Friday June 10: Waterford - Start of the Erie Canal

Tides and currents: one last day! It was a scheduled 6 am leave time yesterday morning but we woke up early so just hit the river at 5:45 in order to catch the current moving upstream. It was a good plan since even doing this the current turned on us for the last hour or so. Kingston has a number of old boats in the process of being restored - one is the PT boat in the water near the museum. It's from WWII and I understand that it is one of the few remaining. The sun tried to come out but it was actually cooler without it. Steve spotted a couple of deer along the bank as well several eagles that were out and about early in the day.

The upper Hudson River is surrounded by lower land than what we have been seeing. The mountains are behind us, the river is smaller, narrower and less populated than it has been up until now. We still passed the occasional large barge (this one has a load of gasoline) even this far up the river (about 120 miles north of New York City). Entering Albany by water is very similar to Chicago and Cleveland: lots of industry that relies on easy water access. There was a giant 4-armed loading crane that is just like the one in the mini-game in Mario Party so that was fun!

Albany itself was difficult to explore by boat as the docking is for day docking only. Perhaps on the way back we'll stop for a few hours to explore it (of course we have said this about 100 places we have passed on the way up - it remains to be seen how many we actually have time for!).

Finally! Entering Lock 1!! This lock is actually on the Hudson River. After this lock you can go one of two ways: north to the Champlain Canal or west to the Erie Canal. We turned left :-)

Since it was Thursday when we arrived, we were able to tie on the part of the dock that has electric (just makes life easier). Within two hours of our arrival, the storm arrived as well. Lucky timing for us. Today the docks are pretty much filled so we are happy to be able to stay here another night. More about Waterford tomorrow.