Canal Zones 1

I’m back along the sixth boro but sorting through all my photos puts my head back up along the canal corridor, and I decided to divide the waterway into zones, subjective ones suggested by memory and photos.  Also, whim tells me to do them in the order that comes easiest.  So I’ll start with the longest level .  . . about 50 miles between Greece and Spencerport all the way to Gasport. . . WITHOUT a single lock!

Allow a snarky comment first on the bridges . . . more than a dozen of them in this stretch.  Some signage calls them draw bridges and others  . . . lift bridges.  For the record, I’d call some lift bridges.  . .

and these  . . . a fixed bridges.

The tow path is a heavily trafficked bike path.  Click here for some disused lingo once apparently spoken in these parts.

There are lots of birds, but this is unique.

If you think this a chicken farm, look again  more closely.

The road along the north side of the canal here is lower than the level of water, as are the cabbage field and apple orchard.

Between Albion and Medina there’s the quite unique and quite old Culvert Road.

Early fall  . . . and the trees are heavy,

the grain combined and stored in bins.

In Medina, one of my favorite places in this portion of the canal, this dam allows the canal to be navigable

some 70 feet above Oak Orchard Creek.

Historical signs point out a non-scandal involving a former politician and

connection between this mostly farming area and  . . . say  ..  . Brooklyn Bridge.

OK . . . Gasport.  Next stop Lockport.

All photos taken in October by Will Van Dorp.  If you have photos to share from when this portion of the canal saw commercial traffic, please get in touch.  As it was last month, vessels drawing eight feet or more sometimes struggle with the bottom.

Canal Banks 4

Some areas along the NYS Canals evoke tropical forests . . .

Some bridges are so low even today that we approach dead slow, jackstaff–our measure of minimum clearance–ready to signal full astern.

Many places along the canal offer a parallel path for the railroad like

this automobile train pulled by Union Pacific locomotives.

If it seems I have paid more attention to these canal banks than others, it’s true, because these are in the county where I grew up and first caught a fish.  Click here for close-ups of this former Agway and beet refining complex.

These abandoned scows lie within 250 feet of Rte. 31, but I’d never seen them until I took the canal.

Click here to see the large number of posts I’ve done on this 1912 tug I call Grouper.

When this creature stands at the end of a dock like this, I’m happy to comply.

So far, west of Palmyra, I’ve seen the most fabulous bike trails.

More trains and

And finally, just east of Fairport, I love this garden with repurposed metal “sculpture” that includes two harps.

All photos taken by Will Van Dorp.