June 13 – Medina, NY

Canal Port Medina

“If we were meant to stay in one place we would have roots instead of feet.” – Rachel Wolchin

We had a lazy morning in Brockport since we woke to wet windy weather. We caught up on cleaning chores, inside and out. By lunch the weather had cleared some, so we moved west. We chose to stay in Albion. We actually docked and had a look around, but we didn't find much of a reason to stay...so we moved on to Medina. It was a much better choice and we had fun visiting with a few other boaters and enjoyed a good meal at Fitzgibbon's on Main Street.

Medina developed after construction of the Erie Canal. The canal bends as it passes through the village, creating a basin that served as a stopover point. This became the center of businesses that served trade and passenger traffic on canal boats. 

Medina is known for its Medina Sandstone, a stone used widely in buildings across the region. Some local examples include the "million dollar staircase" at the New York State Capitol in Albany,  the Richardson Olmsted Complex in Buffalo and in buildings at Cornell University.

Today we went over Culvert Road in an aqueduct. This is the only place where someone can drive under the Erie Canal. This picture is looking south from the Erie Canal.

Looking north

Aerial view of Culvert Road and the aqueduct (John Kucko)

Coming into Medina the Erie Canal crosses over Orchard Creek. There is a waterfall on the other side.

Our view of the basin for the evening 

Fitzgibbon's in downtown Medina

Orchard Creek and the waterfall

Looking at the Erie Canal (on right) and the waterfall on Orchard Creek

Looking towards Medina, the Erie Canal on the left. This picture shows how the canal was built above the land to the right.

June 12 - Brockport, NY

Brockport Town Dock

“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” ―Rumi

We've been having beautiful days and probably should be traveling more each day...but we really have nowhere in particular to go and we're having fun relaxing and exploring these wonderful little towns. Stan went back to Cafe Macchiato for breakfast and brought me back a huge cinnamon roll. What's not to like about spending the morning having coffee and a cinnamon roll on the flybridge...with a great view.

We only had six bridges today, but we only traveled eight miles. We left late and arrived in Brockport just in time for lunch. We spent the afternoon wandering through little shops, exploring this cute canal town and visiting with people who wandered by on the path. 

Brockport calls itself "The Victorian Village on the Erie Canal." It recently remodeled the village portion of the Erie canal, providing a bricked walkway, a brand new canal visitor's center and several pieces of art. The village was founded around 1820 and grew to importance as a port on the Erie Canal, and the village was briefly the canal's terminus until the canal's western end was complete.

Brockport Visitors Center and our view for the day

Looking north on Main Street, towards the Erie Canal and the Main Street Lift Bridge.

Looking south on Main Street

The Decker Block building built in 1877 by J.D. Decker. Now home to a cute little boutique called Bittersweet.

Morgan-Manning House built in 1915. Now the headquarters of the Monroe Historical Society. 

One of Brockport's fire stations and their 911 memorial 

June 11 - Bridges, Bridges, Bridges

Spencerport Town Dock

“Low bridge, everybody down, low bridge for we're coming to a town, and you'll always know your neighbor, and you'll always know your pal. If you've ever navigated on the Erie Canal” -Thomas S. Allen

The last 100 miles of the Erie Canal from Fairport to Tonawanda most resembles the original Erie Canal. Miles and miles of straight dug canal with towpaths on both sides. This section of the Western Erie has more dockage points with electric and miles of developed walking/biking paths along the old towpath than the previous 246 miles. The little towns along the canal are so pretty, with nice canalside parks, gazebos, walking trails, restaurants, shops and very nice people. The towns are clean and there are beautiful flowers everywhere...very picturesque.

We went through two more locks today and only have two more towards the end of the canal to deal with...the new thing added today was lift bridges...very small, very low bridges. There are 151 bridges and guard gates, from Fairport to Tonawanda, including 12 lift bridges. We went under 64 of them today (a new record for us)...most were pretty low and some much lower than the stated heights in the guide books. We remeasured our height (again)...with the bimini up we're 15', there were many places where that was too high, so we removed our icinglass and lowered the bimini so we didn't have to worry about getting under any of the bridges. We are now down to 12'.

Leaving Fairport this morning we went under our first lift bridge

A cute little boat we saw this morning

Can you see how many bridges and guard gates there are in this picture...and how low they are?

There are four bridges in this picture. We went through Rochester and by the airport...lots and lots of bridges in this area.

 Guard gates and bridges...everywhere

Pedestrian bridges in Rochester 

The bridges are very old...and very low

The section of the Erie Canal just past Rochester is referred to as the "Rock Cut", because it required the most extensive excavation of the whole canal. The deep cut was made through solid rock. Definitely not the prettiest part of the canal, but very interesting. 

Spencerport

People in New York and New England love their ice cream, so we figured we deserved to indulge after a long hard day on the Erie Canal. 

 Our dock in Spencerport

A Lift Bridge is a low bridge designed to lift up out of the way of canal boat traffic. These short bridges carried the towpath over a canal slip, a small canal perpendicular to the main canal, built to provide access to docking areas or mills. A closed lift bridge would enable traffic to cross the Canal at the same grade as the towpath compared to the slope on either side of a regular bridge. Since the slip was used much less frequently than the canal itself, the bridge was only open occasionally and traffic was rarely affected. Lift bridges also were used in cities where it was inconvenient to raise street levels to cross the canal.

Lift Bridge in Spencerport

The lift bridge going up in Spencerport