Day 208

Daily stats
Start: 9:00 AM - Pittsford, NY (one mile east of Monday’s take out to use dock)
Finish: 5:30 PM - Clarkson, NY (between Brockport and Holley)
Time: 8:30
Daily dist: 27 miles
Total dist: 4000+
Companions: None
Weather: Clear, high mid 70‘s, a bit windy NNW 10+
Notes: Cathy dropped me off at a park with a nice floating dock about a mile east of where we took out the other day. The overlap was worth it for the dock.

It was another beautiful and strangely quiet day on the canal. In over eight hours of paddling I didn’t see one motor boat heading west, a bunch heading east, but none to the west.  Perhaps with the west winds blowing people decided it wasn't worth moving today.   

Cathy found a nice dock to drop me off at today.

After getting dropped off by Cathy (who graciously let me borrow her car the last two days) I turned my boat into the canal and into what turned out to be a persistent head wind all day long. Even though the canal was mostly straight all day, it still gave me enough places to hid from the wind and I made pretty good time all day. Just the same, by 5:30 I was plenty ready to end the day and was very happy to make it to the state boat ramp I had seen on the maps. After landing a quick look around revealed yet another great place to camp. At the boat ramp where I landed was a father and his two kids. When they discovered what I was up to they could hardly contain their excitement. Of course I asked them to sign my boat and we posed for a couple quick pictures.

Dylan and Marina took a break from fishing to pose for a picture with their dad.

I didn't even have to get out of the boat to pick raspberries today, they were growing thick right to the waters edge.