Cruising the Erie Canal

Yesterday we had the opportunity to spend 3 hours aboard the Colonial Belle cruising along the historic Erie Canal.

The pictures will show some of what we 

were able to see.

We were with 15 summer missionary couples - all seated up front except a few that stayed on the lower deck.  Right behind them you will see our captain who steered the boat and narrated the history of the canal as we cruised.

This cruise took us through the area where we live (from Fairport docks up past Pittsford and back). Here you see the Port of Pittsford, not too far from our home.

It was also interesting to experience the locks. Our boat went through lock 32 - twice.

There are 35 locks today along the canal.  

Here you see the gates of lock 32 opening to receive us.

Here the water level is being raised by opening some underwater valves that let the river water flow into the locks. It only takes a 3-5 minutes to fill with 3 million gallons of water. The boat is raised about 30 feet. This is done without the use of electricity (except to open and close the gates) or other modern means.

Note the water level in the next pictures and compare them with the ones above and the ones to follow.  They are all taken in the same place.

Opening the gates to let us out . . .

This picture is coming back into the lock from upstream after we did a u-turn to begin our return trip.

The picture below is of a couple who serve as one of the shift coordinators (the Johnsons).  They missed the boat.  We took them on board with us at the lock.

The pictures coming next show the gates opening (30 seconds) on our return trip.  Note the water marks showing that the water was just below the yellow guards rails just minutes before.  The order of these pictures is not sequential.  

The last one in this series shows the water level 

as it was just starting to drain.

Near the dock, we went under a draw bridge coming and going.  It was interesting to see how it was raised and lowered to accommodate the boats (about 10 feet).

We also went under a number of bridges.  Because our boat had an upper deck, those of us above had to duck our heads to miss the bridges.

The weather could not have been any nicer for our cruise.  The highs were unseasonably cool for this time of year - the mid 70's.  Still, we are sporting a bit of a sunburn as a result

of sitting on top, but not bad.


A couple of weeks ago, it was our turn to clean a 2 1/2 miles stretch of the canal near Palmyra with another missionary couple, the Dayes.  (The missionaries take turns keeping this part of the canal clean each summer.)  It was a beautiful walk along a shaded path next to the water, and the area was clean before we even started.  Still, we fulfilled our assignment.  Below are a couple of pictures.

We love living in this area.  With such beautiful paths to walk on, you might think we are losing lots of weight and staying fit.    It's a nice goal.