8/9/20 Kerkhonksen and High Falls Area with Jillane Becker, Russ Nelson, Diane Reider, Professor John DiFiore, and Serious Sean Dougherty
This would be the next hike in our Delaware and Hudson series, which had been on hiatus for far too long. We had started it way back in 2018 in Olyphant PA.
Site of former Lock 24 in Kerkhonksen
For those of you who haven’t been following it along, the Delaware and Hudson route opened in 1829 as a through route between the coal of the Lackawanna River valley and the Hudson River at Kingston. The Delaware and Hudson Canal route was from there up the Rondout Creek and its tributaries, then down the Basha Kill and the Neversink River to the Delaware River. It traveled up the Delaware River to Lackawaxen, and up the Lackawaxen River to Honesdale. From there, a gravity railroad with two directions connected to Carbondale and later further down the valley as well.
Towpath and rail bed in Kerkhonksen
Matt Davis had proposed the series, and several were signed up to try to do the entire thing.
Unfortunately, until the previous ones Matt had done all of them, and until this one, Russ and Ewa had both done them all. Ewa missed this one, leaving only Russ and I who had done them all. Also, Diane had done all except for the section between Westbrookville and Kingston. We’ll have to try to get the others out to fill in the gaps on these ones, although this hike ended up being something a little special that’d be hard to emulate.
Towpath and rail bed in Kerkhonksen
As we near the end of this series, I didn’t want to just hurry on through it. It’s not all that bad a drive like some of the things we are working on like the 911 Trail series. I really want to do as much stuff as we can through these areas.
For this one, I looked at the old canal route from Kerkhonksen, where we had left off previously, and High Falls NY. From there, it is complicated because there are two canal routes. The canal was upgraded and moved to the south a bit and the old one abandoned.
Towpath and rail bed above Kerkhonksen
So, I do want to do them both, but I don’t want to repeat the same hike twice. Rather, I added a section of the old New York, Ontario, and Western Railroad’s Kingston Branch that I’d not done onto the end of it.
This was an appropriate move because we had already been walking it anyway. The Kingston Branch originally terminated in Ellenville, but when the canal was abandoned in 1899, it was purchased by the railroad and much built over for the stretch from Ellenville to Accord.
Old spillway
I came up with a hike where we would follow the routes from Kerkhonksen to Accord where the railroad split, then the canal, with the later route, on to High Falls. We would then continue to across the Roundout and walk the O&W rail bed back toward Accord the other way and stop near Alligerville.
I found a pull off parking spot on Rt 209 used for fishing on the North Peters Kill, which was really the only option to make this work, to be the end point.
I was running behind getting to the starting point. When I finally got there, my plan was to just shuttle my van only to the end point, or as many cars as necessary to be there, and then we could all ride back to Kerkhonksen. It was a little different method than I would normally do, but I figured it would work well. Being late kind of screwed that up a bit.
Diane took me up to leave my car, and then we headed back to Kerkhonksen to the begin the hike from the rail trail parking lot.
It’s kind of annoying that it’s only billed as a rail trail, since the canal was there first.
Along the rail bed and canal
It always bothers me when one thing gets key billing and the other gets net to nothing. We see it all the time with Delaware and Raritan Canal. They call the trail the tow path all the way up to Frenchtown NJ, but the canal never went that far north at all. It was the railroad.
Canal and rail bed
Same thing with the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail in Connecticut; they bill it as a canal trail when much of the time it is only on the New Haven and Northampton Railroad bed, and the canal is nowhere to be seen, in a different area. It sends the wrong historic message I feel.
In this case, the Delaware and Hudson Canal was used for seventy years. The O&W Railroad on this grade was only used from just after the closure of the canal until 1957, just over fifty years. Both do deserve some billing here.
Old Mountain Brook Aqueduct site
The town of Kerkhonksen did not always carry that name. It was a name that came more along with the railroad. Prior to that, it was the canal town of Middleport, and home to the Middleport Lock, or Lock #24, which lifted boats 8 feet.
The lock today is in an island of grass in the parking lot entrance with several little businesses around. Some of the buildings are original to when the canal was still there, including a former canal store on the east side. We started walking from here.
Mountain Brook Aqueduct site
The path was clear and nice. The first bit was a driveway, and at the end of that, it turned into just a simple rail bed next to the old canal. The towpath was used here at first for the rail bed, but it was widened quite a bit. The canal even had water in it for much of this first part.
Soon, we came upon a former weir site, which had been altered somewhat for railroad use. These were used to help drain off the canal during times of floods or if maintenance was needed on a certain section, without draining as long a stretch.
Wood flooring on Mountain Brook Aqueduct
We continued along the canal ahead, and then came to what appeared to be another weir site, but this one was much more substantial.
It was the former site of the Mountain Brook Aqueduct, which was a wooden trunk structure that carried the canal over the stream. Amazingly, wood base below the abutments was still in place from over certainly 130 years prior. The west side of this abutment had been rebuilt into the bridge abutments for the O&W Railroad, but the trunk area on the eastbound side was still visible.
Mountain Brook Aqueduct site
Russ and I climbed down the one side to have a closer look at the amazing dry laid stone work that was still rather intact, and the way the railroad changed it up with mortar.
Mountain Brook Aqueduct site
The day was already off to a really great start. It was a crazy mind bending at the start because I was switching back and forth between areas of interest so often.
Mountain Brook Aqueduct
I would go from talking about music or high peaks or so many other things with Serious Sean, then back to nerding out like crazy on railroad or canal stuff with Russ, or then back to singing some song with Serious Sean.
Sean had brought his “new” guitar he had recently picked up, which was really sharp looking. He used to always carry this really nice wooden one with an almost galvanized segment look which had a great sound, but this one was a darker one with a busier body, but really great sound as well.
I had also purchased some really great Russian Imperial Stout a few days prior, which turned out to be Sean’s favorite kind of brew, so I gave him one of those. We got a little buzz going and I think we were feeling pretty great.
It was getting hotter out, but we were pretty well in the shade for most of this stretch.
We continued on and soon crossed over a couple more places where there used to be waste weirs, or there still are waste weirs, but they have been buried through railroad construction over the tops of them. Only the tops of the walls visible.
Rail bed and canal
The canal shifted on either side of the clear railroad grade we were walking. Sometimes, the towpath was off to the left with the railroad occupying the majority of the prism, which had been filled in. Some of the time the canal shifted away so far that we could barely enough notice it happening. We passed by a site near an opening that I think was once known as Venooy’s Basin, but I’m not even totally sure what we were looking at all of the time.
Filled former waste weir
A more dramatic turn where the canal left the railroad bed was just up ahead a little bit. There, the canal turns off to the left and goes out through farmland and to municipal garages, while the O&W Railroad goes through a deep cut through the rocks. The two come back closer together again a little ways ahead.
I noticed the giant cut and realized that this was probably not where the canal went. I pulled out my copy of the book by David Barber that details all of the remnants of the canal, and proved this.
Filled former waste weir
We all got into the cut, but I went back to double check on where the canal actually turned away from the rail bed and pretty certainly found it.
Russ and I were talking about how the O&W bought the canal, which included all of the snubbing posts along the way. These were cut stone blocks used to tie boats and mules off at stop points. The O&W apparently started using some of the snubbing posts as mile marker posts, but Russ and I both agreed that despite having read this, we had never seen an example of it.
Canal and rail bed
As we got just a little further into the cut, we found just what we were talking about. A snubbing post was placed in the hillside, apparently as a mile marker. They must have been painted on, because there was no mile written into it when we looked at it. It was certainly put there for that reason, because at that point we were quite a ways away from the route of the canal. Around this same area, we passed beneath a former bridge site, with only the abutments remaining over the deep section of the cut.
Canal and rail bed
We continued out the other side, and then onto a grassy area that approached a township road, near the intersection with Tobacco Road.
We couldn’t walk through the canal in this past section to the township yard because it was a private driveway, but it came right back in at the township road.
We reached Tobacco Road, and there was an enormous plow placed at the entrance and used as a sign base. We turned left on Tobacco Road and started heading toward the village of Accord.
Filled waste weir site
We turned left on Berm Road from Tobacco Road, and then cut briefly onto Scenic Road, which I thought was taking us where the canal used to go, but apparently it did not. I think it might have gone through the yards of a couple of the houses on the corner area but it’s hard to say.
In a yard just ahead, along Berm Road, there was a stone wall next to a driveway that I think might have been part of the canal berm, or otherwise was part of the railroad later on, but again I am not sure here. I think it was the canal.
Possibly Venooy's Basin site
Across the street was an abandoned house, and a few abandoned out buildings. Lookin at them closer, Russ and I both picked up on the fact that they had higher doors on the sides. This was clearly a railroad served business, and the tracks had gone right beside them.
The house was off to the left from the farm type buildings I recall.
I found out later that this was once the Anderson Grain Mill. The building is in rough shape, but still looking overall sturdy. It’s a shame to see these old businesses in such bad shape.
Canal and rail bed
We walked a little further ahead from here, turned right on Towpath Road, then left on another branch of Tobacco Road according to Google maps. It seemed like this must have been where the canal had gone. The railroad was just along the left side of it.
I was surprised to see, straight ahead, that a house mostly surrounded by bushes, was in fact the old Accord railroad station.
The building was well kept and in beautiful condition. It even had a caboose parked out front!
Rail bed and canal
There were two guys outside doing yard or landscaping work, and they looked alarmed that we were peering around their bushes, almost salivating.
I commented that they had a beautiful place, as did Russ. I asked if it would be alright if we took a photo of it, and they said from out there, yes.
I got several shots of the structure and caboose, thanked them, and we were on our way down the road further.
The rail bed and canal
We could see as we walked on that there were rails on which the caboose was sitting, and that they transitioned to a walkway that had rail-like edges out in front of the building.
We continued on down the road, and watched to the left for remnants of the canal coming in to view.
There were a few homes back the drive. I watched to the right as we walked, just in case we had to turn back and try to make our way out to Berm Road, which was well uphill through the woods.
Rail bed and canal
I figured we had a pretty good route out if we needed it, so we continued on.
The canal to the left went through an area that had stuff in it, including a trailer. I walked back a section of a drive when I saw some stone work that I thought might have been Lock #23.
While looking, a guy living in the trailer in the canal prism peered out at us. Before he could question, I told him I was just looking for the old canal lock. He asserted that this was in fact the canal, but didn’t know about the lock.
Canal and rail bed
Russ asked him if we could have a look at the canal in his yard, and he said it was okay. He went back in the trailer, and emerged again on the other side to watch us and what we were doing.
I had my David Barber guide book to the canal out, and we looked over it more closely.
With the guy there, I asked him if it was alright if we walked out to the canal from there, and he said it was fine. I also asked if we could continue through to walk the canal to the next road. He said it was pretty overgrown, but it should be okay.
An old snubbing post along the O&W
We went into the weedy section, and climbed up to the old towpath, where there was a long abandoned house.
I had seen a photo of a house noted as Alligerville, but it looks very similar to this old building, except that there is a peak on the roof of the old one and none on this one. The windows on the front of it seem to match, as well as just below the roof awning. I wonder if it could be the same one. I sent a photo I took of the building to the D&H Canal museum to look at but currently haven’t heard back.
Where the old canal broke off to the left of O&W
I peered into the front of the building and could see the the floor was mostly removed, but the bracing for it was all in place. I wondered if this might have at one time served as a lock house, but there would not have been a lot of room. It was almost right on the towpath.
The first bit of the towpath beyond was in pretty good shape, and only slightly overgrown. We were able to walk along it for a little bit of time, and I watched the prism for any evidence of the old lock.
O&W bed in a cut
Soon, I spotted the remnants of the lock.
This one was rather badly collapsed. The towpath side was recognizable but the berm side was kind of a mess, and at least somewhat collapsed.
It was almost unrecognizable as a lock. The gate recesses were somewhat collapsed, and that’s where I was able to descend into the former lock chamber. The walls of the higher part along the towpath were coming in. It was a composite stone structure that would have had a wooden lining to it.
An old bridge site over the rail bed
Lock #23 was also known as the Stony Kill Lock, and lifted boats ten feet.
I was very happy to have found it. We’ve done really well locating pretty much all of the locks along the canal at this point, having only missed a couple of them at the beginning in Pennsylvania.
We continued on beyond the lock along the towpath, which was bad, but walkable for a bit. More and more trees had fallen over it as we continued to the east, and at some point I had to descend into the canal prism to continue.
The rail bed in Accord
I made my way back up to the towpath for a short bit, only to make my way right back down to the prism. It was just getting too hard to walk the towpath, and there was evidence that it still occasionally held water, which kept the weeds down a bit.
I continued to bully through the prism, but Russ and Jillane made their way up to the berm side of the towpath, which appeared to be easier. I still chose to stay over where I was, and it only got tougher. Eventually, everyone seemed to push their way over the berm side.
Plow along the rail bed
I started heading up toward the berm side myself, expecting to find the others, but they had made their way out onto a farm property and into a field to get out to Towpath Road. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I think it was John and Diane that kept following me through the mess.
I left the canal prism because it just got too bad, and skirted the tall fence of the private property parallel with the canal. I tried bushwhacking over to it again, but the thorns were getting rather impenetrable, even for me.
Old canal route
I weaved back and forth through the undergrowth, getting sweaty and bloody, and more frustrated by the moment. Eventually, I just bullied my way through thorns to the nearest spot I could find out of the woods and onto the edge of a field.
Once out, I could see the rest of the group ahead on Towpath Road.
I headed out across the field, and the canal was obvious behind me, up on a bit of a fill above the fields. Everyone had found a nice shady spot along the road, beside the Stony Kill.
Anderson Grain Mill
It was insanely hot, and I got over to the creek and layed in it right away. Jillane joined me, and found a nice spot to sit next to a hollowed out, interesting tree.
Vacant house in Accord
The root system formed a sort of an arch.
Once I was adequately cooled off, we hung out in this spot to let everyone catch up and clean their wounds.
Serious Sean had been playing his guitar since the start of it.
The first tune he came out with when we had first started was a rendition of Queen’s “Killer Queen”, which is an incredibly busy song with all sorts of notes. I can only imagine how hard it is to play it. I consider it to be one of the most difficult songs to sing ever.
Anderson Grain Mill on the rail bed
Still, we got through it, and then a few other ones as well.
While we were stopped at the Stony Kill, he came out with George Harrison’s “If I Needed Someone” from 1965’s Rubber Soul album by the Beatles, and we harmonized on it.
While we were having a good time there, Jillane and the others started moving ahead.
We made our way down to where Towpath Road went across the Stony Kill, and I had everyone wait up because I wanted to see the aqueduct site where the canal crossed it.
Historic Times Leader image of Accord Station
There was a sort of farm road that led from near the bridge along the Stony Kill and then out to the former aqueduct site, right next to the confluence with Rondout Creek.
Accord Station today
I soon reached the spot, and was quite impressed by what I saw.
The aqueduct was one of wooden trunk structure originally, and abutments were in place.
Caboose at Accord Station
The west abutment was in far better shape than the east one, which was badly deteriorating, but I could still see where the trunk would have been.
Interestingly, the aqueduct also had a floor for the creek, much like the Mountain Creek aqueduct but on a much larger scale.
My book on this said that it was impossible to cross this except with a boat, but I found that not to be the case. It was a little deeper than it was further upstream, but not too bad. I could almost rock hop the entire thing.
Accord Station
There was not a good way to follow the canal from this point. I could see via the aerial images that it was farmed over ahead, and didn’t plan on following this little bit.
Accord Station
Towpath Road would be good enough for this section.
I headed back to the road, and we all walked ahead to the next intersection in a wide open area.
My google maps showed a road going through from there, and it was labeled “The Tow Path”, and looked like an official trail.
We reached the intersection with Towpath Road, which continued to the right, and Garden Lane to the left. We turned right slightly on Towpath Road, which does not follow the towpath at all, and then left on the “The Tow Path” .
Canal along Tobacco Rd
As we were walking this stretch, there was a young couple out in a yard of a farm house near the intersection with The Tow Path and Towpath Road.
A man’s voice called out “Can I help you with something?” or something like that.
It really looked like a public route, and there were no signs, so I told him what we were up to. He and the young blonde girl walked over to talk to us, and told us it was private land. I pointed to my phone and let them know that it looked like a trail on there.
The canal off Tobacco Road
I said not to disagree, but to let them know that it would be easy for others to make the same mistake in the future if nothing were done.
We engaged in conversation, and told them we had walked the entire canal from Honesdale, and the entire gravity railroad from before that out by Olyphant.
They were rather impressed by all of this, and they started telling us the history of their farm.
It turns out, this was likely the oldest generation farm in the United States.
The canal off Tobacco Road
The Schoonmaker Farm dates back as far as the late 1600s, and still remains in the same family to this day. The guy turned to the girl and questioned “what is it, 5th generation?”.
It would certainly be longer than that!
Jochem Hendrickz Schoonmaker (c.1665- c.1730) of Kingston was granted the land from the King of England, and there are records to show that he was already residing on the property by 1703.
The canal off Tobacco Road
His son and namesake, Joachem Hendrickz Schoonmaker, built the current farm house further back on the property in 1787 in the last two years of his life. Several barns and possibly an even older smoke house still stand out there.
The couple invited us to come back to their farm and have a look at the historic marker that was there.
I did want to go back and see it, but I didn’t want to change our trajectory too much, because we had such a long way to go.
Old house noted as Alligerville
I asked them if they had seen the lock back on the property further, and if it was intact. They said “oh yeah, it’s there”. I then rather sheepishly asked if we might have a look at it.
House outside of Accord that looks similar to the "Alligerville" house
They said we might not get through that way, but that we could go back and have a look at it. They said there were a couple of other houses back there who owned land.
Overgrown canal towpath in Accord
“We appreciate what you’re doing” they said to us, and they told us that if anyone stopped us going back there, to just let them know that the Schoonmakers said that it was alright!
We thanked them, and told them we might be coming back through depending on what we come across.
We headed down the driveway, and the old canal came into view soon enough on the left side. It was pretty overgrown there, and the Schoonmakers told us we likely would not be able to get through there.
Looking into the old house
We soon passed the house and just continued walking through. No one came out or said anything to us, so we quietly just kept on moving along and hoped for the best.
Fortunately, we had no problem and were soon into the woods.
The towpath remained clear out beyond the last house, and very pleasant to walk.
It wasn’t too long before we came to the next point of interest we were looking for.
Lock 23 was an excellent example of a cut stone lock, different than the previous ones.
Overgrown canal near Accord
Also known as Foley’s Lock, it raised boats ten feet.
The lower end of the lock was filled in and crossed by an access lane from a driveway and home above, but the upper end of the lock was clearly visible. The fine cut stone was reportedly taken from a quarry very close by, and the availability of this stone was why it was done with the greater detail than the others rather than the wood lined composite construction.
We moved on from the lock rather quickly since it was in a somewhat accessible spot.
Lock 23 ruins
Just before we reached the lock, there was a cut stone foundation on the slope to the right. I’m not sure if it was a lock house, or if it was a mule barn or something like that.
There was still a little metal hardware in the lock as wel.
We moved on along the towpath, which went from being like a vehicle accessible road to simply being a foot path. This was a little nicer because we knew no one would end up finding us out there really. When we reached a purge in the towpath wall, we took a little break.
Lock 23 ruins at gate pocket site
The Rondout looked beautiful at this spot, and perfect for taking a dip. I put my stuff securly on a rock and headed over into the river.
Lock 23 ruins
It was extremely refreshing and I needed it. It was a pretty humid day.
Only John decided to go in with me. I think everyone else missed out there.
Once out, we continued back up to the towpath. The canal on the other side of the purge section was badly eroded by seasonal stream wash that brought it right on down to mantle rock. That didn’t last all that long and it soon started looking like the rest of the canal we had been on before.
At Lock 23
The towpath widened out ahead again, and became a bit more like road. We continued along it heading toward Alligerville, and pretty soon a house started coming in to view on the left.
I didn’t want to make a scene, but figured we weren’t supposed to be coming out there.
I waited for everyone to catch up, and let them know we were going to quietly make our way out past the house, and back to Towpath Road, which comes in from the right to more closely beside the old canal route.
Canal bushwhack near Accord
We passed by the house, and then the canal was somewhat obliterated. It wasn’t obliterated by the railroad here, because that turned off back in Accord and crossed to the other side of the Rondout, it was just filled here.
We walked through a car canopy, and then onto the driveway to the house, out toward Towpath Road.
When we reached the road at a ninety degree bend, there was another house and driveway sitting on the former canal site. The road bridge was parallel with the canal and both crossed Peters Kill.
Canal near Accord
The Peterskill Aqueduct is now spanned by a foot bridge in the middle. Towpath Road to the right looks as though it might use part of the old canal aqueduct abutments.
Canal bushwhack
The Peterskill Aqueduct was another wooden trunk structure, and the center pier of it on the towpath side still supports the foot bridge going over it.
Further up a feeder from the Peters Kill apparently feeds into the canal just to the west. The wide section near the house was once the Davis Basin, a large canal basin.
As we stood in the lot, I wasn’t sure if we could cross over the foot bridge or not. A guy soon came out the front door of the house, so I let him know what we were doing.
The canal in the fields
He didn’t say much, but I was surprised that without even asking, he said that we could cross over the footbridge.
We complied and crossed, which took us to the dead end of Purcell Lane, a road built on the former canal route.
We continued to walk the road, and another neighbor on the road wondered what we were doing. Usually, we explain to people, and they have been quite friendly and supportive of it all.
In this area, a difference in elevation on Purcell Lane markes the site of Lock #21.
Along Stony Kill
Lock #21, the Alligerville Lock, lifted boats ten feet like the previous ones.
I missed it at first. I knew about where it should be, but it was too overgrown to see remnants.
When I realized we passed it, because we had gotten too close to Kyserike Road, I went back to look for it.
Careful inspection of the berm side of the canal revealed that the towpath wall was destroyed for the road, but that the berm side remained, barely visible through the weeds.
Along Stony Kill
I looked closer when I returned to the group, and noted also that the bypass flume for the lock was somewhat intact on the downward side of it.
Stony Kill Aqueduct site
We continued on across Kyserike Road, and from here had to follow a section of Berme Road because the canal was in too much private land much of the way.
I had walked this section as a bonus miles bit with Jillane and Justin several years back, but I was not really looking over the details when we went through at that time.
This time, I had the book handy and ready to look for everything.
We would have a pretty easy time because the first bit of road was blocked by a fallen utility pole. This was great news since traffic wouldn’t be getting through.
Stony Kill Aqueduct site
Near the start of the road walk section, there was a bit of stone work along the creek side of the road. It seemed that some of the road had obliterated the canal here.
Lock #22 Foleys Lock
The stone work was probably that of a culvert or device for carrying water beneath the canal. There was also a more modern pipe beneath it nearby.
Lock 21 site, Alligerville
Several yards had overtaken the canal over the next couple of miles and integrated it into their own landscaping. It was interesting to see, but nowhere could we walk the actual towpath. Fortunately, Berme Road was nice enough through here.
We eventually came to where Berme Road continued to the left, and Canal Road went to the right. Both of these were routes of the canal.
The original route along Berme Road was in use from 1828 until 1849 when the route along Canal Road was completed. This upgrade to the canal included construction of new locks for this stretch, and widening, but most significantly the new aqueduct over the Rondout Creek in High Falls.
Just in a short section of driveway to a white house to the left, old Lock #21 was visible. This is the only completely intact lock of the original canal alignment.
Unfortunately, the old structure is about ready to collapse on the lower end. The fine cut stone is already separated and starting to come apart.
Old Lock #21
The lock appears to be much deeper than some of the later locks, but I’m not sure what the lift of this one was. The house on the other side of it might have been the original lock house, now altered.
I was rather amazed at how narrow the original lock used to be. It’s amazing the undertaking to pretty much rebuild all of the locks to newer width just twenty some years after completing it.
Ahead, the old canal route appears to have been washed out.
We turned right this time on Canal Road, and the newer route continued beside it.
Lock 20 High Falls
We had a pleasant walk here until we came to the intersection with De Pew Road. There, the trail continued on a towpath into the woods from the intersection.
Lock 18 gate pocket
Historic records show that there were towpaths on both sides of the canal from here to High Falls. This isn’t surprising as this was a very busy section, with six locks almost back to back from one another.
This flight of locks are all composed of cut stone rather than composite, like Lock #22 we had seen earlier. We walked to reach the first one, Lock #20, very shortly. Lock 20 had a lift of 12.63 feet. Some of the gate recesses appeared to have been staggered forward, but they may be collapsing a bit. There were also snubbing posts along the lock edges here.
Depuy Canal House and Lock 16
Lock #19 was in at least as good shape as the previous one, but with stone work probably even more intact. Lift of this lock was 12.47 feet.
Lock 16
Lock #18 soon followed, also in great shape with snubbing posts. Lift of 18 was 12.67 feet.
Lock #17 was in great shape also, but with some upper stone possibly missing. There were also no snubbing posts. Lock 17 lifted boats 12.62 feet. This one was a bit more grown over than the previous ones.
Just ahead there used to be a bridge over a little inlet to a dock area. To the left, there was apparently a dock and unloading area, somewhat obliterated today. When last I was out there, a foot bridge spanned where the towpath used to cross over this, but it was in poor shape having been wrecked in a recent flood. We still managed to cross it then, but now it is completely gone and it is necessary to walk around the little basin area to the left on a trail. Once around and back to the towpath, we reach the upper end of Lock #16. This lock lifted boats 12.66 feet, and sits adjacent to the Depuy Canal House.
The Depuy Canal House actually existed along the route of the Old Mine Road long before the canal opened. It was built by Simeon Depuy in 1797, and it was used by the canal starting in 1828. At that time, the canal ran in front of it, not beside it. It wasn’t until the rerouted canal came by in the 1840s that this section opened (many seem to believe it was built as a canal house). It was a world class restaurant until recent years operated by John Novi since 1964, but it was recently sold and will become a new museum for the Delaware and Hudson Canal.
Depuy Canal House and Lock 16
I had loaded up my phone with tons of historic shots for this hike, so I could go back through and try to create more then and now compilations. I had a ton of them of High Falls, so I started setting those up while the others had a look around.
Telegraph office at Lock 15
We crossed over Rt 213 to the canal on the other side, which is not a trail in that area. I got a couple more photos, and we went into the woods toward Lock #15. This lock had badly deteriorated to the point that I didn’t even realize we went over it at first. It was also known as the “Collector’s Lock”, and had a lift of 12.66 feet. There was an old house on the towpath here, described in my book as a “run down shack”, but it turned out that this was also there the same time as the canal.
This was not the collector’s office, but rather the telegraph office. The collectors office was on the other side of the lock from there.
Original 1828 aqueduct
There were still two towpaths at this point, on both sides of the canal, but only the one on the right could be followed here.
Aqueduct site today
The one on the left was carried by wooden bridges for which only piers remain. The site of a bridge over the canal was obvious with a high abutment, and the original canal route came in from the left. The original Lock 15 is just over in that area. We pushed on ahead a bit more and soon reached the west abutment to the High Falls Aqueduct over the Rondout Creek.
High Falls Roebling Aqueduct site
I got another photo from the top to compare to an older one, and we descended to the left.
Below the aqueduct site, we came upon the stone work for old Lock #15. It was much narrower, like the other one we had seen, but it looked like much of it had been removed.
We walked to the right from here, down a path and toward the edge of the river where there was a good spot that I could get in the water. No one else wanted to at first, but I needed it badly. There were some rapids, so we couldn’t go too far out, but that was enough.
The site we went in was formerly the site of the original John Jervis aqueduct that served the canal from 1828 to 1849. The crossing was a stone arch, but narrower than the John Roebling structure that replaced it. The stone arch remained in place until after the canal was abandoned, beside it, but was eventually blasted away I think for flood concerns. Certainly, it was built to last.
Old Lock 15
We headed from here upstream along a path, and back to the old canal route briefly. It turns out and goes beneath Rt 213. Old Lock 16 is now buried beneath the highway at this point.
We continued on a path up along the Rondout Creek, and left the canal for the remainder of the hike. We soon reached the old mill ruins on the shore, which were involved in the cement industry.
We could see the High Falls for which the settlement takes its name upstream. They don’t look so big from afar because of the high volume, but they’re quite impressive. The site had long been a good spot for mill work because of the available water power. Early on, grist mills were in operation there, until the “Rosendale Cement” was discovered, and the grist mills were converted to grind cement. Through the 1860s until around 1900, cement mining and processing was the biggest industry on the lower Rondout valley. Not until the development of Portland Cement in PA did the industry start to wane.
High Falls
We continued past the old mills, and then up to Rt 213, where old Lock #19 is buried. From there, we checked out the falls, and then walked to the bridge over the Rondout on the highway.
To my surprise, the old truss bridge we had hung out on at this point was gone, replaced with a boring new concrete deck bridge. We had climbed on the trusses the last time we were there on the charming old bridge, and the new one lacks all of that.
We walked through the intersection up hill, and then reached where the O&W Railroad used to cross over the road. The old High Falls Station still stands to the right as a private residence, and so I got some shots of it for then and now compilations. Our trajectory however was the other direction to head back toward Accord.
Historic postcard view at High Falls
I had hiked this bit of right of way before with Jillane and Justin, as mentioned previously, but the trail now goes on further. I’d not done that bit.
THe view today
There was a very pretty and well shaded section of right of way which took us out across Rest Plaus Road on a bridge, and then past a lovely view to the west where we could see the Shawangunk Ridge and the historic Mohonk Mountain House, one of the last of the great mountain top resorts of the Catskill era. It’s quite the sight, even from afar.
High Falls Station
Ahead, we soon came parallel with the Kripplebush Creek. I slowed everyone up here because I wanted them all to see the beautiful, historic mill along the other shore. It is said to be one of the few Dutch mills still extant through the entire Hudson valley.
High Falls Station today
I got down and layed down in the creek, having gotten sweaty again.
While there, a couple came up walking the trail. It turned out to be the owners of the mill, who wanted to let us know that the creek was on private property. I told them I didn’t know, and we ended up having a lovely conversation with them about the history of the property. They said they can’t quite get the mill running again, but they try to keep it up pretty nice. They also said that the way things have been, a lot of people have been coming around and overrunning anywhere along the rivers. I told them I totally understood, and that I work for parks so we see it like crazy. Like everywhere, city people drive in and play loud music, and leave trash everywhere. The same story is happening just about everywhere with a water feature.
We pushed a little further ahead, and reached the bridge where the railroad bed crosses over the Kripplebush Creek. The last time we had hiked this, there was no bridge there, but the right of way was clear. We had to wade across back then. The new bridge was placed on the old abutments a few years back.
Mill on Kripplebush Creek
This time, we were able to walk right on through, and eventually came to the edge of the Williams Lumber property. The trail turns off of the railroad bed here and skirts the lumber yard.
There had been almost no one on this stretch, compared to the few on the earliest bit. It was overall pretty relaxed. We saw only one person I recall wearing a mask while riding their bike, and Russ said as she went by “Good morning! You don’t need a mask!”, which was hilarious.
The trail stayed parallel with the rail bed, and then came out to Kyserike Road. Last time here, we turned left and walked down to Alligerville and returned via the canal. This time, we looked for the trail to continue on the other side, but did not immediately see it.
Kyserike Station
We turned right on Kyserike, and then saw the path had returned to the rail bed into the woods. We looked back, and Russ noticed something awesome that I’d missed: the Kyserike Station was still standing!
Like the other O&W stations, this was now a private residence, and was well kept. We couldn’t get close because there were no trespassing signs, but we had a good view of it from afar.
We continued along the rail bed, and soon it joined with a power line right of way. It was out in the open for the remainder of the time we were on it.
The rail bed emerged onto the Lucas Turnpike at a rather obscure spot with no parking. This was the end of the official trail section. It appears that the highway is part built over the railroad bed.
The Old Lucas Turnpike at some point is another road parallel, and we turned right on that, then left on Bunny lane after a bit. This took us up to the old King’s Highway, which then led us out to Rt 209. We turned left at that point, crossed the North Peters Kill, and then reached the parking area on the right.
Da group!
The hike had been a really good time, and we got to see a whole lot of historic remnants I’d been wanting to have a closer look at for a long while. We also got quite lucky with meeting the right people along the way to see more of the route than we would have otherwise.
Now, we only have maybe two more hikes remaining in the Delaware and Hudson series, and I want to make them as good as possible. I don’t know if we’ll get to it right away, or if we’ll revisit some gravity railroad stuff for the Winter months to be more complete, but either way, we’re going to finish it.
HAM
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