Mac, There are some sections of canal that get drained every year. The surge basin (old champlain canal) just above Waterford Lock E-2 is a good example. Every fall there are a dozen bicycles in there, a lawn mower or two, some old trash cans, some 10,000 empty bottles of red wine and maybe an occasional fridge. Every 10 years or so, each lock gets dammed and drained and you find as many as a hundred boat hook poles down there. I was aboard Tug Margo (8-9 foot draft) last year and we hit a Volkswagen in the canal in front of the pier at Whitehall. And my friends at several canal locks told me that if any bodies float south from my house, they will do me a favor and simply lock them thru and not check to see if they have permits. You can laugh, but a dismembered body was found a few years ago stuffed in coolers. Luckily it was found upstream of me! It's that way in all bodies of water everywhere. Fred Tug 44 ---------------------------------------- From: "D C *Mac* Macdonald" <k2gkk@hotmail.com> Sent: Monday, August 13, 2012 5:47 PM To: "fred@tug44.org" <fred@tug44.org>, "Great Loop List" <great-loop@lists.trawlering.com> Subject: RE: GL: ERIE CANAL Have the Canal Corp. folks been cleaning out junk from the canal bed where it has been mostly drained? It might be interesting to see pictures of what they have found in the process. Vehicles? Bodies? What? All sorts of stuff is being found in areas of lakes and rivers that have gone dry due to the drought! * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** D C "Mac" Macdonald ** * Grand Lake & OKC - OK * ** AGLCA (#217) & USPS ** * * (no current boat) * * ** USAF & FAA, Retired ** ** Amateur Radio K2GKK ** * * k2gkk@hotmail.com * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *