Erie Canal -- Lock 25 to Brewerton

Thursday, July 20 -- Lock 25 to Brewerton -- 53 miles (and 3 locks)

We got underway around 9:30 for a run that took a little over six hours. This stretch of the canal is different in that it all consists of canalized rivers -- that is, natural river channels that were dredged where needed, occasionally straightened by cutting across big bends, and turned into a series of long lakes or pools by installing locks and dams at certain places. We started down the Clyde River, which soon merged into the Seneca River. At Three Rivers Junction, where the Seneca and Oneida Rivers meet to form the Oswego, we headed east up the Oneida and at Lock 23 just outside of Brewerton the lock lifted us six feet, whereas up till today all of our locks were taking us downhill. 

The speed limit for most of this stretch of the canal is 30 mph, although you have to slow down when passing other boats, or kayakers, or fishermen, and you have to go slow enough that your wake doesn't damage docks or boats that are docked. We can't do anywhere near 30 mph, but it was nice to be able to zip along at 16 mph rather than the 7-8 mph that we've done the last three days on the canal. 

Not long after leaving Lock 25 we passed the ruins of an aqueduct from the original Erie Canal, which didn't canalize the rivers but instead ran near them. That's some serious stone work for out in the boonies two hundred years ago.

Our final destination today was the Ess-Kay Yards in Brewerton, where we had arranged for the engine to get its regular 250-hour service. This turned out to be a great place, which caters to big cruising boats. There were at least half a dozen big looper trawlers and we were one of the smaller boats. The staff were very friendly and competent. They pointed out to us that the official "Erie Canalway May & Guide" (published by the National Park Service and the New York State Canal Corporation) has an aerial photo of the canal connecting with Oneida Lake with the Ess-Kay Yards prominently in the foreground. 

The only drawback with the Ess-Kay Yards is that it's on the outskirts of Brewerton, which isn't much of a town to begin with. But they make up for that by offering free loaner cars, and we used one to go to dinner.

P.S. Brewerton is the town where John and his son and son-in-law went to the quarter mile dirt track on Friday night when they made our canal trip in 2010. John was tempted to spend another night at the Ess-Kay Yards to go the that track again -- which still runs races every Friday night -- but we decided we'd rather get some mileage behind us on Friday so we could spend more time in the Thousand Islands and/or Montreal.