As You Wish - Our Adventures: September 3, 2024 Rivah Cruisin' - Baldwinsville to Lyons 50 miles and 6.9 hours

Tuesday Sept. 3, 2024 Baldwinsville to Lyons 50 miles and 7 hours

This was one of the longest cruising days we've had in quite a while. Several locks to interrupt the cruising but also just a lot of slow-going river cruising. Mostly natural river scenery interspersed with some stretches of narrow man-made cuts. As we left Baldwinsville there was a fleet of canal employees "harvesting" weeds in a shallow area off the main canal route. Pretty fascinating to watch as they loaded up their vessels then headed to shore to transfer it to a dump truck.

Transfer barge hauls away weeds while "Chomper" vessel collects another load

Overall it was pretty scenic. One thing we noted was the abundance of birds. Blue herons, snowy egrets and even a few eagles. In particular were the blue herons. I always associated them more with southern saltwater marsh areas so it's been surprising to see so many in this stretch of the canal. They have a strange behavior. As we approach their shoreside area they would fly off in front of us and land several hundred feet ahead. Then as we approached again they would fly off and land another few hundred feet ahead. Oftentimes doing this numerous times before finally flying back behind the boat to an undisturbed area.

Blue Herons everywhere in this section of the canal.

And a few bald eagles too!

Unlike the Rideau canal which was built as a military supply route for its primary purpose, the Erie canal was always about commerce. As such it actually went through several iterations of progressively bigger and wider versions. There was the original canal, then an "expanded" canal and then the current 100 year old canal. Much of the earlier versions have long since disappeared. Towns like Lyons used to have the canal going right through the downtown. Now those areas are completely filled in and oftentimes designated by names such as Water or Canal Street. Occasionally you can still come across some ruins of the old canals. We passed by the remains of the aqueduct that carried the original canal across the Seneca River.

Original canal aqueduct ruins

With our radar arch lowered, the bimini top removed and the radar dome removed from its platform, we measured our overall height at 14'10". That should get us under all the bridges on the western Erie as the lowest ones are listed as 15' at full spring levels. We have a little extra room being later in the season - but not by much. Went under the first of many 15' bridges today. Not a ton of room to spare but more than just a few inches.

Getting close and personal with the undersides of bridges

Finally made it to Lyons. It's a town trying hard to survive. Using its history as a canal town as one reason for visitors to stop. Really not much there other than a few interesting old buildings in the downtown. At one time Lyons was known as the Peppermint Capital of the World. Fields of peppermint surrounded the town and the Hotchkiss Essential Oil Company processed it and exported it worldwide for use in medicines, candy, etc. A part of their old factory is now a museum - just wasn't open during our stay.