You Ride Sixteen Miles and What Do You Get?

The view from our front door will never get old. This morning dawned clear and cool, with the promise of 80 degree temperatures later in the afternoon.

Knowing that the Erie Canal was a big player in these parts up until about the Civil War, we set out to explore a bit. Google Maps showed a series of connected bike trails connecting Schenectady and Amsterdam, NY, so we took off.

Riding across the Mohawk River on a bike path gave us a whole new appreciation for the size of this little trickle!

The bike path follows, for the most part, the course of a long abandoned railroad. The railroad tracks followed, again for the most part, the towpath that was built along the Erie Canal.

Arn't these flowers gorgeous?

Some parts of the original canal were difficult to pinpoint.

While other areas were very obvious.

Just about where we stopped to look at the current Lock 8, we saw a sign that encouraged us to continue our ride. We did sixteen miles today, of very comfortable riding. The trail as noted on Google Maps is a bit overoptimistic since a good bit of what they label as a trail hasn't been improved yet, and several miles of detours exist on roads and streets. If one is patient and observant, many miles of relaxing bicycle riding can be enjoyed, however.

Lock 8 was in the process of lifting a small pleasure craft and two jet skis.

Turns out the jet ski guys were law enforcement types who were patrolling the river in search of civilians in need of help. Kinda strange that on a comfortably warm day they were wearing their uniforms, including long pants and boots. Don't crash!

Just down the "road" from Lock 8, we prowled about the ruins of Erie Canal Lock 23.

Long abandoned, of course, due to the advent of railroads, the stacked granite blocks still testify to the massive amount of work required to build and maintain such a system.

All of the original wood parts and pieces are long gone, but the state maintains a recreated Lock Tender's building to provide a hint of how things worked.

At the upstream end of the lock, which is actually two separate locks to allow boats to go both up and down stream at the same time, is a time-worn wooden pier designed to align each boat with the appropriate lock.

During it's heyday, this canal and these locks must have been bustling with men, donkeys, boat captains, and city slickers!

We couldn't help admiring the Stag's Horn sumac scattered along the sides of the path. This is prime blooming season, and the plants are out-doing themselves this year!

We expect to be leaving Glenville just north of Schenectady, New York, tomorrow for points west. We continue to be amazed at the lush greenery of New England and the East Coast in general. The area around here is every bit as inviting and exciting as points further east. We thought that this would be a ho-hum few days, but were pleasantly surprised!

As the sun set on the Mohawk River, so also has our visit to this old Dutch area come to an end. We'll miss it.