Catskill, NY

It’s August 1 and how time flies when you’re having a good time. And we are certainly enjoying our cruise this year. On this Tuesday morning I prepared for my Spanish lesson while Jonny walked Archie one last time in Coxsackie. We left for our next destination by 11 a.m. bound for Catskill, N.Y. with a stop in Athens on the way.  It was a beautiful day to be on the water.

We hadn’t been to either of these towns and they were described as being charming so of course we needed to visit them!  When we arrived in Athens at noon we were the only boat to tie up at the free town dock that was next to a very pretty park. We had lunch on board and before long another boat tied up behind us.

After lunch we walked into Athens to check it out.  It is smaller than Hudson, across the river, and not as updated. The New York Times had described it as one of the up and coming towns on the Hudson River as people from the city are coming up and buying properties and moving in. There were certainly signs of that but there were still a number of houses that were in need of repair. The center of town had good bones and was definitely in the process of  being fixed up.  Because it was a Tuesday, many of the shops and restaurants were closed.  It seems that in this part of the world businesses that cater to tourists are open only from Thursday to Sunday since people come up from the city on the weekends. 

We returned to Zendo and after a quick rest, proceeded on to Catskill, another short but beautiful cruise.  We passed Olana, the hilltop home of Francis Church (that we had toured on the way north) and the iconic Esophus lighthouse.  The beautiful Catskill mountains are on the west bank of the river.  When we visited Olana on the cruise up, we looked out at the beautiful vista that incorporated the town of Catskill and the nearby mountains.

When we arrived in Catskill we turned up the narrow and wooded Catskill Creek and decided to stay at one of the little marinas there rather than find an anchorage. Our friends, Ken and Fred, had stayed at Hop-a-Nose Marina so we called the marina and they told us to come on in. We nestled into one of their two cozy transient slips and tied up. What a charming little place in the bend of the creek! We knew right away that this was the kind of small town marina that we like best. One of the friendly live-a boards helped us to tie up. The marina includes slips on both sides of the creek but we were on the preferred side because it was just a very short walk into town.

However, we hung out on board for awhile and Jonny made a delicious one pot dinner of cod, eggplant and potatoes. By the time we finished eating it was starting to get dark but we walked into town anyway.  We were very favorably impressed with Catskill’s charm and we decided to stay an extra night so we could explore (and also because Jonny needed a place with good internet connectivity the next night since he was hosting a Zoom webinar for MTOA). That night we had an inredible full moon. 

On Wednesday after Archie’s obligatory walk and our lunch onboard we took a long walk through town and up a fairly steep hill to visit the Thomas Cole homestead.  Thomas Cole was the founder of the Hudson Valley landscape art movement and he was a mentor to several others who followed that art form including Francis Church, whose home and grounds at Olana we visited on the way up.  Cole’s home was not nearly as grand as Church’s and one could actually imagine living there.  The setting was magnificent and it was this setting and others like it that he painted. His home was filled with his art as well as an exhibit of art by many women artists, many of whom had not been adequately recognized until recently. 

The town of Catskill (home of Rip Van Winkle) is very charming with lots of interesting shops and restaurants and many homes under renovation. It was smaller than Hudson, and definitely bigger than Athens. We would probably rate Hudson, Catskill and Athens in that order.  Housing prices in all these towns have skyrocketed since Covid but there are still probably some deals to be had in Athens and Catskill for someone willing to invest in some significant updating. 

The town was hosting a Cat’s Meow Auction where participating artists painted cats in very creative ways to raise money for the community. There were more than 65 whimsically painted cats lining the streets. It was fun walking through town and discovering all of the creative cats of Catskill! 

Later that afternoon we had a light dinner at a restaurant called New York that specialized in Polish food including pierogies, which we ordered along with a kale and Brussels sprouts Caesar salad.  Jonny ran his webinar that evening which went very well.  Afterwards we planned for the next couple of days and had an early night in our sweet little marina.

Coxsackie, NY (return trip via Troy)

Jonny took Archie for some grocery shopping on the morning of Monday, July 31. It turned out that a couple who we had met last year were tied up in front of us. We had never seen their boat before but they recognized us. They had volunteered with us at TrawlerFest in Baltimore. So for the next hour or so Jonny and Chuck caught up on their respective travels. They were headed north to Lake Champlain and of course, we had just been there so Jonny shared lots of advice and observations with him. 

Afterwards, Jonny, Archie and I went for a walk along the waterfront towards the Waterford lock, the first lock on the Erie Canal. It is quite impressive in that the water is rushing through with great force.

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We also stopped at the dockside office to pay for our power usage. The two volunteers showed us a world map hanging behind them. It had pins in it representing all the visitors they have had in little Waterford.  It was amazing to see scores of pins from visitors from every continent who had stopped at this little spot on the river.

Our plan for the day was to cruise across to nearby Troy, NY which is on the eastern bank of the Hudson.  We left Waterford by 10:40.  As we approached Troy we had to go through the last lock on this part of our voyage - the Troy Federal Lock. This is the biggest one yet. We were the only boat to tie up there so it was an easy passage.

As soon as we went through the lock, we were in Troy proper and we tied up at the town dock where again we were the only boat with this interesting bridge in sight.

We wanted to have lunch, explore a bit and then travel on to Coxsackie where we would spend the night on the town dock.  It was lunch time and it just so happened that the restaurant we were most interested in was right next to us on the waterfront. We sat out on the porch of Dinosaur Barbecue Restaurant and shared an order of fried green tomatoes for an appetizer and one order of ribs and pulled pork.  Jonny got his requisite draft beer and we enjoyed a delicious meal together (and even had some leftovers to take back with us).

From there we walked through Troy. What a nice surprise it was! Troy is full of architectural gems at every turn. Around the turn of the 20th century, Troy was reputed to be the fourth wealthiest city in America.  The industrial revolution took hold in this area due to the confluence of major waterways that supported water-powered industries. As a result, there is a plethora of beautiful Victorian architecture downtown and many elaborate homes in the area. 

We also passed some interesting retail stores.

We walked through the beautiful grounds of Russell Sage College. I was especially interested to see it because my cousin Sally had gone there and I had no idea how beautiful the campus was.  It was right across from the more famous Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

After a couple of hours in Troy we headed out once again - this time bound for Coxsackie, a three and a half hour cruise. We arrived by 6 p.m. and tied up at the town dock.  Archie was happy to run through the adjacent park.  We took a walk through town and because it was a Monday most everything was closed except for a cute Italian bistro. The menu was enticing but we had eaten a big lunch and decided to skip it.

Instead, we just had cheese and crackers for dinner and watched the latest episode of Outlander before calling it a night.  We did manage to catch a beautiful sunset and dramatic full moon!

Waterford, NY

On Sunday, July 30, Jonny made us a delicious breakfast of French toast using the cinnamon raisin bread and Vermont maple syrup from the farm stand in Orwell. What a treat!

We left Fort Edwards at 8:50 bound for Mechanicville. We had to travel through several locks to complete the Champlain Canal.  Upon arriving at our first lock we were chagrined to discover that a huge flotilla of over 100 kayaks and canoes was traveling the canal en masse.  They were about to enter the lock so we were told to hang out until they locked through not only this lock but three subsequent ones as well!  Jonny was kicking himself because he had heard something about this on the radio but had neglected to pay attention to it.  Oh well! We had no agenda so we tied up at the lock wall and took Archie for a walk across the canal to a pretty little hamlet called Fort Miller. It was a beautiful day, sunny with temperatures in the 70’s, so there was no need to complain.

We chilled for a couple of hours until we were notified to proceed into the lock. From there we went through 3-4 more locks with ease.

Just before getting to Mechanicville we had to go under a bridge that was so low that we were required to notify the nearby lockmaster the day before we would be coming so he would have time to lower the water level, which fortunately he did. We only had a few inches between our solar panels and the bridge.  Yikes!

Because Mechanicville wasn’t our favorite town and because we still had plenty of daylight left, we decided to continue on to Waterford. 

We arrived in Waterford by 5:30.  This is an important intersection because it is where the Erie and Champlain Canals meet. We tied up at the comfortable town dock that only charges for electricity - $10 in our case.

We took Archie for a walk along the waterfront which is quite attractive (and clearly has some sort of horse theme going on)!

Later we returned to Zendo and made grilled pork chops, zucchini and potatoes for dinner.  All in all, it was a long day but not a strenuous one given our early hiatus waiting for the flotilla.  We are taking our time heading south on the Hudson. We’ll seek out some towns that we haven’t visited in the past and probably stop at some old favorites.