Canal Corp. announces 199th boating season will be from May 19 to Oct. 11

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 26 January 2023 at 11:23 am

File photo by Tom Rivers: A boater heads east in Albion after passing under the Ingersoll Street lift bridge in this photo from Oct. 2, 2019.

The navigational season for the Erie Canal will run from May 19 to Oct. 11, the New York State Canal Corporation announced today.

This will be the 199th consecutive season of navigation, and for the seventh year in a row the tolls for recreational boaters will be waived. Those tolls were normally $25 to $100 for a season pass, depending on the size of the vessel.

The season will open at 7 a.m. on May 19 and close to navigation at 5 p.m. on Oct. 11.

The canal is now a year away from the 200th navigation season of the waterway that goes 363 miles, linking the Hudson River in Albany to Lake Erie in Buffalo.

It cuts through about 25 miles of Orleans County and includes seven lift bridges. That is more than any other county in the canal system, which has 16 lift bridges total.