It rained most of the night and now it’s a chilly high of 72 today. There are some winds to keep a light jacket on. Someone needs to tell Mother Nature that it’s the middle of June.
We pass by a couple trailer camps along the way. Something we don’t see much of lately are cows wandering in the pasture. There are a couple grass fed farms. We find remnants of the old aquaduct from the first Erie Canal. This is where they built the canal over large bodies of water like the Seneca River that now forms the Erie Canal. The old aquaducts would be be the path for the boats to traverse the canal by mule and bypass large rivers. They are a sight to see as they are in ruins now but majestic none the less. You can see where the boats would travel on the top of the the gorgeous cement work.
Following our path west along the Erie Canal at an average speed of about 6 mph due to speed limits on the canal, we find that our time is going so very slow. It will take us about 4 hours to do 30 miles. Even though today we have the opportunity to go full speed in some of the areas we travel today, there are docks and boats in the water to consider so we have to slow down. Our average speed today ends up around 9 mph and 1 lock. We have decided to stay at Lock 25 on the terminal wall. It’s well manicured with grass cut and fresh paint for the lock. We’ll be staying at the western side of the lock. There is a long stretch to the east as well but passing through the lock makes it easy if we want to get moving prior to the opening of a new business day. There is no power or water.
This lock is smack in the middle of a wildlife refuge. The birds are abundant and singing away. There is a resident blue heron here that hangs on on the lock doors and catches fish caught when the waters go up and down. We’ve named him Fred. A groundhog made his appearance as well. The car bridge is a bit noisy but that will die down by tonight. We are looking forward to a quiet evening. There are bollards to tie to but the spacing is very large so we tie our front line to a sign and the stern to a bollard. It’s so quiet here that I don’t think city folk would be able to sleep.
Scott found a observatory area just over the bridge. He’s taking some gorgeous pictures of the refuge. It’s about a mile walk. The deck overlooks some areas that bald eagles tend to like. There was one, we think, but he was so high it was hard to tell. A white head and tail but the osprey look similar.
Tonight we had a picnic in the grass instead of dinner on the boat. The area is just so invitingly green. The pictures are exactly how green it is. It’s quieting down now from the bridge traffic. All we hear are birds chirping and the odd splash of a fish at the surface. Loving this spot. If we had a dog he would be able to run and run here.
