CODA New York 2025 (28).

CODA : Moving on up the Champlain Canal.

25 May 2025 

Fort Edward free docks, Fort Edward, Hudson River, New York  

Will at the helm of Coda during a period of sunshine.

Marc-  We are at Fort Edward tonight.  This is the head of navigation on the Hudson River.  There is a Scotties tissue factory nearby but our free docks are courtesy of the town of Fort Edward.  Yesterday 27 boats came up the Hudson River from Waterford.  It was a mad rush to get out of town after 2-3 weeks of waiting for the NY State. Canal system to open.  Most of those boats came up here to Fort Edward and filled every available space.  Luckily I befriended a few of them so we had a few possibilities to raft up with them here.  Coda left Waterford this morning at 07:00 and we went to wait at Lock 1.  There were a 3 trawlers and one sailboat with us.  We traveled together in a calm travel day up through 6 locks over 30 miles to Fort Edward.  We were greeted by our new friends at the docks were we rafted up.

The current state of affairs of the Champlain Canal is as follows:  It remains closed due to low water from Lock 7 through Lock 9.  Will and I walked over to check it out and the water level seems to half of what it should be.  The channel markers are high and dry.  The Canal Authority will make a statement at 08:00 tomorrow morning.  They have 10 miles of the canal yet to fill with water.  A rise of 2 feet was expected today and it only came up 2 inches.  

On the bright side, there were sunny periods during the day and the temperature went up into the 60's.  It is grey and rainy again this evening.  Tomorrow has a sunny forecast.  

Passing through one of several locks where you can look over the wall and see a Hudson River dam waterfall past the canal wall.

Looking over another Lock wall.  Note the hydroelectric plant and dam.  

Many more trees in the river.

Small white tailed deer Will saw on the banks of the Hudson.

Tug with barge filled with concrete protectors to cover the underwater power cables laid in the bottom of Lake Champlain.

Final part of the Hudson River.  Note the small plane landing in a farmer's field.