The Owasco Watershed Lake Association is offering free boat rides! From 11 a.m. to 5 p.
m. Saturday, Sept. 7, visitors to TomatoFest in downtown Auburn can catch a Tomato Trolley to ride out to Owasco Lake, where boats await passengers.
When the Tomato Trolley arrives at the lake, volunteers welcome the festivalgoers, give them life jackets and assist them on and off the boats. The boat trip from the boat launch in Emerson Park slowly travels south on the Owasco River, enters into the lake, makes a big circle back to the river and returns north to the launch dock. Weather permitting, the trip should take 40 minutes and offers a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the awesome beauty of Owasco Lake! After the boat trip, the Tomato Trolley returns passengers to TomatoFest, where families can make their own watershed.
Families will create a model of Owasco Lake’s huge 200-square-mile watershed by crumpling paper, drawing land and streams with markers and pouring water over the paper to see lakes, rivers and ponds form as the water and pollutants flow down and collect in pockets. Also, a model watershed borrowed from the Owasco Lake Watershed Inspection and Protection Division allows parents and children to pour water over the model to observe how pollutants are carried into our lakes and rivers. Free Owasco Lake boat rides during a previous year of TomatoFest.
OWLA volunteers serve as captains and docents on each boat. Owasco Marine and other volunteers generously donate boats for th.