Brown Eyed Girl: Ilion and Brewerton, NY

Ilion, NY

Ilion Community Marina

June 16, 2012

Saturday was going to be a short day. We only had to go 20 miles and three locks. We didn't leave until 8:30, imagine that. The scenery along the way was very nice and there were some cute little towns. The only issue we had was lock 17. Lock 17 is the highest lift on the whole canal and all of the boats have to tie up to the South wall in the lock. There are long ropes that hang down from the top of the lock which is fine for a short distance but when the ropes are 40' long it is hard to hold the boat against the wall due to the angle of the rope. There were only three of us and it took a while to get us in and set but we made it albeit with a lot of anxiety. We landed at Ilion before noon and tied up on the wall. Ginny and I were pretty tied so we took a nap and then we got up and walked into town. We went to Rite Aid and stopped for some ice cream on the way back. Ilion is the home to Remington Arms and during the week you can visit the museum and tour the factory but they are closed on Saturday so we missed it.

Little Falls, NY

Lock 17 Outside

Inside Lock 17 - See how tall it is

Nice houses overlooking the Canal

They call these guard gates but they are really flood gates

We are in Ilion but the sign says different

Home of Remington

Brewerton, NY

Ess-Kay Yards Marina

June 17-19, 2012

We woke up on Sunday and expected to travel 40 miles and 4 locks to Sylvan Beach, which is on the East side of Lake Oneida. The first two locks took us up, but the last two locks went down so we had a little of each. After we left the last lock we decided to cross Lake Oneida and go to Brewerton because it was still pretty early. The lake was a little choppy and it was Sunday so there was a lot of boat traffic from the locals on both sides of the lake. We docked around 3:30 and had happy hour early with some of the locals. We are at Ess-Kay Marina which in my opinion is fantastic. The docks are fine, they have a great ship's store and have a courtesy car. On Monday "Kismet" and we went to Wal-Mart and Wegman's grocery store to stock up. Later I got the dingy out and ran it around for a while. I had not used the dinghy or the motor since Florida, but it started right up and ran great. I also got the Hooka (thanks again Bill) out and dove under the boat to look around. It was a little dark but the water was not that cold. We stayed at Ess-Kay another day while Beth and Dean on "Kismet" drove to Buffalo to get their bird's passport stamped before going into Canada.