Rising early to a beautiful day with light winds. We set up for Lock 16 in attempt to be 1st boat through the locks. . The lock walls have been pretty full so we decided to look at Little Falls wall on our way by and if was full we would move onto the Ilion wall. We were joined by Bodensee for the run and they had intentions to move onto Ilion. After making it through Lock 16 we went under a few bridges to include Guard Gate 3 which is used to cut off water flow on the canal for flood control and lock service.
After passing the Little Falls Lock we made the winding turns through Little Falls with great views of the town and passed under another guard gate. As we approached Little Falls Canal Harbor and Rotary Park we were notified there was room for us on the east end of the wall so we bid farewell to “Bodensee” and tied up to the floating dock.
Little Falls, NY was first settled by Europeans around 1723. It was destroyed by Iroquois Indians in 1882 and resettled in 1790. It was known as the cheese capital in the 19th century.
We were greeted by our friends on Runaway, Thistle, Brand New Day, Coda, Lil Sudden, Saga, Shenanigans and later joined by Beachside, Coconuts, Changing Latitudes and a few others. The Dockmaster Dave was super helpful and ran a great marina. The bathrooms and office was super clean with a great mural of the history of the canal. Little Falls had great bike trails that ran east and west up and down the Erie Canal. We took several bike rides on the well cared for path. There was shopping available downtown but most of the restaurants were closed as it was the beginning of the week. There was however a Taco truck across the street and a pizza shop nearby.
Maria was struggling with her bike so we traded bikes and I discovered that her bike had a short pedal stroke making it extremely hard to keep up so a new bike is in her future. While on the loop it is extremely hard to get deliveries so we will have to search local stores along the way.
Our stay in Little Falls was filled with long bike rides, great docktail get togethers and a celebration of Edie’s birthday from “Brand New Day”. We met a gentleman on his bike that was riding from Buffalo to Boston who joined us for docktails.
On one of our bike rides east on the trail with “Beachside” we visited the Herkimer Home State Historic Site. The georgian style mansion was home to General Nicholas Herkimer. The mansion was completed in 1764. General Herkimer’s place in history was assured in 1777 when he assembled 800 militiamen, supported by 60 allied Oneida warriors, and marched to defend Ft. Stanwix against a British siege. Considered to be a significant turning point in the Revolutionary War, the Battle of Oriskany, fought on August 6, 1777, has been described as one of the bloodiest battles of the war. Although wounded in the leg, Herkimer kept command during the fierce combat. After the battle he was carried home where he died 10 days later from complications following the amputation of his leg.
A few of the boats decided to head out but we were waiting on our previously failed Amazon package to be delivered to Ilion the following day so we would be one day behind our friends in the flotilla. The package was our 30 amp to 50 amp splitter which will be needed because a lot of the walls only had 30 amp service. So it was goodbye for now to our friends and time to relax and plan tomorrows run to Ilion.