MAPS
Here are three great interactive maps, one from NYS Canals, one from the National Park Service, and one from Parks & Trails NY, showing different info.
Canal Tours
The Westbound Run covers from Waterford NY on the Hudson to Oswego NY on Lake Ontario. Links for each leg taking you across can be found below.
Leg 3 Crescent Lake to Rotterdam
Leg 5 The Noses to Little Falls
Leg 10 Three Locks down to Lake Ontario
The Eastbound run covers from Lake Erie back to Three Rivers Junction, where we link back to the end of Leg 8 above. I chose to enumerate 1W, 2W, with “W” as in westerly, i.e., from the west. Adding an E might be confusing given the designators E-10, E-11 . . . for individual locks.
Leg 6W Watkins Glen back to the Junction
Leg 7W Seneca River to Syracuse
Bike Tour
Here’s an interactive cycling map that attempts to indicate closures and detours.
Leg 1 Tonawanda to Albion
Leg 2 Albion to Newark
Leg 3 Newark to Camillus
Leg 4 Camillus to Rome
Leg 5 Rome to Palatine Bridge
Leg 6 Palatine Bridge to Schnectady
Leg 7 Schnectady to Waterford
In late spring 2021, I took a ride on Colonial Belle from Seneca Lake to Palmyra.
I welcome your input.
Putting these virtual guides together made me realize I’ve already done versions of this like these:
New York City to Chicago 2019, Random Ships Along the St. Lawrence 2019, Chicago Bound 2018, Lake Loop 2018, Narragansett Bay to Indiana 2017, and a month in Rio state Brasil here and here.
There’s a great organization devoted to the history of the canal: Canal Society of New York, which holds two conferences a year.
Interesting reading on the current state of the NYS Canals can be found in the Reimagine-the-Canals Taskforce Report here.
DOCUMENTARY
Boom and Bust: America’s Journey on the Erie Canal
Here’s an excellent discussion of the documentary by some of the folks associated with the documentary.
BOOKS
For now, let me just add a book list as a guide to this transit on the Erie Canal. I’ve read dozens, but for various reasons, these are among my favorites.
Peter L. Bernstein. Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation
Jack Kelly. Heaven’s Ditch: God, Gold, and Murder on the Erie Canal
Michele A. McFee. A Long Haul The Story of the New York State Barge Canal
Michael Riley. Bridge Dams on the Mohawk
Carol Sheriff. The Artificial River: The Erie Canal and the Paradox of Progress, 1817-1862
Then, parts of these books have an account of a transit.
William Least-Heat Moon. River-Horse: The Logbook of a Boat Across America
Nathaniel Stone. On the Water: Discovering America in a Rowboat
And of course, a navigation guide, which gives
directions like these.
-Will Van Dorp, May 2020
Addendum: An interesting documentary on the Black River Canal can be seen here.
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