Middleport

June 7, 2009

Nice little wayside (see the anchor above E34/35 on the map). Found an Irish Pub named Pony’s on Main St. Best chicken wings ever! Ziggy and I split an order of 20. We had too many Yeunglings to count while watching the Red Wings demolish the Pens. Sat next to a crazy woman at the bar who insisted on showing me pictures of her new pool liner on her Blackberry. And some story about being her current boyfriend’s baby sitter many years ago. Pure small town bar goofiness. Eve mimicked the Red Wings by demolishing Ziggy in bubble hockey. The bartended even bought Eve and I a beer at the end of the night.

Retired to the boat for scotch and Ziggy’s cigar.

Even I can appreciate the civil engineering that went into the canal. Imagine a highway cut into the side of a hill. Now fill the highway with water. That’s the Erie Canal. You actually look down on the countryside to the north (toward Lake Ontario) as you go by on this last stretch. Very strange feeling. Plenty of houses and some farms on the down slope; it would make me nervous as hell to have that canal above me like that. Images of the Johnstown flood come to mind.

The stretch from Lockport to Middleport had a lot of the old tow paths left. You can easily imagine the teams of horses pulling barges along the canal. The tow paths have largely been turned into multipurpose trails, and we have seen hikers, bikers, people fishing, etc. along the way.

Talked with the bridge operator at Middleport. She informed me that the state of NY actually hires walkers to walk this section of the canal on a daily basis to listen for leaks. The walker in this section has to walk from the Middleport bridge to the Gasport bridge - a distance of five miles. She takes lunch and then walks back on the other tow path. In fact, she caught one that was repaired just a week or so ago.