Reached the Erie Canal

Sunday, July 16 -- Dunkirk, NY to Medina, NY -- 81 miles (with 35 on the Erie Canal)

We had a rather sloppy ride for our last short leg on Lake Erie, with 1-2 foot rollers coming out of the WNW off the port stern. We weren't slamming, but we were rolling, which the First Mate does not enjoy. But it was just two hours of rolling till we reached the shelter of the outer breakwall at Buffalo. We ran a few miles north inside of the breakwall to the start of the Niagara River and then rode the river about ten miles to the entrance to Tonawanda Creek, which is the western end of the Erie Canal. The ride down the Niagara was exciting, as there is a very strong current -- usually 4-5 mph but at times reaching 8-9 mph. That's a big boost when your normal cruising speed is about 16 mph!

The photos below are in reverse order, starting with the start of the Erie Canal and ending with the Buffalo skyline. In between are photos showing the current at the Peace Bridge at the start of the Niagara River and the South Grand Island Bridge close to where we turned off for Tonawanda Creek.

Once on the Erie Canal we entered a whole new world. No waves or weather worries, a 10 mph speed limit -- which for us translated to about 8 mph given fuel efficiency and wake management for our particular boat -- riding slowly and calmly through endless miles of bucolic rural countryside. The following photos from the stretch of canal between Lockport and Medina (our destination for the night) give a sense of what this world is like. 

Notice how the canal is often higher than the surrounding landscape. They clearly built the canal to follow roughly a constant elevation, as there are no locks on the canal for the 63 miles between Lockport and Pittsford to the SE of Rochester. As a result, the ground is often lower north of the canal and higher to the south.

From its start at North Tonawanda the canal follows Tonawanda Creek for ten miles, then it heads NE for about eight miles cut through the hard rock of the Niagara Escarpment (which we saw last over two weeks ago in Tobermory) to Lockport, where two back-to-back locks drop the canal fifty feet. The original Erie Canal took five locks to accomplish the same feat. What we are riding on now is the third version of the canal, built around the time of WWI -- often following the same route but not always. 

We stopped for the night at the town dock at Medina, NY. Like most of the little towns along the Erie Canal, it was founded around the time the canal was built (it was completed in 1825) and its heydays ended with the coming of the railroads a few decades later. Many of these towns now focus on tourist travel using the canal, which includes lots of cyclists and hikers as well as boaters. We had a nice dinner at a pizza place on the main street. The town dock was quiet -- and free! -- with power, water and restrooms.