Day 12: Fairport to Rochester

August 21, 2021: A quiet departure, the skinny on lift bridges, a turbulent river, some more BBQ, and an evening that ends with some bangs.

We woke at 6, did our coffee and breakfast thing on the boat — because nothing within walking distance was open — and got ready to leave. By 7:15 AM, we’d cast off and were waiting at the west end of the Fairport docks for a drawbridge to open.

The Lift Bridges

Although we encountered only one drawbridge that day — the first one westbound, in Fairport, NY — we encountered many on following days. Since I’m blogging this four days into the future with a bunch of lift bridge experience behind me, I’ll risk getting a little ahead of the story here by explaining how drawbridges — actually lift bridges — on the Erie Canal work.

First, all of the lift bridges we encountered were identical. They were single spans that had each end attached to a lifting mechanism. When the bridge lifted, both sides lifted the same amount.

Before we started encountering the lift bridges, Capt Paul had wondered how we would identify them without consulting charts. He was very worried about a specific danger: that a drawbridge wouldn’t look like a drawbridge but would look high enough to pass under. Going under a bridge that was too low for us would mean destroying the boat’s VHF antenna or worse yet, its mast, which held various antenna that the navigation systems needed to work.

But this turned out to not be a problem at all. All of the lift bridges were obviously that: when they were down, they cleared the water surface by about 5 feet. Sure, a kayaker could get under them, and maybe even a small fishing boat could fit if the occupants ducked, but there was no way a boat like Nano could pass until the bridge was lifted.

In a way, the lift bridges were like locks: we had to wait until the operator opened them for us to proceed. You’d expect them to be quicker than locks since all the operator had to do was lift the bridge and we didn’t have to wait around for it to be lowered behind us. And about half the time, that’s how it worked. But the other half of the time included a bunch waiting. You see, not every lift bridge has its own operator. Sometimes a bridge operator works several bridges that are sometimes 3 or 5 miles apart.

So imagine this: A lock operator controls three bridges. Two are walking distance apart, on either end of a very small town. The third is 3 miles down the road. Now say you’re westbound and you approach the east end bridge while the operator is working the west end bridge for an eastbound boat. You have to wait until the operator opens and closes that west end bridge and then travels to the middle bridge and opens and closes that before she gets to the east end bridge where you’re waiting. And if the boat she’s waiting for on that 3-mile stretch is one of the really slow barge style rental boats, that wait might take 30 minutes or more.

And yes, this did happen to us once. Fortunately, she didn’t have to wait for a boat to come back to the east end to open the bridge. We only waited about 30 minutes.

Of course, when the operator is in the little building next to the bridge and you call in, she expects you to keep moving toward the bridge while waiting so that you can pass under it as soon as possible. The longer the bridge is open, the more vehicle and pedestrian traffic is delayed. It’s selfish (and kind of dumb, if you think about it) to wait 100 yards away for the bridge to fully open; we had more than one operator tell us to keep moving toward the bridge while it opened when we hesitated. With perfect timing, you can actually slow to a walking pace 100 yards out, call the bridge, and it’ll be open enough for you to pass under it by the time you get there.

The Fairport lift bridge was easy. I’m pretty sure Dianne called in on the phone. Capt Paul drove up to it and hesitated. It began to open. We passed beneath it and continued on our way.

The lift bridge in Fairport, NY, raising so we could pass under.

I should mention here that the Cruising Guide to the New York State Canal System, which really is the definitive guide to the canal, includes diamond shaped icons with miles between locks and/or lift bridges. It seems to me that the NY State Canal Corporation thinks of lift bridges as points of significant delay or special activity for boaters — which they are.

Cruising to the Genesee

The trip to our turn onto the Genesee River was more of what we’d been experiencing all along: some winding and some straight canal with either trees or homes on either shore, two locks, and a few guard gates that were wide open. We passed Bushnells Basin, which had a few historic looking buildings and a small dock; I noted that it might be a nice mellow place to stop. The small town of Pittsford seemed to have a lot of points of interest — or were they paid advertisers in the Cruising Guide? I think that’s the place where I saw free bikes to borrow near the dock.

Eight miles after Fairport, we reached Lock 32 and, a mile later, Lock 33. The canal got very straight after that. Apparently, we’d left the Seneca River behind for good several days before at Mentz and, although we’d been following the Clyde River for a bit, that was behind us, too. We were in the dug canal, much of which followed the original canal route, and would be for most of the rest of the time spent in the Erie Canal.

We started seeing some industrial and commercial buildings alongside the canal starting with an REI facility. We were getting into the outskirts of Rochester. We passed under one bridge after another: car bridges, train bridges, pedestrian bridges. We eventually reached the place where the Genesee River crosses the Erie Canal, coming up from the southwest to northeast.

Down the Genesee

Capt Paul made the turn into the Genesee River — he’d been at the helm all day — and the fun began. The Genesee was flooded and it flowed with the same brown silty water we’d been seeing all day. But the floodwater here carried debris — mostly branches and logs, some of which were quite large.

At the intersection, Capt Paul noticed a sudden decrease in the depth of the water. The current took us. He increased power and steered us away from the banks. Then we were in quickly moving water headed northwest toward Rochester.

According to the Cruising Guide, there were two docks on the Genesee near town. (Waterway Guide did not show any.) The first was near that confluence: Genesee River Park and Landing. It was clearly a park; Google Maps’ satellite view showed ball fields. There was nothing else nearby. The second was much closer to the dam and waterfall that ended navigable water on the Genesee: Corn Hill Landing. That looked to be very close to Rochester’s downtown area, as well as what had become our favorite restaurant chain Dinosaur BBQ. That’s what we aimed for.

It was a bit tense. Not only was there floating debris to watch out for, but there were snags where the debris had piled up, narrowing channels. Some buoys had been misplaced, putting green or red ones on the wrong side of the channel. One bridge channel was very narrow with a big log sticking out into the channel where boats would normally go. With the a wrong colored buoy snagged on it, it was an accident waiting to happen.

But we got past all that with no problems and the water seemed to settle down a bit. We found the dock and were happy to see power kiosks on in. A barge and tug were parked there, taking about half the space, but there was still plenty of room for us. Capt Paul turned us around so we could tie up on the starboard side and we docked for the night. Although we were still in the river, we were out of the main current in very smooth water. I would be very surprised if anyone came past us.

The day’s log from the Nebo boating app. You can track us in the Nebo app; just search for Nano Paul G.

In Rochester

We wasted no time securing the boat and getting on shore. Our destination was Dinosaur BBQ, which was about a half mile away. We walked along the shore on a pathway there, past the dam and upper falls. The water was rushing through and the spillways were getting clogged with often massive trees.

The dam and upper falls at Rochester. Although the Genesee River goes all the way out to Lake Ontario and we were very close, the water is not navigable past this point.

Lunch at Dinosaur BBQ was very good — although not quite as good as the Syracuse location. I had a brisket sandwich. I also took a quarter pound of brisket to go, remember how close I’d been to being stranded on a boat with very little food two days before.

After that, we walked around the downtown area. I’d read about Rochester’s Abandoned Subway and I think we were curious about whether any of it had been accessible. We learned that it had run in the original Erie Canal path, which included the an aqueduct over the Genesee. Another level had been added above the aqueduct to accommodate vehicular traffic on Broad Street. The subway ran from 1927 to 1956.

The Broad Street Bridge was originally a canal aqueduct. When the Erie Canal was moved a few miles south of downtown Rochester, the aqueduct became part of the Rochester Subway System and the roadway still used today was built.

Capt Paul wanted to check out some of the architecture, including Susan B Anthony’s home, which was open for tours. So we walked. And walked. And walked. There was a blue line painted onto the sidewalk for people to follow to the landmark and none of us seemed to know just how far a walk it was. It took us through some “interesting” areas, none of which were very nice.

Finally, signs pointed down a pleasant residential street. We walked down to a nice brick building with signs out front. The house next door was a visitor’s center. We went inside and I soaked up the air conditioning — have I mentioned that the humidity is killing me? — and then chatted with the woman at a desk about tours and the history of the place.

We skipped the tour but walked around the exhibits in the visitor center. I learned a lot about Anthony that I didn’t know. (For those who don’t know me, I don’t consider myself a feminist. I consider myself an equalist. You can read more about that in my blog if you want to.) I never, for example, realized that she was so close to Frederick Douglass and helped him with his cause.

Facing a long walk back through those weird areas in the hot and humid weather, Dianne and I opted to take an Uber back. It wasn’t cheap: $22! But even though the driver’s car wasn’t very clean and he didn’t follow the driving directions to get us back quickly, it was worth every penny.

I spent the rest of the afternoon in air conditioned comfort inside Nano, catching up on blog posts. I wrote up Day 8 and Day 9.

Later in the afternoon, I walked over to the few shops I could see from Nano. There was a convenience store that had more beverage choices than I’d ever seen in a convenience store but not much else. There was a ramen noodle shop next door. I liked what I saw on the menu and bought myself a ramen soup dish to go. I ate it back at Nano, wishing I had a bottle of sake to go with it.

Live music started up in a park across the river. At first it was some really nice jazzy blues but it switched to some sort of rock later on. It was exactly loud enough to hear without being annoying.

Not long after sunset, the moon rose through the clouds, casting reflections on the glassy smooth river. I got my pajamas on and tucked myself into bed. Paul had already gone to bed; Dianne was watching a video on her phone out in the cockpit.

I don’t think I was in bed more than five minutes when I heard an explosion outside. Then a few more. I knew that sound: fireworks! I ran out to the dock with my phone and watched the show, which went on for at least 15 minutes and had a spectacular finale. I still have no idea why there were fireworks, although I suspect it had something to do with that live music.

When the show was over, I went back to bed. I slept very well.