Erie Canal trip report
Aug 28th, 2008 | 02:23 PM
#1
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Joined: Sep 2003
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Erie Canal trip report
My wife and I recently (16-23 Aug 2008) abandoned our children and dog and rented a canal houseboat for a week on the Erie canal. This was huge fun. First some general comments, then a day-by-day description.
General: I didn't find much of anything on this forum (or others) regarding such trips. But anyone else planning one may find the following links useful, in addition to my trip report:
http://tinyurl.com/6bpkjt (an article from Boat/US Magazine, 2004, a nice summary of canal boating)
http://tinyurl.com/5js5e7 (a trip report from 2006)
http://tinyurl.com/5qn9on (a NY Times travel article from 1992)
This is a relaxed sort of vacation: slow pace, and not too many big tourist attractions. We loved it. The opportunity to see the small towns along the canal and to "unplug" for a week was well worth it, and we enjoyed learning about the history of the canal and its towns. The boat travelled about 100 miles total during the week.
We rented the boat from Mid-Lakes Navigation in Macedon, NY, near Rochester. It was a 33' steel boat, low and flat like typical canal boats. They will not allow you to take it out on large lakes. That didn't really slow us down, though. Boats must be returned where you pick them up, so everything you see, you see twice. The boat has a full galley, bathroom with shower & toilet, double bed, dining area in the bow, exterior (but covered) cockpit in the stern, extra bunks, and comes equipped with literally everything you need but food and clothes (they do seem to have thought of everything). Pictures and plans can be found at the company's website, www.midlakesnav.com. The boat was great for 2 people, and would have sufficed for 4 -- but personally I'd go for one of their larger 43' boats if I had 4 people (this boat was $2300/week, the larger ones about $2900). Diesel fuel is included, there is no need to pump out the tanks for a 1-week voyage, and power and water were free most places we tied up (though you can certainly go a few nights without shore power or water).
On to the day-by-day stuff:
Sat (16 Aug): picked up boat at 2PM, they took us on a brief checkout cruise (including going through a lock), and we were off. Anyone can drive one of these: they're built like tanks, and at a flank speed of about 7 MPH you're not going to do too much damage. Locking is fun and easy as well. There are 2 very helpful books on board: "Cruising Guide to the NY State Canal System", 3rd edition, ISBN 0-9740068-0-7, with lots of detailed charts, and "Erie Canal Guide Western Section - Tonawanda to Syracuse", by J. G. Frankel, ISBN 0-9628457-0-1. We saw only a few other Mid-Lakes rentals plus a jet ski today, as far as vehicles that were actually moving on the water. Went East past Palmyra, then back to Port of Palmyra, our destination for the first night. This is a nice little park-like marina, with free moorage, free power, and free water, as well as easy access to "downtown" Palmyra. We took a post-cocktail bike ride around town (boat came with 2 bikes), seeing what is supposedly the only intersection in the world with 4 churches at the corner. Palmyra is also the birthplace of the Mormon church: Joseph Smith grew up here, and the sites where he was visited by an angel and dug up the original Book of Mormon are in town, along with a Mormon clothing store and the building in which the first Books of Mormon were printed. We also took a short bike ride along the canal towpath: from Palmyra west to Lockport, the canal is paralleled by a nice bike/jogging/whatever path where the mules used to trod. In general on this trip, we made about 1/2 our meals on the boat and ate out for the rest. Dinner tonight was cooked on the propane grill that came with the boat (it also has a stove, oven, fridge, etc.). After dinner we rode bikes to the Wayne County Fair and took in part of the demolition derby.
Today we cruised about 3 hours and lost 32' of elevation going through 2 locks.
Sunday: boat didn't move today; we had friends meet us in Palmyra for breakfast on the boat, then we drove to Seneca Falls to get the winery tour bus ($10 and well worth it). Before this we took a walk around town, seeing an interesting old cemetery. Palmyra has a very attractive downtown area with some very nice buildings. It is dead, except for churches, on Sundays. Mondays are pretty quiet too, with many things still closed (3 out of 4 museums, some of which I'd have liked to see). But I would like to visit during the week when it is more lively, perhaps. After the wine tour, we had dinner on the boat and our friends spent the night with us there.
Monday: Motored east a bit, into a very desolate area, and tied up to a canal buoy while we had breakfast. Saw nothing but herons (great blues, mostly) and kingfishers; no other boats or people. Went back west through 2 locks (regaining 32' of elevation), dropping off our friends in Macedon. Continued west past Fairport (and under their lift bridge, which stopped traffic and rose just for us). Pittsford was our destination, and we arrived about 2PM, tying up at the town park on the south side of the canal, where we again had free moorage and power (no water, though, but the boat holds enough this wasn't an issue). Like Palmyra, this is an attractive, well-kept town for the most part, but it is much more upscale. We had a first-rate lunch at a place on Main St. called Hicks & McCarthy, and there is some hoity-toity stuff in town as well -- boutiques, chocolate shops, etc. A pre-cocktail bike ride along the canal to lock 32, then north through the woods to old lock 62 park, was quite pleasant. After dinner at the boat, we went to Simply Crepes for some dessert. Very yummy. Tonight after bedtime was our only rain of the trip; weather otherwise was quite splendid.
Tuesday: Cruised Pittsford to Brockport, 8AM-1PM, taking turns eating breakfast while underway. Passed through 2 locks (gaining 50' in elevation), and under 3 lift bridges. Got more ice for the cooler at Pittsford before leaving (boat comes with cooler in addition to fridge). A little chilly this morning, but no rain. Saw almost no other boats today. Brockport is largest town we plan to visit and is very pleasant. Less posh than Pittsford, and definitely a college town (SUNY Brockport). The bar-to-church ratio in the downtown area seems to have climbed to about 6-2 (the inverse of that in Palmyra). We had lunch at the Merchant St. Smokehouse, right on the canal: excellent ribs and BBQ. The next town West is Holley, and we took the bikes there (about 10 miles R/T). Holley seems like a pleasant town, very residential, but the downtown area (slightly off of the canal) is not exactly thriving. We did, however, find a nice waterfall within easy biking distance below the canal. After dinner on the boat it was time to research some of the local drinking establishments. A new place on the canal (Stone Tavern, I think, but I could have the name all wrong) was fine inside, with a reasonable beer selection. But our next stop, Barber's Grill, was better -- free popcorn and it was ladies' night, so as long as my wife was paying we got 2-for-1 beers. She kept paying, God bless her. We continued to see many herons and ducks along the canal (not so many kingfishers going west, though) and virtually no other boats. There were quite a few other boats docked at Brockport, but only about 4 of us spent the night there. This was the first of 2 nights we had to pay for moorage ($8).
A note on our bike ride: it took us 30 minutes to get to Holley, a rate of about 10 MPH. This will become more interesting when you read how long it took us by boat tomorrow.
Wednesday: Breakfast at Java Junction in Brockport, topped off boat's water tank, then headed west to Holley about 8AM. It took us 52 minutes, vs. 30 on the bicycles. In general on this trip, we would frequently get passed by old men and small children riding bicycles on the towpath. We did, however, manage to pass a walking pregnant woman, which gave us a feeling of great accomplishment. We decided to head back East at this point (we wanted to see some things further West, but sitting at Palmyra for a day made that too much of a rush for us). We certainly could have spent more time motoring -- we probably average less than 4 hours a day under power, but we wanted to have lots of time to walk around the towns.
Heading back East, we went under Brockport's 2 lift bridges (there is 1 operator for both; he or she had to drive from one operating booth to the next while we waited in between) and on to Spencerport, arriving at about 12:30. Very cute little town, smallest we stayed at on the trip, again with free moorage/water/electric. The town has a very pleasant and well-kept canalside area and about 5 restaurants in easy walking distance of the town canal wall. We also found 1 bar, several churches, and some new-agey-type establishments (Rieki, psychologist, art therapist, etc.) right by the canal. If those things don't work for you, a shop called "Guns for You" is just around the corner. Dinner was in town the Taste of Texas BBQ, which we thought was simply outstanding. As with all the places we stopped, we really enjoyed walking around the town and admiring the architecture and other amenities.
Thursday: Cruised from Spencerport to Rochester (9AM-11AM). This involved our first actual turn of the voyage (not counting U-turns). On a canal, one doesn't get to turn very often, so this was quite invigorating. It was a left turn to head North up the Genesee River to Rochester. We moored at Corn Hill Landing on the East bank, just before the dam (don't mess with the dams). On the way up the river we saw many egrets in addition to ducks and gulls and herons. Again free moorage with elec. and water, though we only stayed for the afternoon, not overnight. We biked through downtown Rochester, partly on a bike path and partly on streets/sidewalks, ending up at the High Falls/Browns Race area. There is nice pedestrian bridge for viewing the falls, and the neighborhood has a nice sense of its history, with some aspects of the old water power generation and mills still in evidence (and some still in use). Downtown, at least what we saw of it, didn't seem too bad: some interesting building, and not nearly as deserted as downtown Buffalo. This was our closest approach to Lake Ontario: about 7 miles away, and it would have been a nice bike ride, but we had other plans. We biked back to the dock area, where there are at least 4 restaurants; we had lunch at the Siam Thai restaurant: good quality stuff, but not terribly spicy. About 1:30 we left Rochester, headed for another night in Pittsford (my wife forgot to patronize the chocolate shop the first time around). The voyage was about 2 hours, including 2 locks -- and for the first time we actually had company in the locks: a sailboat, a tour boat, and another rental houseboat. We explored Pittsford a little more and took advantage of a going-out-of-business sale to replenish my wardrobe. Dinner on boat tonight.
Friday: Breakfast at Simply Crepes, then a bike ride to Wegman's, a grocery store, to get a lime so we could continue making mojitos. My wife says we either have to move to Pittsford or get a Wegman's back home: high-quality merchandise with a lot of variety. Cruised to Fairport, arriving before lunch. This is a great canal town, with much going on both north and south of the canal, and it had the most space for boats of any place we docked; in general, probably the most lively canalside area of any town we visited. In terms of the "posh" factor, it's somewhere between Pittsford and Brockport. We once again enjoyed walking around town and our dinner at the Blue Cactus was one of the best Mexican meals I've had anywhere outside the Southwest. The overnight docking charge here was $9, only the 2nd time we had to pay on this trip.
Saturday: Boat is due back to Macedon Marina at 9AM, so we had breakfast on the boat and left Fairport about 7:30, arriving Macedon by the deadline.
This was a great trip, and we'd do it again in a minute. It's not fast-paced or full of popular tourist attractions, but it made for a wonderful vacation.
Sorry for such a long report, but since there isn't much available on this kind of trip on this site, I figured I'd be complete in case anyone else wants to try such a thing. I'll monitor this thread for a while in case anyone has any questions I can answer.
General: I didn't find much of anything on this forum (or others) regarding such trips. But anyone else planning one may find the following links useful, in addition to my trip report:
http://tinyurl.com/6bpkjt (an article from Boat/US Magazine, 2004, a nice summary of canal boating)
http://tinyurl.com/5js5e7 (a trip report from 2006)
http://tinyurl.com/5qn9on (a NY Times travel article from 1992)
This is a relaxed sort of vacation: slow pace, and not too many big tourist attractions. We loved it. The opportunity to see the small towns along the canal and to "unplug" for a week was well worth it, and we enjoyed learning about the history of the canal and its towns. The boat travelled about 100 miles total during the week.
We rented the boat from Mid-Lakes Navigation in Macedon, NY, near Rochester. It was a 33' steel boat, low and flat like typical canal boats. They will not allow you to take it out on large lakes. That didn't really slow us down, though. Boats must be returned where you pick them up, so everything you see, you see twice. The boat has a full galley, bathroom with shower & toilet, double bed, dining area in the bow, exterior (but covered) cockpit in the stern, extra bunks, and comes equipped with literally everything you need but food and clothes (they do seem to have thought of everything). Pictures and plans can be found at the company's website, www.midlakesnav.com. The boat was great for 2 people, and would have sufficed for 4 -- but personally I'd go for one of their larger 43' boats if I had 4 people (this boat was $2300/week, the larger ones about $2900). Diesel fuel is included, there is no need to pump out the tanks for a 1-week voyage, and power and water were free most places we tied up (though you can certainly go a few nights without shore power or water).
On to the day-by-day stuff:
Sat (16 Aug): picked up boat at 2PM, they took us on a brief checkout cruise (including going through a lock), and we were off. Anyone can drive one of these: they're built like tanks, and at a flank speed of about 7 MPH you're not going to do too much damage. Locking is fun and easy as well. There are 2 very helpful books on board: "Cruising Guide to the NY State Canal System", 3rd edition, ISBN 0-9740068-0-7, with lots of detailed charts, and "Erie Canal Guide Western Section - Tonawanda to Syracuse", by J. G. Frankel, ISBN 0-9628457-0-1. We saw only a few other Mid-Lakes rentals plus a jet ski today, as far as vehicles that were actually moving on the water. Went East past Palmyra, then back to Port of Palmyra, our destination for the first night. This is a nice little park-like marina, with free moorage, free power, and free water, as well as easy access to "downtown" Palmyra. We took a post-cocktail bike ride around town (boat came with 2 bikes), seeing what is supposedly the only intersection in the world with 4 churches at the corner. Palmyra is also the birthplace of the Mormon church: Joseph Smith grew up here, and the sites where he was visited by an angel and dug up the original Book of Mormon are in town, along with a Mormon clothing store and the building in which the first Books of Mormon were printed. We also took a short bike ride along the canal towpath: from Palmyra west to Lockport, the canal is paralleled by a nice bike/jogging/whatever path where the mules used to trod. In general on this trip, we made about 1/2 our meals on the boat and ate out for the rest. Dinner tonight was cooked on the propane grill that came with the boat (it also has a stove, oven, fridge, etc.). After dinner we rode bikes to the Wayne County Fair and took in part of the demolition derby.
Today we cruised about 3 hours and lost 32' of elevation going through 2 locks.
Sunday: boat didn't move today; we had friends meet us in Palmyra for breakfast on the boat, then we drove to Seneca Falls to get the winery tour bus ($10 and well worth it). Before this we took a walk around town, seeing an interesting old cemetery. Palmyra has a very attractive downtown area with some very nice buildings. It is dead, except for churches, on Sundays. Mondays are pretty quiet too, with many things still closed (3 out of 4 museums, some of which I'd have liked to see). But I would like to visit during the week when it is more lively, perhaps. After the wine tour, we had dinner on the boat and our friends spent the night with us there.
Monday: Motored east a bit, into a very desolate area, and tied up to a canal buoy while we had breakfast. Saw nothing but herons (great blues, mostly) and kingfishers; no other boats or people. Went back west through 2 locks (regaining 32' of elevation), dropping off our friends in Macedon. Continued west past Fairport (and under their lift bridge, which stopped traffic and rose just for us). Pittsford was our destination, and we arrived about 2PM, tying up at the town park on the south side of the canal, where we again had free moorage and power (no water, though, but the boat holds enough this wasn't an issue). Like Palmyra, this is an attractive, well-kept town for the most part, but it is much more upscale. We had a first-rate lunch at a place on Main St. called Hicks & McCarthy, and there is some hoity-toity stuff in town as well -- boutiques, chocolate shops, etc. A pre-cocktail bike ride along the canal to lock 32, then north through the woods to old lock 62 park, was quite pleasant. After dinner at the boat, we went to Simply Crepes for some dessert. Very yummy. Tonight after bedtime was our only rain of the trip; weather otherwise was quite splendid.
Tuesday: Cruised Pittsford to Brockport, 8AM-1PM, taking turns eating breakfast while underway. Passed through 2 locks (gaining 50' in elevation), and under 3 lift bridges. Got more ice for the cooler at Pittsford before leaving (boat comes with cooler in addition to fridge). A little chilly this morning, but no rain. Saw almost no other boats today. Brockport is largest town we plan to visit and is very pleasant. Less posh than Pittsford, and definitely a college town (SUNY Brockport). The bar-to-church ratio in the downtown area seems to have climbed to about 6-2 (the inverse of that in Palmyra). We had lunch at the Merchant St. Smokehouse, right on the canal: excellent ribs and BBQ. The next town West is Holley, and we took the bikes there (about 10 miles R/T). Holley seems like a pleasant town, very residential, but the downtown area (slightly off of the canal) is not exactly thriving. We did, however, find a nice waterfall within easy biking distance below the canal. After dinner on the boat it was time to research some of the local drinking establishments. A new place on the canal (Stone Tavern, I think, but I could have the name all wrong) was fine inside, with a reasonable beer selection. But our next stop, Barber's Grill, was better -- free popcorn and it was ladies' night, so as long as my wife was paying we got 2-for-1 beers. She kept paying, God bless her. We continued to see many herons and ducks along the canal (not so many kingfishers going west, though) and virtually no other boats. There were quite a few other boats docked at Brockport, but only about 4 of us spent the night there. This was the first of 2 nights we had to pay for moorage ($8).
A note on our bike ride: it took us 30 minutes to get to Holley, a rate of about 10 MPH. This will become more interesting when you read how long it took us by boat tomorrow.
Wednesday: Breakfast at Java Junction in Brockport, topped off boat's water tank, then headed west to Holley about 8AM. It took us 52 minutes, vs. 30 on the bicycles. In general on this trip, we would frequently get passed by old men and small children riding bicycles on the towpath. We did, however, manage to pass a walking pregnant woman, which gave us a feeling of great accomplishment. We decided to head back East at this point (we wanted to see some things further West, but sitting at Palmyra for a day made that too much of a rush for us). We certainly could have spent more time motoring -- we probably average less than 4 hours a day under power, but we wanted to have lots of time to walk around the towns.
Heading back East, we went under Brockport's 2 lift bridges (there is 1 operator for both; he or she had to drive from one operating booth to the next while we waited in between) and on to Spencerport, arriving at about 12:30. Very cute little town, smallest we stayed at on the trip, again with free moorage/water/electric. The town has a very pleasant and well-kept canalside area and about 5 restaurants in easy walking distance of the town canal wall. We also found 1 bar, several churches, and some new-agey-type establishments (Rieki, psychologist, art therapist, etc.) right by the canal. If those things don't work for you, a shop called "Guns for You" is just around the corner. Dinner was in town the Taste of Texas BBQ, which we thought was simply outstanding. As with all the places we stopped, we really enjoyed walking around the town and admiring the architecture and other amenities.
Thursday: Cruised from Spencerport to Rochester (9AM-11AM). This involved our first actual turn of the voyage (not counting U-turns). On a canal, one doesn't get to turn very often, so this was quite invigorating. It was a left turn to head North up the Genesee River to Rochester. We moored at Corn Hill Landing on the East bank, just before the dam (don't mess with the dams). On the way up the river we saw many egrets in addition to ducks and gulls and herons. Again free moorage with elec. and water, though we only stayed for the afternoon, not overnight. We biked through downtown Rochester, partly on a bike path and partly on streets/sidewalks, ending up at the High Falls/Browns Race area. There is nice pedestrian bridge for viewing the falls, and the neighborhood has a nice sense of its history, with some aspects of the old water power generation and mills still in evidence (and some still in use). Downtown, at least what we saw of it, didn't seem too bad: some interesting building, and not nearly as deserted as downtown Buffalo. This was our closest approach to Lake Ontario: about 7 miles away, and it would have been a nice bike ride, but we had other plans. We biked back to the dock area, where there are at least 4 restaurants; we had lunch at the Siam Thai restaurant: good quality stuff, but not terribly spicy. About 1:30 we left Rochester, headed for another night in Pittsford (my wife forgot to patronize the chocolate shop the first time around). The voyage was about 2 hours, including 2 locks -- and for the first time we actually had company in the locks: a sailboat, a tour boat, and another rental houseboat. We explored Pittsford a little more and took advantage of a going-out-of-business sale to replenish my wardrobe. Dinner on boat tonight.
Friday: Breakfast at Simply Crepes, then a bike ride to Wegman's, a grocery store, to get a lime so we could continue making mojitos. My wife says we either have to move to Pittsford or get a Wegman's back home: high-quality merchandise with a lot of variety. Cruised to Fairport, arriving before lunch. This is a great canal town, with much going on both north and south of the canal, and it had the most space for boats of any place we docked; in general, probably the most lively canalside area of any town we visited. In terms of the "posh" factor, it's somewhere between Pittsford and Brockport. We once again enjoyed walking around town and our dinner at the Blue Cactus was one of the best Mexican meals I've had anywhere outside the Southwest. The overnight docking charge here was $9, only the 2nd time we had to pay on this trip.
Saturday: Boat is due back to Macedon Marina at 9AM, so we had breakfast on the boat and left Fairport about 7:30, arriving Macedon by the deadline.
This was a great trip, and we'd do it again in a minute. It's not fast-paced or full of popular tourist attractions, but it made for a wonderful vacation.
Sorry for such a long report, but since there isn't much available on this kind of trip on this site, I figured I'd be complete in case anyone else wants to try such a thing. I'll monitor this thread for a while in case anyone has any questions I can answer.
Aug 28th, 2008 | 04:50 PM
#3
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 532
Likes: 0
Have only made it to thrusday so far but wanted to thank you for taking the time to make this post. Nice to know there are trips like this around. And it's ironic cause we were just talking about the Erie Canal at work yesterday.
Aug 28th, 2008 | 05:17 PM
#5
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 720
Likes: 0
Thanks so much for posting this. I've mentioned trying something like this to my husband, but like you, hadn't found a lot of first-hand info.
I'm definitely going to copy this thread into my travel folder.
Glad you had such a good time.
I'm definitely going to copy this thread into my travel folder.
Glad you had such a good time.
Aug 28th, 2008 | 07:37 PM
#7
Original Poster
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 97
Likes: 0
Hello wliwl et al --
Glad someone's finding the post useful.
No pets allowed, according to their brochure. That wasn't a problem for us, as we didn't want to bring our dog anyway: he has a tendency to jump off of moving boats.
We did see some rented houseboats from other companies (can't remember the names); whether they have the same policy, I don't know.
The tea shop inside Wegman's impressed my wife immensely. I don't drink the stuff, but I did appreciate their beer selection.
Glad someone's finding the post useful.
No pets allowed, according to their brochure. That wasn't a problem for us, as we didn't want to bring our dog anyway: he has a tendency to jump off of moving boats.
We did see some rented houseboats from other companies (can't remember the names); whether they have the same policy, I don't know.
The tea shop inside Wegman's impressed my wife immensely. I don't drink the stuff, but I did appreciate their beer selection.
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Aug 29th, 2008 | 04:08 AM
#9
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 1,837
Likes: 0
I enjoyed your report. I've seen the boats go by my house and I was wondering how much they cost. I didn't realize how big of an operation Mid Lakes Navigation was. I live on the Erie Canal north of Syracuse where they have dinner boat cruises that look very inviting even to a local. Sounds like a fun and relaxing vacation.
We are spoiled with Wegmans!
We are spoiled with Wegmans!
Aug 30th, 2008 | 07:49 AM
#12
Original Poster
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 97
Likes: 0
Hello --
Williamscb13: two bikes came with the boat, including a cable lock, which came in handy. I'm sure we could have substituted or added our own bikes if we liked -- we saw other boats with more bikes. The company may also be able to provide additional bikes, but I'm sure.
Bennnie: Yes, my wife and I have had boating experience, but it's really unnecessary: mostly that served to convince us we'd enjoy the trip. No boating experience is required. The boats are extremely easy to handle and it's really hard to do anything wrong. A 1/2-hour checkout cruise through the lock is quite sufficient. A large percentage of their renters are first-time boaters, so I'm told.
Williamscb13: two bikes came with the boat, including a cable lock, which came in handy. I'm sure we could have substituted or added our own bikes if we liked -- we saw other boats with more bikes. The company may also be able to provide additional bikes, but I'm sure.
Bennnie: Yes, my wife and I have had boating experience, but it's really unnecessary: mostly that served to convince us we'd enjoy the trip. No boating experience is required. The boats are extremely easy to handle and it's really hard to do anything wrong. A 1/2-hour checkout cruise through the lock is quite sufficient. A large percentage of their renters are first-time boaters, so I'm told.
Aug 30th, 2008 | 05:24 PM
#13
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 3,752
Likes: 0
What an interesting report. I lived in Fairport many years ago and can still remember its claim to fame of having the only slanted lift bridge in the world. From what I hear and what you have reported, Fairport has really matured and built up its waterfront.
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