We woke up early for our 40 mile run to Clayton NY. The weather was calm but there was a haze from the Canadian fires that made it difficult for great pictures of the beautiful Black River bay and eastern shore of Lake Ontario. We headed west then north towards the entrance of the St. Lawrence River. There was light shipping traffic as we had to navigate around Carleton and head into the French Creek Bay. After stopping for an expensive pump-out at the River Marine Inc. docks we slid over to the Mary Street Clayton Municipal Dock located on the western side of Clayton, NY. The dock is a long single finger pier with the ability to moor about 12 large vessels with limited power at the pedestals. The pier is pretty exposed and the local boaters only use the “No Wake” signs as a guid not as a rule so we were rocked quite a bit through out our stay, On occasion we were protected by bigger boats that tied up on the north side of the pier.
We planned this stop around the upcoming 4th of July celebration and we were also expecting Mike and Eva who would join us for a week or so as we travelled east to Montreal.
The town was formed from parts of the towns of Orleans and Lyme in 1833. The town was named after statesman John M. Clayton. The village of Clayton became the main railroad terminus for the Thousand Islands resort region, during its heyday at the turn of the twentieth century. The town of Clayton offered several hotels to visitors, some grand, now mostly vanished.
Clayton is a great small town and is a must see while on your way through the St. Lawrence. There is a phenomenal Antique Boat Museum located on Mary Street just a block from the pier. It houses a big selection of wooden boats and displays a great history of the areas nautical history.
We had our 1st Looper happy hour at the Wood Boat Brewery. The food was OK but the service was extremely slow. It seems that everyone is not exempt from the lack of service staff.
While in Clayton we were greeted by the best Harbor hosts, Lynda and Eric Baumer. They were so gracious with their time and knowledge of the area. They picked us up along with their son and daughter in-law and took us to the Clayton Distillery and the Thousand Island Winery and we were joined by Bill and Sarah from “Coconuts”.
Maria and I broke out the bikes and visited the nearby marine supply store and got our shopping in as we would be here for several days. We walked through the town which was very quaint with old homes and small shops all within minutes of our boat. We had a great happy hour with Doug and Shari at the Hops Spot on Riverside drive which had a guy playing guitar at the outside patio bar.
Mike and Eva finally made it to the boat on the july 3rd so we grilled on the boat and took a walk through the town and stopped off at the Thousand Island Hotel and waited out a quick rain shower at the patio bar. After the rain stopped we strolled through town where everyone was setting up their chairs for tonight’s 4th of July fireworks display. We stopped into The Channelside for a drink on the waterway then headed back to the pier to watch the fireworks from the dock with several other Loopers. It was a great night with friends and family celebration our nation’s birthday.
Being that this was the 3rd of July we planned on moving in the morning to Alexandria Bay to view their fireworks on the 4th so we settled in for the evening and planned tomorrows run eastward on the river.
