In our travels, several people highly recommended that we visit Niagara-on-the-Lake, a charming 19th-century village in the heart of Canada’s wine country. Niagara-on-the-Lake, originally a Native Indian village named Onghiara, is located where the Niagara River flows into Lake Ontario. However, the town played an important part in Canada’s history, it was the first capital of Ontario and played a significant role in the War of 1812. Americans captured Fort George and occupied the area for seven months during the war, but abandoned the fort in December 1813. Re-occupying Fort George the British attacked and captured Fort Niagara and took strong control of the Niagara frontier.
We had a great time exploring the area and learning more about our history. As with so many Canadian towns, the flowers that line the streets were just stunning.
When we lived in Seoul, Rick got hooked on Flashpoint, a show that focused on a fictional elite tactical unit based in Toronto, we loved the show and decided this would be a great time to visit the city. First stop, CN Tower the tallest tower in the Western Hemisphere, completed in 1976 the CN Tower held the record for the world’s tallest free-standing structure for 32 years from 1975–2007.
Our personal foot tour then took us to the Toronto Waterfront. Toronto is home to one of the longest urban lakefronts in the world, ranging from Etobicoke Creek in the west to Rouge River in the east. What a great people watching place, activities here range from biking, kayaking, and lake cruises to the nearby Toronto Islands.
Going north we visited Queen’s Park which was opened in 1860 in honor of Queen Victoria. Along with striking grounds full of monuments and flowers, it is the home of the Ontario Legislative Building and is surrounded by the University of Toronto.
Heading back to the waterfront we wandered through Kensington Market, a National Historic Site of Canada. The Market is a long-standing area for independent shops/cafes, plus produce, meat & fish and is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Toronto. We spent several more hours enjoying the waterfront and then headed for our hotel in Kitchener. This was a major holiday in Canada and finding an affordable hotel in Toronto was impossible.
The next good weather window for moving west on Lake Erie is Friday, August 11th so we decided to take a side trip to Canada. On our way, we stopped at Dunkirk to video the lake, we wanted you to see why we are staying in port, going out would certainly be a bumpy ride.
We crossed over to Canada via the Peace Bridge that we had cruised under on Wednesday. We stopped in Canada to see the famed Niagara Falls, created by glacier activity around 10,000 years ago. Rick’s third visit and my first, Niagara Falls is breathtaking. It is actually composed of three falls: American Falls, Bridal Falls, and Canada Horseshoe Falls. Four of the Great Lakes: Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior supply the water to the Niagara River that creates the falls. Once over the Niagara Falls, the water flows for 15 miles where it empties into the fifth great lake, Lake Ontario.
Daredevils have always been drawn to the falls. In 1859, the Charles Blondin walked a tightrope suspended above the rapids to become the first man to walk across the Niagara Falls. The first recorded person to survive going over the falls in a barrel was 63-year-old American school teacher Annie Edson Taylor.
Today the easiest, albeit a bit pricey, way to get up and personal with the falls is to take a trip on either the Hornblower in Canada or the Maid of the Mist on the US side of the falls.
Lake Erie:We entered here just a few, calm days ago.
August 2: Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes with an average depth of 62-feet. Being the shallowest, it is also the warmest of the Great Lakes in the summer and the first to freeze in the winter. Because of its shallowness, the slightest breeze can kick up some very lively waves so we have to monitor the weather forecast very closely. Today predictions were for light winds in the early morning so we departed Buffalo at daybreak and headed for Dunkirk. When I called to make a reservation Sam said, “We have a few weeds in the water…” that was an understatement. The whole bay is covered in weeds that love wrapping around propellers and rudders.
In the afternoon we visited the Dunkirk Lighthouse & Veterans Park Museum, the location where the first Lake Erie Battle of the War of 1812 took place.
August 3: Today’s weather forecast was for light winds in the early morning with rain showers in the afternoon which meant another daybreak departure. The winds were light, water smooth and we made a quick run to Erie, Pennsylvania, the rain waited until about 6:00. We will be here a week to service the engine, get mail, and visit Niagara Falls.
Leaving the Erie Canal we headed southwest on the Niagara River to Black Rock Lock, here we rose 7-feet to enter the Black Rock Channel. Constructed by the Corps of Engineers in the early 1900’s the channel provides protection from the reefs, rapids, and fast currents in the upstream Niagara River. If you look closely at the picture, you might be able to see that the effects of the current in the Niagara River. From the lock, the Black Rock Channel extends three and a half miles to Buffalo Harbor where we stayed for the night. Next portion of our adventure, Lake Erie.
Today’s stretch of the canal was even more rural than yesterday’s with a scenic mixture of agriculture, sparsely wooded terrain, wildlife, and small towns. At Lockport we transited our last two locks on the Erie Canal, staircase locks E34 and E35, both 25 feet, together the locks lifted us 50-feet to the beginning of the Niagara Escarpment.
During the construction of the original Erie Canal, the 60-foot rise of the Niagara Escarpment was a major engineering problem. At that time the solution was to build a double set of five staircase locks, one for descending traffic heading east and one for ascending traffic heading west. In the early 1900’s the Erie Canal was modified, the southern tier of the locks at Lockport were removed and replaced by the one set of staircase locks we transited today. As we were moving from Lock E34 to Lock E35 a tourist boat was leaving E35 to go to E34, but don’t expect a picture, I was too busy getting a line to hold Andiamo against the wall.
Leaving the locks we went under the Main Street Draw Bridge which was once the widest non-suspension bridge in the world, measuring 389 feet wide and 129 feet in length.
Tonawanda, once an important lumber town, is the western terminus of the Eire Canal. As we entered the town a huge thunderstorm, heavy rain, lighting, & thunder, descended on us. For the first time on this trip, I donned my rain gear to be ready for docking. To my surprise, as soon as I started to get off the boat the rain quit. Yeah! We were at the public dock but the facilities were closed for repair so it was more like anchoring out. Signs on the dock warned us not to go into the water because they have put herbicides in the water to try to control the water hyacinth. On the positive side, the water is clearer than in the canal and we had a nice sunset.
We love to get our fruits and vegetables at the local Famer’s Market but it seems that, as of late, we are always in towns on the wrong day of the week. Today was the Famer’s Market for Brockport so we delayed leaving this morning until after going to the market. We were so glad we did, the market was small but the selection was perfect, now we need to eat all that we purchased before it goes bad.
Small Medina, population 5,784, has two Ripley’s Believe it or Not entry’s. Culvert Road is the only place in which a road passes under the Erie Canal and St. John’s Episcopal Church, built in the 1830’s, is the “Church in the Middle of the Road.”
What the Village of Medina is famous for is its “Medina Sandstone” a brown stone used widely in buildings not only in this region but throughout the states and England. One such building is Bent’s Opera House, built during the Civil War, it is one of the oldest surviving theaters in the United States. Buffalo Bill Cody, P. T. Barnum, violinists Remenyi and Camilla Urso, and politician William Randolph Hearst were among the hundreds of performers who shared their talents at the Bent’s Opera House.
Cruising down the canal you can certainly tell that this is farm country. At Medina the Oak Orchard Creek not only provides water for the farmers, it also travels beneath the Erie Canal and then drops forty-feet to create the lovely Medina Waterfall.
At the Medina Public Dock, workers are priming the wall for a new paint job. It seems the Sailing Canal Boat Lois McClure is coming to town and the town management wants all in ship-shape order.
Today we took advantage of the free bicycles at Brockport City Dock to ride the Canalway Trial to Holley. When building the original canal Holley represented a unique engineering problem for the builders because of the unusually deep ravine formed by the east branch of the Sandy Creek. Engineers decided to diverge from the canals general; east-west route to minimize the amount of construction required by creating a sharp loop more than 2,000 feet to the south. The sharp curve required boaters to slow down, which made a promising location for canal-oriented businesses, thus the Village of Holley grew.
Surplus water from the canal and the steep embankment has created a beautiful waterfall and the Village of Holley has enhanced the setting creating a lovely village park.
Bicycling the trail was both pleasurable and entertaining, we now call this section of the trail “Butterflies and Grasshoppers.” We had butterflies flying with us the entire way home and grasshoppers hopping about, one even hopped on Rick’s arm and rode with him for about a mile.
Back at Brockport, in search of a store, we added another five miles of walking, we could have continued using the bicycles but Rick’s had a very uncomfortable seat and he said he would rather walk.
Visiting the museum we learned that at the turn of the twentieth century the Village of Spencerport, incorporated in 1865, was primarily a farming community. The farmers of Spencerport used the Erie Canal to export apples, potatoes, and cabbage east in exchange for manufactured goods. Today it is primarily a tourist town, we enjoyed walking the Canalway Trail and around the manicured town but we didn’t see many tourists.
A very lazy day, only 7.5 miles to Brockport, no locks, and no lift bridges, just watching for logs and enjoying the scenery. We arrived in Brockport just in time to watch a fisherman land a good size carp.
The Village of Brockport, incorporated in 1829, was once a booming manufacturing village shipping its goods up and down the Erie Canal. These goods included farm implements, shoes, paper boxes, pianos, small appliances, glass bottles, clocks, and galvanized pails and tubs. Now it is home to State University of New York College at Brockport, home of 8,413 students. It might have been a lazy day on the water but with the three-mile walk this morning and six-mile walk this afternoon I think we did okay in the exercise department.
Take a look at the Rock Cut video, can you image digging that by hand.
Spencerport Towpath Park
Dumpster Breakfast
Honoring 9-11
Rainy Day
Remarkable Chimes
Spencerport Deport & Canal Muesem
Canal Mules
Canal Wildflowers
Canal Wildflowers
Canal Wildflowers
Canal Wildflowers
Canal Wildflowers
Canal Wildflowers
Canal Wildflowers
Canal Wildflowers
Carp Surrender
Morgan-Manning House
Morgan-Manning Carriage House
State University of New York-College at Brockport Golden Eagles
We loved all the activity at Pittsford, kids feeding the ducks, Pittsford Crew practicing for their regatta, tourists waiting in line for a day trip on the Sam Patch Canal Boat, people walking, bicycling, kayaking, and eating ice cream at the local Pittsford Farms Dairy where they still sell milk in glass bottles. So many of the small towns along the Erie are struggling but the pulse of Pittsburg is strong.
Rain on the canal kept us at the dock until 2:00 pm, a little late in the day to leave but we were only going seventeen miles and the rest of the day was beautiful. We went through Locks E32 and E33, both 25 feet. In Lock E32 the leaks in the lock doors create a waterfall effect below the upper doors. We also passed through the East Guard Lock and the West Guard Lock, these gates were installed at the Genesee River crossing to protect the canal from flooding and to maintain pool levels. The Genesee River is the only river on the Western portion of the canal that is at the same level as the canal. You can see in the picture how, if both gates are closed, it would create a lock.
We saw several waterfalls along the canal today, evidence of how much rain we have had and there are still predictions of more rain. By the time we reached Spencerport we were a little tired and decided to have dinner on the boat and do our sightseeing in the morning.
