Around the Great Lakes

Lake Erie to Lake Ontario

The Welland Canal is a shipping canal that connects Lake Erie and Lake Ontario and it seems like it would be the perfect way to transit between the lakes, except that the canal isn’t open to paddlers. From the The St. Lawrence Seaway Pleasure Craft Guide:

In the interest of safety, craft of less than 6 m (20 feet) in length or 900 kg (1 ton) in weight are not permitted to transit through the Seaway locks.

and

Pleasure craft which transit the Seaway canals and locks must be adequately motor-powered. Vessels under sail are not allowed to transit Seaway canals and locks.

Plus, after looking at the tolls extracted for passage through the locks, it looks to be a bit on the spendy side. So, it seems the only other options are to portage the canal via a long 40 mile walk through traffic, catch a ride from someone, or paddle down the Niagara River.

The Niagara River is partially navigable, but not wholly. Up river from Erie, the mouth is guarded by a set of shoals and can be locked around. I suspect that a kayak can avoid the problems presented by the shoals. The river can then be paddled as far as the set of rapids above Niagara Falls. The US side has many marinas, but the Canadian side has a dock just before the waterfalls at Kingbridge Park. A logical place on the US side to pull out may be Fishersman Park, Gratwick Riverside Park, or Griffon Park. These parks are listed in order the most upstream to the furtherest downstream. The put-in after the portage or car portage is either the Joseph Davis State Park on the US side. This park does have a free 27 hole disc golf course, which could prove to be a nice break from a long portage and what looks to be a big day of paddling, portaging, etc… Or I could put in at Queenston dock, which is further upstream.

On a windy day, I’ll likely run into some nice and big race at the meeting of the river and the lake.

At any rate, I would like to paddle as much as I possibly could, but because of the restraints of modern marine traffic and the waterfall, I may have to accept that I won’t be passing this section completely on water. The downside is that I’ll have to paddle, walk, drive this section twice. First, down and then up. On the return trip, I’ll have just 1/2 of Erie to finish for the trip to be complete. It’ll be worth it.

Tags: Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Niagara Canal, Niagara River, Welland