Day 25, 6.20.18, Little Falls

Lock 17 at Little Falls

Approaching the Guard Gate at Little Falls

Gary's dad, Fred, meets up with us by car at LIttle Falls - What a surprise!

Wednesday brings pleasant weather, with high clouds in the afternoon. We leave Canajoharie, take a ride up Lock 16, and leave the Mohawk River. The first canals were dug separate from the river, but close by. This third iteration uses the river itself, dredged, with dams and locks in the river for the most part. But now for about five miles we are in a totally dug canal. The river still flows just north of us, and at the next lock we re-join. The canalside is undeveloped except in the towns and a rare house. Stately trees come down to the bank. 

We are not alone here. On weekends runabouts and jet-skis ply the waters, but most of the time we see fellow boaters transiting up the canal. Some are boat deliveries, but most are fellow travelers. We meet with them at town landings, like Waterford, Canajoharie, and Little falls. Most drive 'trawlers' of 28-35 feet, diesel, and very spacious compared to Eclipse with our four foot headroom. We join some of them in the evening and talk boating, canals, and life. East-bound, some are headed to Lake Champlain, others down the Hudson to the Chesapeake or beyond. Westbound, they're headed to Oswego and the Thousand Islands where Lake Ontario becomes the St. Lawrence Seaway; or up the Trent-Severn, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, through Chicago and down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico – the Great Loop.

My dad has embarked on his own journey towing a camping trailer west. He joins us here in Little falls for Lasagne (baked on board) and conversation.