I make the quarter mile walk over dry land back to the canal. I’m wearing my paddling jacket, spray skirt and PFD, a strange sight to anyone really. I came upon an grey-bearded black man out for a morning walk with his two little dogs. With a his head slightly tipped and puzzled look as I neared him, he asked “where I was going?” I said back to the canal. He glanced to the side, “to the ponds?” Nope, down the road and back to the Erie Canal. more...

I decided to stay at the campground for a second night. I spent the extra day around camp emptying out the kayak completely as two of my hatches did take on a slight bit of water when I rolled and fell in the other day. All my gear was dry bagged so it wasn’t too big a deal. Things are neat and tidy again. I also used the time to setup the GoalZero solar panel and recharge batteries until the afternoon when clouds rolled in. I laid out all my food and planned out meals for tomorrow, separating it from the full cache. more...

This image doesn’t do justice to how hard it was raining for the first eight miles of paddling this morning. There was also a pretty thick fog and the wind kept shifting, headwind, tailwind, broadside. It just couldn’t make up its mind. Good thing I am used to the liquid sunshine from paddling around Oregon. With my paddling jacket on it really wasn’t too bad and just as the forecast predicted it cleared up around 4pm, so I wouldn’t have to setup camp and make dinner in the rain.

The couple of locations I had looked up this morning for camping tonight didn’t work out. more...

Slept pretty good last night. No one, human or otherwise bothered me. Woke up at 7am to pouring rain, fog sweeping through the canal with a 7mph headwind. So I’ve been taking my time breaking camp, making breakfast and loading the boat back up. I tossed a small handful of blueberries from my yard that were dehydrated into some oatmeal and then attempted some potato pancakes while the berries rehydrated. Pancakes never really browned, but I did forget to pack some cooking oil and water wasn’t cutting it. I’ll try to grab some in the next town. And coffee. I guess I managed to consume my first weeks supply on the drive out from Oregon. more...

On the western end of the canal between Buffalo and Rochester there are sixteen lift bridges, there is on additional lift bridge in Fairport, just the other side of Rochester proper. The Erie Canal that exists today is not the same that was originally built in 1825, in fact it was enlarged twice. The first time between the years 1835 and 1862 and the second time in 1918. Each time, the canal was widened and deepened to allow larger cargo vessels and in some places the path was changed, abandoning the previous incarnation. More modern technologies in 1918, allowed the canal to overlap with natural waterways that could now be controlled with the locks, control gates, dams and diversions. more...