Erie Canal Trip - Introduction

My first big trip on the Erie Canal. After purchasing my boat in June and spending several weeks getting used to the boat I decided to make a long trip. For many years I've been vacationing and kayaking throughout Upstate New York and had always been fascinated with the Erie Canal. For those of you who are not familiar with the Erie Canal it spans the length of New York State and was at once the transportation King - enabling products to travel easily from the west down to New York City through the Erie Canal and the Hudson River. While commercial traffic is very limited nowadays, the Erie Canal has a rich an interesting history. Today the Erie Canal is mostly used for recreational vessels and tourism and the state of New York encourages boaters of all types to use the canal and encourages tourism and commerce throughout the region. I have been fascinated with the Erie Canal and The Locks along it. When I had traveled out there I would often stop at locks and towns along the way. Looking down at the boaters as they traveled along through the canal I stood hopefully wishing that it would be me one day. Now that I have a Ranger tug I decided that it would be a perfect trip. I spent weeks researching online and preparing for the trip which would take me over 10 days from Waterford New York and across the central region of New York state by canal. It was the best trip that I ever took.

There are number of resources to look at before you decide to do a trip on the Erie Canal. Most are online but there are several books that you should purchase before going that will help you with your trip. The Erie Canal is mostly narrow flat and consists of multiple locks along with several waterways that are integrated into the canal including one large lake. Navigating these requires some knowledge of the area along with several charts. One particular book that I found excellent was called Skipper Bob's Erie Canal Waterway guide which was excellent and available online. This being my first trip I was extremely nervous but having returned home after spending 10 days on the Erie Canal I feel like it was an excellent adventure. Instead of one blog about the Erie Canal I've decided to blog several chapters about different aspects of the canal as I travel through. along the way I was able to meet so many kind friendly and generous people who helped me and made my trip such a success. If you're thinking of doing the Erie Canal you definitely should! The following blogs will narrate my trip as as well as provide some tips for making your adventure travel fun on this exceptionally historic Waterway.