June 10

We left St Johnsville at 8:50, and  arrived at Lock 16.  We locked through alone, rose 20 feet and were out by 9:24.  We could see that there were 5 boats waiting to go through after us.    We proceeded the 7 miles to Lock 17 in Little Falls,

this was a 40 foot rise.  For this lock the gates instead of opening side ways, opens vertically so you get wet going into the lock as the water is dripping on you from the lock door.

We were out of this lock by 10:50.  Some of the houses on the banks of the river here are quite close to the water.

We went another 5 miles and came to Lock 18, which was another 20 foot lift, we were through by 11:43.

We arrived at Ilion Village Marina at 12:30 and tied up.

We had made arrangements to meet Bonnie and Terry O’Bryan, who we had met in Myrtle Beach in March at a BBQ.

They took us shopping for provisions and showed us around the town.  Remington rifles began here in 1816 and was the biggest employer in town. Guns are still made here today, there is also have a museum.

We went out to an Italian restaurant for supper-  Great  food, great evening!

June 11

Woke up this morning and it was overcast and then Surprise, Surprise it’s raining. Our plan for today is to go through lock 19 and 20, once the disturbance passes. We left the marina at 10:55, and headed down the canal, it was still raining a bit and misty.

We reached Lock 19 and were through it by 11:50.

We reached the city of Utica at about 12:30.

We were at Lock 20  in Whitesboro at 1:00, and through it by 1:20.

We then tied up to the south wall on the East side of the  lock by 1:30.

This will be our second experience at staying at a lock wall, the first one was months ago on the Mississippi.  We had arranged to meet Aaron MacLeod, a former co-worker from the CGC who had recently moved to New York state.

He drove us into Utica for supper and then took us to the Craft New York Brewers Festival, where there were beers of all kinds from at least 50 Craft Brewers.

Aaron oversees barley and malt analysis in Oneonta NY at Hartwick College, so he knew many of the participants.  Andy and I wandered around and tried many samples,

not sure where they come up with some of the names for the brew.

We were back at the boat by 8:00, after going down some interesting streets in Utica.  The river was calm and weather had greatly improved from this morning.  There is a park on both sides of the lock, and still a number of people fishing.

Another great day in New York state with friends. We have promised Aaron, Erin and Ian a ride on our boat when they come to Winnipeg in 2017.

Plan for tomorrow is to try to get to Brewerton, which entails  2 locks and then 20 miles across Lake Oneida, I’m hoping it will be calm like it is right now.