Canajoharie to Little Falls and through one of the tallest locks in the world; Happy Father’s Day!

Arrived in Canajoharie on Saturday and found ourselves a nice Irish Pub for lunch and one of the best burgers we’ve ever had…..and of course a couple pints! One of the claims to fame for this town is the “boiling pot” or “Canajoharie Pot Hole” in the river, so of course we HAD to go and see it! Canajoharie in the Mohawk language (we are on the Mohawk River) means “the pot that washes itself” – reference to the boiling pot. It is a 20’ bowl in the river that when the water is high enough (it was not the day we were there) it swirls like a whirlpool. Had a nice view of the river bed and waterfalls, though!

Canajoharie was originally settled by the Dutch and the Germans; We learned a bit about the Palatine settlers and the difficulties of their immigration to America. Visited Van Alstyne Homestead that was established in 1749; a small museum/restored colonial home. Walked Main Street and stopped in a few shops. Found it to be more vibrant than some of the other Main Streets we’ve recently strolled, but still just a one day stay particularly with no power on the wall we were tied to, the train tracks and passing trains about 15 yards away and active goose population leaving goose poop everywhere!

We had an early start on Sunday 6/17 (Father’s Day!) with a plan to cover 19 miles and 3 locks. Left Canajoharie headed to LIttle Falls, NY where the excitement of the day was the tallest lock we’ve been thru yet. Lock 17, opened in 1916, has a vertical lift of 40.5’ which is one of the tallest in the world. It replaced 3 locks of the original 1825 Erie Canal. This lock was also different in that it uses a “guillotine gate” at its east end vs. a mitre gate. The gate is counterbalanced with a huge cement slab and drops down to close the chamber before filling. You might ask why? This design is felt to be stronger and better able to handle the water pressure of the much larger chamber which when filled holds more than 6 million gallons of water.

Little Falls has a lovely little marina for looping boats including ample power, great showers, a book exchange, picnic area and the harbor master Mark or assistant Allison who will drive you to and from the grocery store, all for $1.00/foot! We found a local smokehouse for dinner on Father’s Day (only thing open, but pretty darn good ribs!) and the next day we grilled bratwurst for dinner with our traveling flotilla of 4 boats. The sauerkraut I happen to have on board from making some ruebens earlier was a hit! Walked downtown; sadly most of the stores were abandoned but we did enjoy an old mill converted to a multi floor consignment antique shop and a walk to lock 17 to watch other boats come through. Stayed 2 nights and enjoyed docktails on the porch our last night there with about 20 other boaters.

Today we are off to Sylvan Beach, hopefully to be greeted by a couple Amazon packages including a new pedal for one of the bikes. We will travel over 40 miles and go through 5 locks (3 up and 2 down). It’s not the locks that give us pause anymore, it’s the low bridges. We dropped the mast even further, thanks to a borrowed smaller fender from Matt, and cleared one bridge today by about 6”. YIKES!!! Have definitely employed the rule of only approaching an immovable object at the speed you are willing to hit it!