Monday, July 1, 2019

It's Monday morning and time to get close to Oneida Lake so we can cross it on Tuesday. Three of today’s five locks took us up a total of 57 feet, and the last two took us down about 50 feet, so we ended the day about 7 feet higher than when we started. In the late afternoon, we tied up at Mariner’s Landing at Sylvan Beach, NY, after almost eight hours of traveling.

We noticed some signs posted by the Oneida Indian Nation about trespassing and “No Hunting” because it is a wildlife refuge. The Oneida Nation owns about 17,000 acres of its former ancestral lands in Oneida and Madison Counties and will eventually control up to 25,370 acres. The marina and surrounding trailer park have belonged to the Oneida Nation for the past 14 years, and the residents pay rent to the Oneida Nation on a month-to-month basis. Though they have been given 6-months notice to vacate the property by Oct. 1 (more than the 30-day rental agreement), offered no charge for their last month’s rent and help in finding another location and moving, people who have been there for many years are very disturbed by this turn of events. [Huh – kind of funny – people upset about being kicked off of “their” land where they’ve lived for “many” (only 10 years) ...]

It will take time to manage the construction of the redevelopment, but the plans include an upgraded marina and it’s intended to be a very boater friendly location when finished.

The walk into town, which is along the shore of Oneida Lake, looked short, but we found that the cove next to the marina went way into the residential area so it was closer to a mile than a few blocks. We ate dinner at Harpoon Eddie’s with another Looper couple from the boat “Just Right” which we’ve seen in other marinas a few times. It was a very pleasant evening for a one-night stop.