Canajoharie

30 miles and five locks today. It was mostly a quiet night in Frankfort, except for a very loud fire cracker someone set off after sunset. Another chilly night in the 40’s, but today was sunny in the upper 70’s. A little breezy, but most the time we didn’t feel in on the Canal. All the lockages went very smoothly. We did have to wait about 10 minutes at lock 15 for a sailboat coming the other way. Lock 17 was the interesting one. Largest drop on the Canal, around 40 feet. This lock also has a different style gate on the east end. It’s a lift gate. And if you aren’t undercover when you go under it, you will get “rained” on. We passed some historic areas today. (Well, actually, the entire Erie Canal is historic…) We passed Old Lock 33 of the Erie enlarged canal at St. Johnsville. It had a six foot lift and was built in the late 1830’s. The lock was abandoned around 1917 when the barge canal was completed in this section of the Mohawk Valley. Also passed the Herkimer Home State Historic site. Neither of these had a dock available to stop at, otherwise it would have been interesting to tour them. Last evening, we decided to go all the way to Canajohire today, at Bill’s suggestion. I also had it on my planning list of possible places to stop at. The guide book I’m using mentioned boiling potholes here. Canajohire Creek’s potholes inspired the town’s name. In Mohawk, canajohire means, “the pot that washes itself.” The word refers to the deep potholes in the streambed, eroded by swirling rocks. There use to be some floating docks along the Erie Canal here in Canajohire, but they were taken out by hurricane damage a few years ago. However, just around the corner of the Riverfront Park, there is a cement wall that boats can tie up to. It’s rather high, but we managed to climb off the boats on it, and then Bill, Rosanne and I walked the mile and a half up town and then down the trail to the creek and the potholes. As an Earth Science major, I enjoy the geology. Tomorrow at Tom’s suggestion, we plan to make Amsterdam. For a video of the lock 17 lift gate raising, go to my youtube channel. Here is the link to the video: https://youtu.be/mxQxdmJd9bU .Read more