Next Chapter Goes Mountain Climbing
After doing the first lock to get to Waterford, we thought that locks were a piece of cake. Well, not so much. Like anything else, a little bit goes a long way. So, Monday we were headed for nine locks over about 36 miles. Some of them were relatively easy, and some not, mostly because of wind. When you go into a lock chamber where they are going to lift you over 40’, the only way to keep your boat in control up against the wall is to hang onto a slimy lock line and hold on tight. As the wind blows across the top of the lock, it tends to curl down the walls and push you off. Oh, by the way, the bottom of the line is not attached to anything. So, unless you pull really hard, the boat wanders away. Oh, did I tell you we were locking through with six other looper boats? So, if your boat wanders too far, it kisses the boat next to you. Not a good thing. The good news is we were able to maintain decent control and did not have to exchange insurance information with anybody. We ended the day fairly late, getting to Amsterdam about 3:30 p.m. Fortunately, there was still a space available on the wall where we tied up for the night. Both Sue and I were pretty bushed and called it an early night after yet another Looper docktail. In total, we climbed 220 feet, passing through 9 locks.
The next day we pushed off about 7:00 a.m. with our six locking buddies and headed out for another day of fun with locks. The good news was the wind was not as strong, so we were able to get into a better groove. But just about the time you think you got it down, the lock monster rears its ugly head, and you find yourself in a battle trying to keep a 35-ton vessel under control with two ropes attached at one end only.
The good part is most of our travels were actually in the Mohawk River. No, we did not encounter any arrows flying across the bow, but thanks for playing along! The Mohawk River Valley is beautiful. What is interesting is you can clearly tell when you are in the part of the Erie Canal that was dug by hand because it gets narrow and straight as an arrow. See, there were arrows! There is also a trail along the whole canal. The day ended up with the last lock being a lift of 40 feet. Pulling into the chamber felt like cruising into a concrete canyon. On the other side was the little town of Little Falls. Again, we only traveled about 40 miles, but each lock takes about a half hour. That put us at port about 4:30 pm only to find the wall completely full of loopers.
Well, the good thing about loopers is that it is a close-knit community of people who will help any other looper in need, even if they have never met them. So, as we were milling around figuring out our next move, someone came out and offered to let us raft up to them. Well, by 5:30, most boats were rafted up, some three deep. It was a great docktail evening! Sue made another great meal aboard, and we hit the rack early again. After all, we had raised Next Chapter another 143’ passing through 8 locks. But we still had not reached the summit.
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