Day 199 (A note from Otto) 06/22/2010
Daily stats Start: 7:00 AM - Conojahari, NY Finish: 7:00 PM - Little Falls, NY Time: 8;00 (4 hours in little falls) Daily dist: 21 miles Total dist: 3700+ Companions: Otto Weather: Mostly cloudy, high of 80, rain late in day Notes: Little Falls is worth the stop
Hi everybody, this is Otto filling in for Jake. He’s too tired to write tonight… I think I wore him out.  It was such a lovely camp ... why did we have to leave so early.
I woke up this morning at 6 like any normal person might, but of course Jake had already been up for two hours. After about an hour of preparation we hit the water leaving our lovely campsite island at lock 14. We made good time through the first lock of day, lock 15, as we paddled on placid water. On our way to lock 16 we decided to take a break near what used to be an aqueduct and walked through the shallow water covering it’s ruins. 
Lock 17 has been my favorite of the locks, and also the largest of the ones I’ve traveled through. The lock had a different gate than other locks on the canal, instead of opening up outwards, this one raised and lowered the gates. After a forty foot lift we left the lock and decided we wanted to visit the town next to it. The seawall made it difficult to land near the lock, so we paddled a little farther to the municipal marina. There the employee told us of a good spot to camp at so that we could beat out the rain that would come later on in the day.  We had to paddle under the lift gate still dripping water.  40 foot lift in lock E17
Excited about having a dry place to sleep tonight we set out to the town of Little Falls (mainly because Jake was craving ice cream). A quick walk led us to Ol’ Sals, a place that had a little of everything, so Jake could have his ice cream. After eating our ice cream we went out toward the lock to see the whole thing close up. Next to the lock are the Gneiss cliffs, which provided some fun rock clambering for a little. We met the lock master on duty, and had an interesting discussion with him. He left us with advice to go to this good pizza place in town. We eventually found the pizza place, but it was closed. As we walked down main street, we asked two girls where else we could get pizza. They both recommended different places (Jake thought they were cute). We ate pizza at one of the girl’s recommended spots then headed back to the marina where we had tied our boats up and headed about a mile to a boat ramp that has a large gazebo, and set up camp. Jake started dozing off as the rain lulled him to sleep, so he suggested I write the blog tonight. I did and I hope this isn’t too bad. All in all this was a great day on the canal.  My favorite kind of pizza...LARGE  A dry spot in the rain CommentsLuke Stachovak 06/22/2010 10:00pm
One of the best posts so far! The only ones that have been better have been done by me! Aunt Betsy 06/22/2010 10:13pm
Otto -- It sounds like you are having a great time & certainly enjoyed your "telling the story" this evening. Relieved to know you found someplace dry to set up camp tonight! Take care. Aaron Stachovak 06/22/2010 10:57pm
Otto, just be happy you are not deer hunting with Jake, he would wake you up even earlier!!! Neil B 06/22/2010 11:03pm
STEAMROLLER! Andy 06/23/2010 7:01am
Nice job Otto. Keep up the good work. Lyn Stachovak 06/23/2010 7:04am
Great post Otto! Yep, that's our Jake... Luke, Aaron and Neil have experienced it all (so have we, his parents). Tootie 06/23/2010 8:54am
Good job, Otto. Jake may lose his job posting while you are traveling with him. Glad to hear you two are having a good time as well as seeing things of interest. Stay safe and keep paddling. Steven Krause 06/23/2010 3:59pm
Otto - I thought Jake was doing a good job of professional level writing. You did well on this blog too! --- Now go ahead. Keep wearing Jake out. He's got a lot of miles to paddle yet before deer season. Leave a Reply | Best of the Blog
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