The boating season along New York’s Canal System (click here) is just getting underway due to all of the heavy rainfall that we have been having in the Finger Lakes. The canal system is open to boat traffic from May 26 through Sept. 7, 2011. Our friends who own a boat store it near Geneva for the winter and then each spring take their boat through the Cayuga-Seneca Canal (click here) to Ithaca where they keep their boat during the summer.
One of the prettiest stops along the way is at the Seneca Falls Harbor Park, in Seneca Falls, NY. The Freedom, which is a boat owned by the NY State Canal System, was already parked at the Seneca Fall Harbor Park. The Seneca Falls Harbor Park will be officially opening this Labor Day weekend. The Park is a lovely place for boaters to stop off and rest up a bit, perhaps slaking their thirst at the Bull’s Run next to the Water Street Bridge or exploring the many shops along Main Street.
Down river at Locks #2 and #3, a pleasure boat was just arriving to be locked into the Flats. The combined drop of the two locks is 64 feet. One of the two men in the pleasure boat asked me, “Where’s the action in Seneca Falls?” I replied, “What do you mean by action?” He then said, “What do they do here in Seneca Falls?” I replied that Seneca Falls is an old manufacturing town which dates back to before the Civil War. The boater then asked, “Where are the falls located?” to which I responded, “I think that you are standing on them!” The water began to drain out of the lock and the boat sank below the cement line of the lock. “Have a good day, I called.” Maybe it wasn’t such a bad a question after all!
