Albion, NY–Erie Canal

Good evening… What a whopping day of travel. We cruised nearly 9.3 miles to Albion. It’s not a long day of travel between towns, but let me say each one of the towns have there own personality. We are seeing many of the towns along the Erie but we have also missed a few. We have met many boaters who never leave their boats to explore the towns. I must say; they are missing some great places. Here in Albion, it is full of sandstone buildings. It’s a town of Churches and it is also the town of George Pullman the inventor of the railroad sleeping car. We explored the town, went out for dinner and enjoyed sitting on the bow of Beauty watching the boats pass through the lift bridges. With that thought I must start this blog with a vessel we saw pass through the lift bridge.

The boat is named “Skyview” with Chicago port. It appears to be a brand new boat being delivered.

Bryce went up on the walk way as the bridge raised. Bryce took a few shots of Skyview from Chicago when he noticed………..

“Your boat was taken on water”…..He yelled down to the crew… “Your boat is sinking” You can see the water in the hull access port! The water was just below the top rung of the ladder. Then the man yelled back… “That is how we lower the boat to get under these bridges.” Sure hope nothing valuable was down there. LOL

As we left Holly headed to Albion, we passed a few more gates and bridges along the canal. Just a few weeks back, this gate was lowered because the Erie Canal sprung a leak!!! Perhaps they brought in the little Dutch boy to plug the hole with his finger. All is good now!! Seriously, they needed to do maintenance to fix a small leak. They expected to take a month, but got it fixed in a week. The small leak was detected by one of the hundreds of canal watchers who inspect the complete canal on a regular basis.

This is the lift bridge in Hulberton, NY. The operator, Ron from the Holly lift bridge, had to drive down to Hulberton to lift the bridge for us to pass under. Talk about a great bunch of people, I don’t think we have yet met a bad person working along the canal. Everyone has such a personality. Always wanting to help you out.

For all our bike cycling family & friends here is bike repair shop if you need anything along you adventure on the Erie Canal. This one is between Holly & Albion. We also noticed some great places to tent along the canal. If it gets a bit hot, perhaps a jump into the canal would be refreshing. Many of the towns have water faucets near the boat docks.

So what happens when one of the walls along the canal starts to leak? They close those gates I am always showing you and drain the water to repair the leak. This spot was just repaired between Holly and Albion. They give boaters 48 hours to get away from the area before they drain the area. Perhaps that little Dutch boy is just over the ridge??

Here is a dam with gate valves. See the light green handles? They can turn these handles to open the gates. Whereby they control the water level in the canal and outflow to small streams used for irrigation and such. This is also how they empty sections of the Erie Canal if need be.

I just love the relaxing view. The path shown is the Erie Canal Bike Trail.

It appears this young man is canoeing the Erie Canal. That would be fun too. Apparently from Canada.

I have to chuckle a bit here. I was talking to this young man walking the path as we slowly pasted him by. I said that we never pass anyone because we go so slow. Maybe he should speed up is walking and he smiled. Then I said smile you’re on Jane’s camera…. He did smile. But I think he was thinking that I was nuts….LOL

Just around the curve of the canal was one of the Albion’s lift bridge. We took hold of the port side dock between this bridge and the next.

Right where we tied up, was this mural on the wall on the outside of the fire department. See the mules pulling the boat? Maybe that was Sal and her friend helping out the tourism back in the day?

I lost my breath at a few of the churches in town. What a great walk we had. If you are a boater passing through these towns and not visiting them you might be missing some great history. This is the First Presbyterian built in 1874. The spire is built completely out of stone. All the way to the tippy top!!

This is St. Joseph also built in 1806. Another cool looking church.

Universalist Church built in not sure. I couldn’t find the date.

The First Baptist Church. No date on this church that I could see. But one thing is so neat, they are still standing!!

We continued to walk through town on our way back to the boat. When Bryce noticed the Hoag Library. Look at all the solar panels!! Must be a hundred panels. That’s some serious power!!

An over view of Albion from the lift bridge. Bryce just loves to go up on the lift bridges when they are up. Its fascinating that these bridges are a hundred years old and still totally functional.