First day on the Erie Canal and 10th straight day with zero electronic gremlins.

We got an early start out of Troy this morning and were at the Federal lock about 6:45 AM. Turns out the Federal lock is lock #1.

We locked up over 200 feet today from the Hudson river to our current pool in Schenectady. When we are at full lift we are well above the lock wall.

Lock  #2 is 2 miles from the Federal lock and then 3,4,5,6 are all stacked together within .25 of each other.

The spillways run along each lock and are quite picturesque.

Each lock has it's own ropes that are very slimey. These locks are very small compared to what we came through on the interior rivers.

The admiral was handling the "grotey" ropes today.

Heading into lock 4

The lock masters would be closing the gate behind us before we got ahold of the rope - we locked solo and very efficiently all day. This is the bottom of the pool.

Here we are at the top of the pool - about 9 mines to raise 34 feet.

Each lock gave us info on lift and distance to the next lock.

Ditto

Doors opening and out we go.

There were 2 of these railroad bridges back to back that when lowered would completely block any river flow.

The invasive Brazilian weed is thick here. Shallow bays are completely filled.

The early section of the canal is the Mohawk river

The houses have to mechanically keep a channel from their dock to the water open or the weed makes it impassable.

Every bridge design imaginable.

Houses built right on the river - many with elaborate floating systems.

Almost every lock and dam had/has a hydroelectric plant.

27 foot drop over a long span is quite loud.

45 mph speed limit on the canal.

Buoys marking the dam and hydro plant in the background.

This guy had a whole row of palm trees.

Rock walls and cliffs on both sides of the river.

Short distance but 7 locks today as we searched for the rhythm of the canal system. 8 locks and 50 miles on tap for tomorrow.