Slow Boat

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We’ve been boating the Erie Canal for almost 10 years. You’d think we’d have seen every inch of her waters.

Nope. A few stretches are still terra incognita. This summer, we'll check some as-yet-not-visited corners off our "must see" list. Here’s where you’ll find us.

A Passage to Ithaca

In July we’ll be cruising from our home port of Macedon, NY (just southwest of Rochester) down to Ithaca, New York. (And then, of course, back to Macedon. A whopping 160 miles round trip.)

We’ll start by transiting canal towns we’ve visited before: Palmyra, Newark, Lyons, and Clyde. Then we’ll leave the main canal, just where it passes through the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, for the Cayuga-Seneca Canal.  

After a stop in Seneca Falls (to worship at the National Women’s Hall of Fame, naturally) we’ll head down the west side of Cayuga Lake. We’ll dock at Treman Marina (right in downtown Ithaca!) for about a week, mid-month. It’s been our longtime dream to boat up to the Ithaca Farmers Market. (When the kids were little, we used to kayak to market!) 

But sadly, the Farmers Market folks tell us we’re too big for their dock. Pout. (Maybe we’ll still try our reliable SlowBoat strategy: just show up and look cute).

Buffalo—at Last

From Macedon, we’ve cruised as far west as Lockport several times. (Did you know this town’s eponymous and historic flight of locks is pictured on Dragonfly’s stern door? See image at right.)

But we’ve never cruised all the way to Buffalo, the western terminus of the Erie Canal. So this August, we’re doin’ it.

Some of the towns we’ll transit include Pittsford, Spencerport, Brockport, Albion, Medina, Middleport, Gasport, and of course Lockport. Phew, that’s a lot of ports!

Visitors Welcome

If you’re a long-term blog follower, you know that one of our missions (right up there with "living sustainably," "experimenting with technology," and "taking pictures of boats with funny names") is “spreading the joy of canal boating across America.” 

So if you’d like to cruise with Dragonfly, let us know. (Berths are filling up fast!)