June 13 - 24 / Day 23 - 34 / Little Falls, NY to Brewerton to Home / A total of 61.8 NM

June 13.  Layover day in Little Falls.  We biked over to Moss Island at lock 17 and took a small hike, then toured some of Canal Place (large Antique Gallery) and found a great Alpaca product store - seemed a bit out of place. . .but a welcome surprise.

The back side of Canal Place

June 14 included a morning bike ride over to the Herkimer House, actually just happened to ride by it. 

Then we headed westward on the Canal through locks 18-20 .

We docked for the night at the West End of lock 20 (21 miles).  Great place for Millie to stretch her legs.

Taken across the Canal from Observer accessed by crossing over at the lock

We met a couple guys from NH (Stan) and Maine (Gil) who were camping at the lock.  They are biking the Erie Canal from Buffalo to Waterford in 5-6 days (365 miles).

June 15. We hosted Stan & Gil for breakfast aboard and exchanged stories of our trips.  Then it's off to locks 21 and 22 (first time locking down) and arrived at Sylvan Beach (21.7 miles) at the East end of Lake Oneida at the town's free wall.  We arrived the night of their big classic car show, but, sadly, it got rained out.  We had had such a great lunch at the Canal View Restaurant, we went back for dinner with loopers Adrienne and Joe from Pilgrimage. We ran into Connie from Simpatico (Looper traveling with different crew during her trip.  This week she had her two teenage grandsons - how cool is that).  Connie suggested Friday would be a good day to cross Lake Oneida as the wind would be behind us. 

June 16.   We followed Connie's advice and arrived at Winter Harbor Marina in Brewerton, NY at about 11 (19.1 miles).  It's probably the nicest marina we have experienced so far and staff and owners are great people.  We will be leaving Observer here for a week while we rent a car and head home. 

Norm and Elly (formerly of Gloucester) aboard a yacht ahead of us invited everyone around us for a drink aboard their beautiful boat.  Great time getting to know them and other folks. 

June 17. Got ready for a trip home.  Cleaned the boat, got the rental car from Enterprise ("we'll pick you up. . . But sometimes you really have to give us a push).

Did an afternoon dinghy ride around the canal.  There were lots of great waterfront homes. 

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June 18.  We got up early, packed up and headed home for a week.  Alice and Millie were going to stay in Brewerton with Observer, but the forecast was calling for seven straight days of rain.  The thought of being cooped up on the boat with a wet dog made the decision to go home an easy one!

On the New York Thruway with the Erie Canal just to the left beyond the trees