Dave and Kelly's Boat Trip: Wednesday, June 27

Left Albany and headed 30 minutes north to Troy, where we encountered our first lock. What an experience! Once we entered the lock, we waited for someone to throw us a line, and when no one came, we looked for lines to grab with our pole ... no such luck! It seems that you use YOUR line, and wrap it around a pole inside the lock wall!!! We figured it out on our own and when the lockmaster came to get our canal pass, I asked him if we had the lines correct, as this is VERY different than the locks on the Mississippi :) He said we were right on!

Our first lock at Troy, New York. As you can see, the locks are VERY narrow!

After this, we went another half-mile and took a left to the ERIE CANAL!!!

LET THE EXCITING ADVENTURE BEGIN!!! While we waited for the first lock, on our right we noticed the tiny town of Waterford, the oldest incorporated village in the U.S. where a welcome center for the Erie Canal is the biggest part of the village :) Lock 2 (the first on the Erie Canal; Troy is considered Lock 1), is the first of five locks collectively known as the Waterford Flight. An engineering wonder, the "Flight" features five locks where we were lifted the greatest height in the shortest distance of any canal in the world! We rose 169 feet in elevation in less than 2 miles ...CRAZY!!!! Locking time took about two hours total. Once we entered Lock 2, all the other locks got prepared for us :) We only passed one other boat that was coming east as we were going west . . . totally different than any locks on the Upper Mississippi!

Check out the various pictures of locks 2-5 on the Erie Canal :)