Frankfort Harbor Part 2 from Lock E17

Next stop was Little Falls. There is a short space at Benton’s Landing with room for one boat. As I was tying up, I saw an interesting trimaran, with the vessel name Vaite. I looked it up and think it is a Newick Native 38, was built in 1979, and known to have sailed to Europe, Florida, Mexico and Mchigan. The information shows the owner from Port Huron, MI, and I noticed a Michigan registration number on the boat. We walked around Little Falls some, mostly along Canal Place. I enjoyed looking at some older buildings, and learned a bit about them. As we walked back, we stopped at Rock Valley Brewing Co. They were closed, but the owner happened to be there doing some brewing and cleaning. I asked about one old building I saw and learned it was once the Gilbert Knitting Mill, and I believe he said his grandfather owned it. Back at the boat I did a little more research. Quite the history involving a Little Falls textile strike. For some interesting information, go to these two links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912–1913_Little_…
https://revolutionsnewsstand.com/2024/06/29/so-…
Benton’s Landing only allowed boats a day stop. We thought about staying at Little Falls Canal Harbor Marina, but decided to pass and go on to the free dock at Herkimer. That required one more lock, E18. My routine is to pull in to the lock, then go all the way forward on the starboard wall, and grab on to the ladder. This lock had quite a bit of water leaking through its upper gate, so there was a little turbulence from that. Still nothing that made it hard to keep C-Traveler in position. We got to the Herkimer Free wall, and while there is a section of floating docks, they are in use by a commercial tour operator and off limits to recreational boaters. We found the wall there that we could dock up against was another high wall, and very shallow water next to it. (I was stirring up silt with the motor.) So we decided to press on another 5 miles to Frankfort Harbor Park, where we had stayed earlier while eastbound. Very nice floating docks and harbor here. Rosanne did get a code to the bathroom/shower building from the town, but we found there was no hot water and not the best facilities. We noticed a cement pad that was newly poured when we were here earlier, and see a lighthouse on it today. So, many more photos that the 25 restriction that penguins allows, so I’ll do this in two blogs. FWIW, I’ve already saved 804 photos on my laptop from this trip, and have probably deleted that many. So no, I’m not really uploading that many to my blog! lolRead more