Thursday August 11: Waterford, NY

Our arrival at Waterford yesterday was a welcome sight :-) After 2 months, more than 750 miles, 99 locks, 2 states, 2 provinces, 7 rivers, 4 large lakes and 5 canals, we have completed the much smaller Canadian Loop! It must be time to start heading south :-)

Fog? Guess we are still somewhat in the mountains and the water is warmer than the air so of course it was foggy when we woke up. Much had dissipated by the time Steve decided to take a picture. This was in Whitehall as we were leaving Monday morning. One of the local attractions is the ruins of the USS Ticonderoga - the sign will tell you a bit a about the ship. Funny that it was built in Vergennes - the small town on the Otto River from the other night.

The Champlain Canal now winds in and out of the Hudson River - basically providing a way to bypass any rapids that are on the River. We're now going down stream, having reached the highest point mid-way along this canal. So Lake Champlain drains north to the Richelieu River and the St. Lawrence which I didn't realize. Seems odd for it to flow north. Anyway, often there are signs along the way to make sure that boaters know which way to go! Parts are now quite narrow with cuts that were obviously made through a part of the mountains.

Farther along, the mountains are gone and farmland is back again. Steve spotted some small pigs under the tree on shore. Everything along the canal/river is so green - plenty of rain in this area. In fact the flooding was so bad that the canal we are on didn't even open until the first part of July. We knew it was closed and had to just hope that it would be open by the time we arrived but the backup plan was to just go to Ottawa and then turn around and go back to NY the way we came. Ft. Edward was our stop for Tuesday night.

There wasn't much in Ft. Edward other than a nice park with a free dock (electric/water also). Most of these towns have definitely seen better days - downtowns are mostly empty, some small businesses but nothing to speak of. Industries the town relied on for their livelihood have moved out with nothing to replace them. Steve tried to fall in the water putting the power cords on the deck - I was ready with camera in hand :-) In the Hudson River just south of here is a huge dredging operation. Many small tugs, big barges and giant scooper things.

And finally - late in the day we arrived at our 6th and final lock for the day and the trip (well, just one tomorrow first thing). We were so happy to see the door open and know we were done with our 99 locks on this trip!