Hike #725; Sharon Springs to Albany Backpack

Hike #725; Sharon Springs to Albany Backpack

9/13/13-9/20/13 Sharon Springs to Albany with Jillane Becker, Justin Gurbisz, and Michael "Lerch" Clark

Atop Upper Plotterkill Falls

Day 1

With my position working for the state of NJ, I get a good amount of benefit time. I'd also carried over some from the previous year. In short, I had more than a week's vacation to spend, and so why not do a second long backpacking trip this year?

Jillane and I were originally considering going to West Virginia this time, and I was looking for ways to connect it with previous things I've done. I'm sure we could do it, but it just wasn't going to work out this time.

In recent hikes, Justin had told me about the amazing abandoned hotels in the northern Catskills, and both of us had been wanting to see them. I knew that no one could show us around like Justin, and so I asked him if he would take us there, and then just leave us when he goes and we'll backpack from there. He agreed, and Jillane and I would be accompanied by he and Lerch to do some exploring for the beginning of our trip.

We left my car at my mom's house, and Jillane's at her mom's and Lerch picked us up there, and rode to Justin's. We all then headed with him to Sharon Springs. We arrived sometime around noonish.

I was a little nervous, but Justin knew where he was going. We approached the first hotel, which towered above us and could be seen from afar. We wandered around the outside, and Justin showed us in from the bottom level. It was very dark until we got up to a regular level by way of a non-main set of stairs.

It seemed really rough from what we saw at the start, but the main corridor was amazing. Off to the sides were huge rooms for weddings or something, with stages in both of them. The place was in pretty bad shape, and I hate to say it but it will probably be torn down one day rather than resurrected. The giant stairway from the lobby led us up to areas with rooms. We went through the several stories and checked out all of the rooms with all sorts of retro wallpaper and furniture.

One room had televisions stacked all up against the walls. I made my way all the way to the top of the building, and I could see Justin's car through the trees. I also sneaked up on Lerch, who was taking photos through a restroom. There was a perfect head sized hole through the wall, which made it look like a mounted head was looking through at him.

We must have looked into every room in the upper levels before making our way back down. We then went into the kitchen area, and Lerch found some sort of awful old jarred stuff. I seem to recall he tasted it. I might have, but I don't remember. Eww.

We then moved on to the bottom floor, where there were spa areas. Sharon Springs was known at one time for it's Sulfer Springs, that although stinky, were thought to have healing and health qualities. We also found a paper hanging on the wall that read "Scotch Douche". We brainstormed at while foul procedure this might be and how to incorporate a shillalah.

There was a skunk loose somewhere in that basement, which we dreaded finding. We spent a lot of time in this old hotel, but eventually made our way back out.

From here, we made it to the front, and moved on up hill along the lane to another abandoned building. We circled it and found that it had mowed paths around the outside. We stood on the porch, but did not find a way in, and opted not to try too hard since it looked more like it was visited regularly. Even the first one had somewhat mowed grass, but it was obviously long abandoned.

We bushwhacked through the woods back to the road, and left it to Justin where we'd go next. He decided to show us the famous spring house area itself.

The area around it had a look of importance, like approaching some Greek palace, with a roofed structure that covered over this celebrated bubbling spring. It certainly stank, and Justin drank it. His excuse was that if he drove all this way of course he's going to taste the water. I was not so brave.

From here, we made our way to the original bathouse area, a dilapidated old building with separated tub areas. The walls had many holes in them, and the building looked barely worth saving at all. It had high ceilings and a dank and gloomy atmosphere. We saw photos of it later, of what it once looked like, and it's amazing to think it's even the same building.

We made our way out of this, and then on to the more modern looking building in front of it. We managed to get in by climbing up and through a window. This one had the same type of rooms with tubs in it that we saw in the larger hotel, but other levels of this one had more of a look of a doctor's office. We even found what looked like some sort of old x ray machine. There was also I think an Apple 2 computer. We checked out all of the rooms in this one too, then headed back out of the building, and off to the street. There was an old school house nearby, which we read was moved to this site for protection from demolition.

The town is only a couple of blocks long, and so we walked through most of it looking around. We looped all the way back to Dublin Street, and back Pavilion Ave. There were abandoned motel areas along the south side of this too, and a few people walking around.

We looped back and checked out a couple more abandoned hotel areas. There were three of them still active. One was an expensive place that didn't look worthy of the money on the corner. It was good to at least see it in use. Another was a place run by Russian people who we were told are good neighbors, but loud. The last one was the "New York Bed and Breakfast", a former hotel that used to be one story taller until a fire took off the upper level. The place was resurrected and now owned by a nice couple who have it looking quite lovely.

The lady running it offered us a deal if we opted to stay with them, because they had the room and no one was going to be coming in.

I told her we probably would, and we moved on. The building up the hill from there was in deplorable condition, and would fall down shortly if it wasn't torn down. The entire lower end of it was leaning badly, but we still walked in. One good storm will certainly take this place down. We could see that it was run like a hotel, with beds in each room, and what might have been used as a lobby on the lower floor near the entrance, where it was wide. This one creeped me out because of it's instability, so we didn't stay in for long. We continued walking around, and also determined that one of the hotels, the Washington, had already been torn down. There was a guy there with a skid steer leveling off the property it once occupied very meticulously.

He was in plain sight from the another hotel on the corner which we were told by the owners of the New York was about to be torn down. We had to get inside.

Justin found a way in through the back, through some weeds to a stair case. We made our way inside.

The front of the building was the most interesting looking, just inside the door. There were nice stairs and a desk in the lobby, like there was in the first building, only slightly smaller. Still, this place was pretty big, with large halls again on the east and west sides. We checked out all of the rooms in this one as we did in the previous ones.

I made my way alone along the east side and along the wing that looked from the outside like it was collapsing. Sure enough, as I made my way down the tilted stairs, there were cracks in the walls, and the windows looked like they were situated straight while the frame of the building was tilting.

I went back up stairs to catch Justin and Lerch just as they were going to the Solarium on top.

The Solarium was one of the drawing factors to this particular hotel. We found old postcards that showed it, and the town was full of historic markers that had pictures of the once fruitful past of the town. The Solarium wasn't in so bad shape as the east wing of the building.

Justin, ever crazy when it comes to climbing, made his way onto the roof and the the very peak, the highest point that could be reached on the old hotel. It makes my hands sweat just remembering him climbing these things, let alone watching him do it. At least I had the mind set to take photos of the craziness.

Justin and Lerch were still all over the building, every single room checking out everything and documenting. Justin moves smooth and calculated, with seemingly mechanized movements as he unsheathes his high end camera and tripod, in moments has it set up with the perfect shot in mind. Executed, the camera and tripod quickly and precisely return to their satchel in the same almost mechanized fashion, and Justin moves on to the next subject. He switches from the no-nonsense stoic look and robotic movements of the professional photographer to the technical climber, but when he reaches the pinnacle of some high up object and surveys the view, he suddenly has the look of a child who's just caught a glimpse of Santa Claus. One can only understand his love of climbing tall objects if they see the look of joy he has when he reaches the top.

Lerch has a similar approach, although the calculated nature of Justin's climbs are sometimes absent from Lerch's rambunctious ones. Lerch seems to get the thrill in the moment, from every part of it that Justin gets from reaching the top. Perhaps that's why he always manages to injur himself on silly things like stair cases and fences. He tends to take some of the risks that even Justin won't take, but he too is a talented climber and is usually alright. Usually!

Jillane and I made our way back down the stairs through the lobby, and out the rear of the building. We could see the guy on the skid steer was now done with his work and wandering around the site of the former Washington Hotel.

We cut over past the old pool area and to the main street, and wandered for a bit, waiting for the other two to come out.

Justin and Lerch apparently heard someone being yelled at, and assumed it was us. They hurried out of the building, got out the back door and dashed behind the undergrowth around the old swimming pool area. They'd assumed we'd been caught inside.

As it turned out, the skid steer man saw a couple walking up the road and was yelling at them assuming that they'd been inside! He must have mistaken them for Jillane and I, and scolded the people saying that the building was unsafe! It was a relief that we got out. We made our way back to the New York Hotel and I paid for our room, then the four of us went to have dinner at a nearby place. Jillane and I retired to the New York B&B, ready to continue our journey the next day. Although we didn't cover a lot of mileage, this day was tiring.

Day 2

As usual, I woke up way before Jillane did. I went down stairs to have breakfast, which was quite excellent. I forget exactly what it was, but I loved it. I was able to walk around and have a better look at the New York, and the proprietors told me about the history of it and the other buildings around the area. The term derrogatory term "Jewish Lightning" apparently found it's beginning in this area. Apparently, all of the old hotels were once owned by Hacidic Jews, who stayed in the area for the Summer, but when money ran out, and at the end of a season, a few groups opted to torch the buildings to collect insurance money. Because of just a few of these groups, Jewish people were wrongly villified and the slurrish term came to be (of course, all different religions and races commit insurance fraud all the time). It was also because of one of these fires that destroyed a building next door that the New York lost it's upper level.

It was also explained to me that the largest hotel, The Adler, was now owned by a Korean group who planned to re-open it as a resort hotel. The problem with this is another cultural phenomenon they explained: When another business partner joins in on a plan, everything returns to zero, to be equal. Because so many business partners have come in, things have been rebooted too many times and the building has sat derelect, with no real plans started. The owner of The New York has also made an offer to rebuild and refurbish the sulfer springs bath houses if the current plan falls through.

When Jillane got up and got ready, we headed out and onto the main street, Rt 10. We'd follow this to the north. We took a little break in front of the old school house, across from the sulfer spring houses before continuing on.

The road took us winding down hill, and off to the right was a lovely waterfalls cascading from a culvert beneath the highway. Caged rock held up the highway down hill from here. Quite a lovely sight.

The next thing we came across that would define most of the trip was the Apples. There were apples growing just about everywhere. Ripe, juicy green and red ones, the best I'd ever tasted, just growing along side every road we passed by. The first one we came across was just north of the waterfall. I picked several for us and we loaded up all of our pockets, not knowing that we'd just keep finding them.

We continued down hill along the road, which was sort of a larger road but not too busy. Soon, on the left side of the road, we came across a nice farm store. We went on inside to have a look around. There were a lot of crafts and some different kinds of food. I got a chocolate milk which was really good, and we also got some of their apple cider, also great. We walked around and checked things out, and Jillane bought a couple things, including an adorable fuzzy cat figurine. She pulled it out somewhat regularly along the trip, and named it "Adler" after the old hotel.

We continued up the road for a little bit longer, then turned right on Old Sharon Road, which took us over a creek and up hill a bit. A sign told us we were entering the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor. We'd remain in the corridor for the rest of the trip.

We crossed a bridge over Brimstone Creek and headed up hill on this back road. There were signs with buggies on them, and we wondered if their were Amish up here. Indeed, there were and we passed the homes of a couple of them. We continued along, and there were views toward the Adirondaks from the hilltop. I thought how one day I'd hike continuously to there.

We continued along the road, which soon made it's way down hill a bit, and we entered a more wooded section with the valley of the Canajoharie Creek to our left. Park lands also lined our left. We continued along until we came to the entrance to Wintergreen Park on the left. We followed the entrance road to a trail head, and followed it along the mowed lawn and then into the woods. It seemed to follow an old roadway after a short while, passed a water tower, then headed down hill on the former road. The road and trail ended at a wooden overlook platform with a view down to Canajoharie Falls, a lovely waterfall. There was no way down to it because it was a vertical cliff face. Jillane took a break while I went back to do some scouting for another way around. I couldn't find anything. if the road once continued beyond the wooden platform, it has since completely washed out and nothing remains of it. We ended up having to turn off of the trail and follow an access road out to Carlisle Road. We turned left, then turned left again onto Moyer Street heading into the town of Canajoharie.

The town was boring at first, but then the streets were lined with beautiful old homes. We followed the street past several old homes, some of them, like the Van Alstyn Homestead was built in the 1700s, with the old Dutch style architecture.

Once we reached the bottom of the hill, we were in town. We turned left onto Mohawk Street and crossed Canajoharie Creek, reaching the intersection with Rt 10, one of the only places in the US where there is a traffic light standing in the very center of an intersection. It was all tilted because it's been hit so many times.

We took a short break in a little park right next to the Erie Canalway Trail, which we'd be on for the next couple of days. We looked at maps, and took a quick walk into town looking at food choices. We didn't stop anywhere this time, and eventually just moved on along the Canalway Trail.

At this point, the trail actually follows an abandoned railroad right of way.

I knew very little about the Erie Canal until doing this trip. I knew it was still an active canal, and that it was one of the most famous in the world. What I did not know was that there were actually three Erie Canals in some places. The original Erie Canal was a smaller canal, with regular locks not so unlike the canals I know and love back home. When it became seriously successful, it was rebuilt and expanded, sometimes completely, as an all new wider canal with double locks, side by side to allow two directions of travel. The third and current canal involved in most places we'd visit abandoning the entire original Erie Canal, in favor of slack water dams on the Mohawk River. This made the river completely navigable for large vessels and the independent canal was no longer needed.

At this point though, I new none of this. I would learn more and more as I read the interpretive signs that were along the way, starting at this little park where we took a break. We started walking again, heading east on the trail.

The trail was paved at first, with fences along the side, very close to Main Street. It remained paved until we got to Cunningham Road. From there, it became a crushed stone surface. The trail was alright, but it was sandwiched often between Rt 5S and Sprakers Road for a bit. It was lined with trees, but the sound of the roads, and even worse, the sound of Interstate 90 adjacent to them, was horrible.

Still, we made the best of it. Along the way, there was a bird hopping around along the trail. I tried sneaking up on it, expecting it to fly off, but amazingly it did not. I thought it was injured, and so I reached down and easily picked it up. It sat calmly on my hand, with it's feet wrapped around my finger and just looked around. It did not shake, and after a bit it flew off, downward to the ground. It hopped off a bit, but then stopped. It's legs were fine, and it's wings didn't operate funny. I was able to pick it right back up, and eventually it flew off again. I didn't know what to make of it, but eventually I just let it go. I thought maybe it got hit on the highway, but it showed not visible damage at all. Maybe it was a young one.

We soon passed beneath Rt 162 at an underpass, and entered the village of Sprakers. There was a nice bench and three sided kiosk with historic information. This would turn out to be a common thing at every little village that was a stop along the canal or railroad, each one offering another little piece of the Erie Canal's story. There was often a prism visible beside the railroad bed or adjacent highways that would have been the old Erie Canal route. We continued from Sprakers, out of the town area and into a more wooded area, but still near to Rt 5S and Interstate 90. I found a four leaf clover along the path early on, and placed it in the back cover of my cell phone for good luck.

We continued along with some good views of the river, and rock outcroppings above us to the right. We were a little more separated from Rt 5S, and we would need to find a camp site very soon. We came very soon to Lasher Creek, where the trail crosses and turns left away from the railroad bed to circumvent a business. There was a side woods road off to the left that led down through low grasses to Rt 5S, but we didn't follow it far. We figured it was an option.

Jillane went ahead I think, while I went out to 5S. I crossed the road and got very close to the Interstate, then waded in the Lasher Creek beneath. On the other side was a good view of the Mohawk River and the mountains on the other side, and a nice spot with a sort of muddy and grassy shore. I thought this might be a good spot, but it did seem a little iffy.

I went back under the highway and walked up through the middle fo the creek to the highway bridge. I could see masonry remains of the previous bridge to occupy the site next to the current bridge.

I headed back out to the road and soon found Jillane. We found the entrance to the woods road that led back to the trail, and wandered back in on that. We found a spot back there that was barely out of sight from the trail, and beyond a gate so no ATVs would come through from that way. It was also a wider area where if one did come by, they could pass us. We were able to quickly get set up and into the tent by dark. It wasn't the best location, but it came to us at the right time.

DAY 3

As usual, I woke up first. I got out of the tent and started getting some of my stuff together. When I got to where I couldn't do more, I went out for a walk myself, onto the trail, and out to Lasher Creek where I was the night before. It was a good thing that we didn't opt to camp on the other side of the interstate like I thought we might, because the waters of the Mohawk River had come up quite a lot, and it wouldn't be easy to walk back through the underpass beneath the interstate.

I returned to the tent a couple times, and soon bicycles were going by just over our heads. We head to move on soon. We packed everything up and continued along the trail. The trail moved back to the railroad bed beyond the business area where it was moved, and there was an old road parallel with us to the right, which might have made a good camp site had we continued on for a bit.

The hillside to the right of us kept getting steeper, and soon we noticed an intense stone wall towering above us to the right. There was a mountain called Big Nose across the Mohawk from us, with a dramatic bend. We could tell by the guide rails along it that what was above us atop the wall was some sort of old roadway. We both wanted to climb it and explore.

We placed our packs off the trail and began climbing up at a spot that didn't look too treacherous, then got onto the old roadway, which was really cool. It offered a fantastic view of the Mohawk River and sorrounding valley, and Big Nose behind us. We followed the old road to the opposite direction we were coming from, which took us back down to the trail. At one time this must have been a lovely regular public road. We would later find old pictures that showed the road when it was open.

We continued along the Erie Canalway Trail from here beyond the rocky ledges east and crossed the Yatesville Creek on a decked bridge. As we entered the town of Randall, the trail crossed over Rt 5S finally. There was another nice area with interpetive signs on a three sided kiosk, which showed the narrows we had just gone through, complete with the rail line and canal in place justifying my suspicions of where they were aligned.

Randall didn't have very much to it. There were no stores, and by the time we crossed Van Wie Creek, the town was gone. The trail continued to run between the NY State Thruway (90), with 5S to the south. All three came close together, and it wasn't the most pleasant being sandwiched between two serious roadways. Still, we managed, and came to a nice open area where we could see the Mohawk before entering Fultonville.

Fultonville looked promising. My google maps showed there were stores, and it looked developed even as we neared it. Unfortunately, the trail turned paved, which I didn't much care for. My feet were already hurting a little.

When we reached Fultonville's center, Jillane took a break in front of a closed business while I headed into town trying to find some food. It was a Sunday afternoon, and I didn't realize that NOTHING would be open on a Sunday in this part of NY. There were a couple of pizza places, restaurants, all closed off. It blew my mind. We were both hungry, and we had plenty of trail food but were hoping for something really tasty in this town. No such luck.

We continued out of town, which was at first close to 5S, and we passed an old freight depot. The trail was again unpaved, and soon paralleled Glen Road, as 5S moved off a bit, but we were still close to the Thru Way. It was a bit more peaceful. What was cool about this was that an original section of Erie Canal was still watered and was just below us to the left. The towpath seemed to be completely grown over and no longer a good feasible walking route. We continued on the trail whick took us back close to 5S again.

As we neared Auriesville, we crossed Auries Creek which was lined at the underpasses with some slanted stone, which looked pretty cool. We then passed over Ravine Creek and a religious shrine to the right. We continued past this and the trail became paved again just as we passed beneath the Thru Way. Ahead and to the right of the trail was an ice cream stand! FINALLY we found some sort of business that was opened. Jillane wanted some sort of sundae or something I think, so I ran and bought one for her, and I got something for myself too, and maybe a hot dog or something.

While Jillane ate, I opted to take a side trip to the Schoharie Crossing Historic Park. The Erie Canal once crossed the Schoharie Creek on an aqueduct of stone arches that now stands only partially in ruins. I had seen pictures on line and really wanted to see it. I ran off down the road that led to it, and when I got to where the old canal crossed, found a grassy trail following the prism. I walked this directly to the former site of the aqueduct. The canal was lined with giant old Willow trees, and I could see out onto the aqueduct how the canal would have been held to the right, with the towpath intact. There were gates to keep people off of the remains of the structure.

Originally, there was a slack water dam at this site, some of which can be seen as rubble in the water, near to the aqueduct. This aqueduct, which was designed by Jonathan Jervis, who had designed so many other canals and aqueducts I'd hiked, and completed in 1841. It was used until 1913 when the current barge canal, which uses slack water on the Mohawk River at this point, was completed. Because of flooding problems, all but the southwest nine arches were demolished. Since that time, three more of the arches have collapsed, the most recent being in 1998. Six of the original 14 still stand.

I made my way down from the aqueduct and further into the picnic area of the park to have a look around. Most of the arches from here were obscured by growth along the shore of the Schoharie Creek. I headed back out the access road to Jillane and we continued on.

The trail reached an old through style truss bridge, which was closed. The former railroad bridge apparently had decking work being done. We had to head to the parallel road bridge to cross, but regained the rail bed on the other side.

I meant to head down to the old canal by turning left at the end, but we didn't, and had to walk the rail bed further. The official "Erie Canalway Trail" stays on the rail bed, but there is a continuous trail along the towpath itself parallel with this.

The only good thing abou the rail trail section was that we got to meet a very friendly tuxedo cat that flopped around and really enjoyed us petting him. He had a box and a food dish along the trail, and we spotted another pretty but shy calico there.

Around Queen Anne Street, we were able to head down to the old canal, at what was known as the Yankee Hill Lock. There were good views of the Mohawk River, and a well restored double lock from the upgraded second incarnation of the Erie Canal. I really enjoyed this spot and wished I could have seen more of the earlier canal.

We continued ahead on the most secluded section of the trail yet. It was very quiet save for the sound of insects. From earlier through now, Jillane kept picking tasty cap shaped raspberries for me, one of my favorites I've had.

As it was getting darker, we approached what looked to be an abandoned bridge cut off at one side. Actually, this was the new barge canal's Lock #11 across at Amsterdam NY. It looked really creepy from this point. The channel for boats was on the opposite side of the river. We continued on from here through the solitude of more darkening woods, and passed some ruins on the left just before crossing Chuctanunda Creek and entering Amsterdam, on the south side of the river. The trail crossed Broad Street and Bridge Street, and we planned to get a motel room somewhere in town. I looked on my phone and found most of them to the south. What we didn't realize was that they were steeply up hill! Before that climb I stopped in a convenience store for an Arizona RX Energy Drink.

Bridge Street took us to Florida Ave and Dewitt Street which headed up hill past a creepy looking old building called the Amsterdam Castle. We took Montgomery to Destafano Street to PS Street across Rt 5S to Rt 30 where the motels were. Valley View Motor Inn was cheapest, but I didn't like the tone of the guy on the phone, plus they didn't offer much otherwise, so we went with Super 8 I think just up the street slightly further.

We had a good and comfortable sleep after a long day.

DAY 4

I woke up first as usual, but there wasn't much I could really do. One of the selling factors about this place was that the guy working the front desk offered us the use of his computer to print out information on more area trails we might be able to use. I didn't print out a whole lot for this one, and just sort of assumed we'd figure it out. The only thing we needed to do was get to a bus stop by the end of our time off.

I was able to print out this time some maps of parks along the Long Path should we decide to turn off on it for a while. I also printed out the detailed descriptions of the trail in case we needed it.

When Jillane got up, we headed to a nearby convenience store for snacks. It was probably a Stewarts or something because they seemed to be everywhere. We headed back down into town the same way that we got up there, and continued on Erie Canalway Trail eastbound.

We hadn't noticed before, but at exactly the point where we left he trail, there were lots of ripe apples ready for the taking, and so we did. Jillane also found tons more of the red cap like raspberries, which I ate a ton of. The trail continued close to Cleveland Ave, and then again close to Rt 5S.

After a bit, the trail just ended abruptly, at an access lane.

I was watching the gps on my phone closely, and figured we could get through by following the old Erie Canal towpath, which was to our left. I headed over, and we soon reached the somewhat watered canal and lovely towpath, which only had a little undergrowth. We followed it for a ways, and the weeds got thicker and worse. Eventually, we got to where there was a bridge across a creek according to the aerial images, but there was too much crap to go through to reach it.

I fought my way through the weeds, tore up some clothing in the process, and found the bridge to be an insane thing we'd never get our packs across, just a sort of framework with nearly impeneterable briars on either side. My next thought was to climb down to Terwilleger Creek, and wade over, but this was nearly impassable too.

The only choice was to go back. I don't regret coming to this section, because it was like visiting a secret spot. An abandoned and nearly forgotten piece of the old canal. There were also fantastic views of the Mohawk River from this part. My legs were bleeding from the brush, but it was nice.

We came to where ATVs left the towpath through the prism to the left, so we didn't have to turn all the way back. It took us down and up again to the abandoned railroad right of way that the trail was following before. We would suspect that this will one day become part of the trail route as well.

I liked this section of the rail bed much better because it was a narrow trail and felt more intimate than that wide monstrosity we were on earlier. It stayed nice for a while, and we crossed the Terwilleger Creek on an undecked old bridge with only the ties in place. Beyond the bridge, the rail bed opened up more and ran close to Rt 5S again.

We were soon skirting a quarry area, and the rail bed became wider and used by their service vehicles. We had to eventually come out to 5S and walk the road. There was a large building that looked to be a former power house, but reused for some sort of portland cement plant. Quite interesting looking.

Just ahead of here we passed Lock 10 on the Erie Barge Canal, over the Mohawk River. This one too had one of those weird truss bridges over the top that was not open to vehicles. Across the street from it, the quarry operation was loud and busy. They had piles of their material very high next to 5S, to the point where it looked like if someone walked on it, it would collapse right into the road.

The rail bed stayed near 5S, and we walked it parallel, crossing another small stream on a tie bridge, followed by another quarry operation. Beyond this point, the right of way turned away from 5S in one of the more beautiful sections we followed. It was on a shelf, just below us was the old Erie Canal, watered with nice rip rap rock visible on the far site. The towpath again was barely recognizable, but it was overall in good condition. There was a greenish tint to the water, probably from the quarrying operations and their limestone. We continued on the shelf the rail bed followed until we came to a rather nice spot to sit down for one of our nicest breaks on the trip. It was getting a bit cloudy and chillier, but we enjoyed having some snacks at this bucolic setting.

Just after we got moving again, it began to rain. It wasn't too terrible, and some of the trees around us offered a bit of a natural umbrella, but we still had to pull out the pack covers to be on the safe side. We remained on the rail bed, which moved off from the shelf to follow a fill. The canal turned away to the left somewhere here, but I didn't notice the turn. The right of way had some lovely little lakes off to the right, no doubt created either by the fill of the railroad, or because they were "borrow pits" for material associated with the construction of either the rail line or canal. We could see a couple of homes where property abutted the ponds.

By the time we reached Pattersonville, where the rail bed crossed Rt 5S, the rain had stopped again. We crossed the road at an angle, and the rail bed was skirted by a business lot. Beyond it we passed behind homes on the clear right of way. We soon reached the tie bridge over the Sandsea Kill, which had some Jesus stuff on it, looking like a boat with a cross on it and some words. We moved on quickly from here to Pattersonville-Rynex Corners Road. There were people parked ahead in I believe a department of transportation vehicle, so I didn't really want to go ahead, and more importantly, we saw a food opportunity.

One of the odd things about middle of nowhere places like this is that not all of the businesses are on Google like what we have in NJ or more ubanized areas. The New York B&B for example was not listed among the lodgings earlier. In fact, there were places to stay on almost every corner in Sharon Springs, including a weirdo place that didn't seem welcoming, and we heard stories about visitors wandering through their rooms, stepping over them while they slept. This place was not so oddball, it was just a gas station that had a little eatery and general store inside.

We went in, and a lady with an effervescent personality was the concessioner. under a heat lamp thing there were burgers and hot dogs. I was very hungry, and it looked good. She reassured me it was pretty fresh, so I went for the burger I think. Jillane got something too, and shortly after getting inside it started to downpour heavily. It was a good thing we arrived when we did!

The food was cheap and tasty, and so I went to get some more. The lady was interested in our trip, so I told her what we were doing, and she was very impressed. I forget what it was that spurred this, but she gave me a deal on something like a cookie or the hot dog which I decided I wanted to purchase, and she said "Well look, it's your lucky day!".

I was very grateful for her generosity, and so I said, "Thank you so much! Well let's make it your lucky day too!". I opened up my cell phone and handed her the four leaf clover I had found our second day out, and she was ecstatic. One nice gesture led to another, and then another because I left there with a big bag full of tomatos from her garden, another hot dog, and cookies, all free.

We sat on a park bench in front of the store, and when the rain was completely stopped, we moved on along walking Rt 5S. The trail would pick up down the road a bit. Just before we passed under a very active railroad line, we could see the old canal prism, where it would have crossed to the left of us. On the other side of the bridge, the trail went off of the road to the right. This was a lovely section of the canal with clear trail along the side of it, also known as the Mohawk-Hudson Bikeway section.

The section was much more peaceful than a lot of what we'd been on, with woods, large meadows, giant trees, and then a large lake that was once part of the canal. The only thing that broke the silence other than the wildlife was the cacaphone of the heavy frieght trains, with it's dueling metal and squealing breaks.

We soon came to the town of Rotterdam Junction. The trail turned right off of the canal towpath, which went into people's yards, and came out to Iroquois Street. We had to turn left here, then right again on 5S, because the trail was severed by the railroad and no underpass has been built yet.

5S in this area is also the route of the Long Path. It was nice to see the familiar aqua blazes of the trail I'd followed for so many miles over the Palisades, through Harriman, the Shawangunks, and the Catskills.

Along the road, we turned left to visit the Jan Mabee House and family cemetery. The house was built in 1705, and the cemetery established shortly after. It was a nice little spot for a break, but the sun was going down. We would need to figure out a place to camp. I was studying the aerial images, and it looked like an old quarry pond nearby might provide adequate cover.

We followed the Long Path blazes to where they turned right on Mabie Lane, passing a giant quarry pond. The trail followed the road to where the canal trail crossed. Long Path went left, but we would go right, on a section that is a dead end to the railroad tracks further off. I figured this would be a little used section and give us exactly what we were looking for. It worked out to be right, and my favorite camp site of the trip.

A side path led down hill to the right of the towpath. This led to a wider old quarry road, apparently used by ATVs. We looked left and right, and there were a few spots that would have worked. Jillane wanted to check further out, and I'm glad we did. There was an amazing spot on a cove, where we could watch the sun set. It was bright enough here still to get the tent set up.

After the sun set and we retired to the tent, I could hear a noise. I looked out and could see a very slow moving ATV making it's way along the shore from where we entered. I got out of the tent in case I'd need to talk to whoever was driving it. They went right out to a small peninsula, then left and came right up to our tent, which apparently was on the ATV loop. I had placed a log over the way near the tent so that no one could come flying up on us. The guy stopped the ATV, and he told us to be careful because he was chasing coyotes, which were just through the woods from us. I think he was just trying to scare us off. I told him we were hiking the Long Path and just needed a place to sleep, and there weren't many. He didn't seem to care. I moved the log for him to get through, and that was the last we heard of anyone the whole night.

DAY 5

As always, I woke up first, but this time I didn't get right out of the tent and start bumming around. It was very very cold. In the low 40s in fact. I get very restless ant antsie when I can't sleep, and so I end up looking at maps and such, but even being that much out of my sleeping bag was no pleasure.

I eventually managed to get up and put my rain jacket on. I needed the rain jacket because there was intense fog coming off the the water and blowing directly onto the tent and everything around it. The sun was coming up, but it was obscured in this shroud of crazy fog.

I actually had to get back into the tent for a time, but the second time I was out for good, and decided to do my usual wandering around and exploring. The peninsula that faced east ended up being quite nice. Jillane suggested camping there, and we should have, because the moisture wasn't hitting it in the same way. It was blocked by a line of trees and shrubs. The sun started beating into this area which felt a lot warmer. The temperature difference between the two spots was quite a lot.

Jillane eventually got up and started eating a breakfast. I noticed how heavily the steam was coming off of the water and realized that because it was September, the water was probably warmer than the air. I reached down to touch it, and it felt like bath water in comparison! I next decided to wade on in. It felt great.

Pretty soon, I was stripped down and swimming in this quarry that felt like bathwater compared to the air. Anyone who saw this would certainly have thought I was crazy. It was like being in a hot spring. I got out but couldn't resist going back in a second and third time. The water of that quarry, because there's not a whole lot of development around and it's undoubtably spring fed, is probably very clean. Typically, in these waters if there is pollution it makes it's way down to the silt layers rather than surface water, especially with all the rain we had the day before. It was nice to start off the day feeling clean as if I'd had a shower.

We packed up and made our way back to the canal, and on to the last road crossing where the Long Path joined. We walked a nice section of the canal which took us out to Rt 5S. There was a white painted bicycle there, secured to a fence. We had found out that when these white bikes appear places, it means a cyclist was killed there, and it's not only a memorial to that person, it's a reminder to people that there is danger. Both cyclists and drivers will see this and remember to be careful.

The Long Path turned right here, onto 5S for a bit. We opted to get away from the Erie Canalway Trail for a bit and follow some of the Long Path, which ended up being rather rewarding. The trail soon turned right and headed up hill along Lower Gregg Road. This road took us under I-90, the Thru Way, and then eventually to where the trail turned left into the Plotter Kill Preserve. The Long Path blazes ended, and the guide simply told which trails it followed through this preserve. We headed along a trail from the beginning, which was very pleasant, over a brook and on to a trail intersection. We turned right following red blazes which took us along the rim of the gorge through which the Plotter Kill flowed. This was a deep and narrow gorge, and occasionally we had a view off into the ravine.

Despite what I thought, this section of the Long Path was actually quite easy. There were no huge ups or downs involved in the route, just rather pleasant, soft natural surface along the rim.

We crossed a power line, and the trail began to descend, sometimes on some nice steps. This took us to the top of Rynex Falls, along the Rynex Creek with a view over the edge into the rest of the gorge. While Jillane waited, I climbed to the bottom of the falls. They were almost dry, unfortunately, but it was an interesting view to see. It would be nice to revisit this spot in the spring. It would also be easy to stealth camp in the area.

I made my way to the confluence of the Plotter Kill and Rynex Creek, and went up stream on the Plotter Kill to the Lower Plotterkill Falls, also almost dry. I turned back and headed back up to Jillane. We both had lunch at this relaxing spot, and only had a couple other hikers pass us.

We continued on the trail along the rim above Rynex Falls, then further up stream along the Plotter Kill until we reached the Upper Plotterkill Falls. This too was nearly dry, but was almost like a  natural ampitheater of rock. I decided to climb to the bottom of this one as well to take some photos. Quite an impressive place.

We continued on the trail, and passed a few more people which meant we were getting closer to the parking area. The Long Path continued ahead on the yellow trail, but we continued on red, which took us over Plotter Kill on a foot bridge, then to the blue trail to the parking area off of Mariaville Road.

We opted to follow Mariaville Road to Gordon Road, a left turn, and head back toward the Erie Canal, having had a good break from it and some different scenery. Gordon Road had some nice views from it of the countryside, but it seemed to go on forever. We crossed over the Thru Way again, and took a break in some shady trees to the left of the road on the other side for a bit. After a while, the road started going down hill, and crossed the railroad tracks we had crossed earlier, on Lower Gregg Road. Just after the tracks we went left on Bluff Road and again left on Valley View Ave. This took us to Schermerhorn Road. There were some nice old houses along this road here, with historic markers with them. We passed a house that had been burned, and crossed under Interstate 890 to reach Rice Road. It was here that we regained the canal trail, the Mohawk-Hudson Bikeway.

This point was another old lock site that was quite nice. Lock walls were in very good condition, doubled like the one we saw at Yankee Hill. I understand the only ones we really can see are the later doubled ones because most of the first incarnation of the Erie Canal is now destroyed. I wouldn't necessarily believe that until I looked with my own eyes. Maybe one day.

The trail ahead most likely turns off of the canal, which was probably destroyed by the on ramps to 890. The trail skirts the jughandles of these on ramps on the north between the highway and the river. The trail continued paved through the swath of woods near the river, but never far enough from 890. It then made several curves around the outside of Van Slyck Island where Schenectady County Community College has it's ball fields. We headed along the Mohawk from here and took in the view from Gateway Landing Park.

The trail officially turns into the town of Schenectady at the next inlet to the Mohawk, the Allplaus Kill. The path followed the roads around the outside of the inlet, then turned left on Rt 5, the main drag into town, State Street.

I had heard about Schenectady for a long time, but had never been there. It was one of those places that didn't look as I thought it would. It was much more diversified in terms of it's residence. There were people of all colors and backgrounds all over. The trail turned left onto Washington Avenue, but we continued along State Street, which had some really nice spots. There was an old YMCA that looked really cool. We saw a street that was shut to traffic and now served as a pedestrian promenade, a rail station site, and nice parks. We continued on State Street to Nott Terrace where there were more affordable hotels, and I started making calls to them to see what the best deal was.

There was a Days Inn and a Holiday Inn right next to each other, but the Days Inn had much friendlier people and was a fraction of the price. Holiday Inn was not willing to budge on price, so we went with Day's Inn.

We checked in and got cleaned up. It was really nice to be somewhere comfortable. After a nice long rest, as the sun was ready to go down, Jillane wanted to go take a walk through town and the vicinity.

Vale Park, whith a giant wrought iron gate in front of it was right next door to the hotel. We walked into that and past what appeared to be an abandoned playground area. It was grown over with weeds and not well cared for. Sort of interesting. A gravel path led to the left from the main one, and up toward the Union College. There was an old cemetery area to the right. We didn't know this yet, but Vale Park is actually part of a large cemetery area called Vale Park Cemetery. I guess part of it is formal park, but it's joined in it's trail system with the cemetery.

I didn't want to stay in the park for long after dark. People in the Stewarts Store and at the counter in Days Inn told us not to go in there at night because there was a lot of crime.

I went into the hotel to get my coat, and we headed into town down Franklin Street, past City Hall. We then went left on Jay Street, the one that's now a pedestrian only promenade. It was quite beautiful with good ambient lighting after dark.

We got out to the main street, and went looking for somewhere to eat. I actually can't remember where we stopped to eat. I must have been pretty tired. It was someplace on State Street though, and I remember feeling pretty happy about the selection.

We walked from town back up hill and returned to the hotel for a good night's sleep.

DAY 6

I was up and at it early as usual, and wandering around. Jillane told me she couldn't handle doing any more walking for now, and that we'd walk around town later. I said that was okay, we'll make it up, and I'll get us another night here so we can explore around Schenectady later. I don't mind going off and exploring at all, especially a town like Schenectady.

She went back to sleep, and I went off on my own. First, I visited the public library maybe a mile or so away. I went in and sat down at a computer, looked us some places, and found some local history books to look over for information. It was surprising, and somewhat disappointing that a lot of the people at the library were clueless when it came to history, and even moreso about the trails in the area. I suppose that's typical of anywhere you go, and more frustrating when you don't have the time or resources to find the desired information.

I made my way back to the hotel from the library, and Jillane was at first happy to see me, but then told me to get out. She didn't want to walk any more, not even short exploring museums and such around town, so I again went off on my own.

I headed down to City Hall again, and across the street was a pizza place. I sat down for lunch, then headed through Jay Street once more to State Street. I opted to backtrack our previous day's trip and get back to the Erie Canalway Trail. I got to Washington Street, and followed it out to what was known as the Stockade District.

Like so many other towns, Schenectady was at first a fort area, with a stockade around the outside. Today's city center is not in what was the city center at the time (In fact, Newark NJ is perhaps the only city in the original 13 colonies that retains it's city center on the original location. Most town centers shift with development).

I took the time to read all of the historic markers, which was interesting. I found the end point of the King's Highway, which was the first road constructed between Schenectady and Albany (which we'd walk the next day), and I found the site where Thomas Edison founded the machine works that became the headquarters for General Electric. This was interesting because we have so many Edison sites close to my home in NJ.

The trail route turned onto Washington Ave and then right on Union Street through the Stockade District. It's always neat to see homes that date back to the 1700s and early 1800s in a neighborhood that retains it's historic ambiance. This was a lovely walk for me, with a lot of interpretive signs to read. I took my time passing through, and the trail took me under railroad tracks to Union Street, and I think I had more pizza here. It then turned left through a "little italy" area and North Jay Street. I followed this until the Erie Canalway Trail followed another old railroad bed to the right, on a fill. The trail took me adjacent to a ball field, across another path to College Park Hall, and then to Nott Street. I turned right here, and soon made my way onto the beautiful Union College Campus.

I had a nice time walking around the college looking at the architecture. The standout one was the giant Nott Memorial, dedicated to the memory of Eliphet Nott. It is one of the few 16-sided buildings in the world. In a tribute to interfaith, the building has Stained Glass windows in a nod to Christianity, A mosque-like dome in respect of Islam, and Stars of David on the dome in respect to Judaism.

I wandered from here on down one of the paths along an entrance road to the church of St. John the Evangelist. The road I had to cross at the end was a mess of fast moving traffic. A big black guy in front of me just walked out into traffic and the cars stopped for him, and there wasn't a crosswalk. I said "I like the way you go about that!". He just smiled and said that was how you had to get things done.

I cut across the church area and and made my way to the museum on Nott Hill, another nice little spot to visit with dinosaur exhibits. I explored around here, then walked the access road and a pathway with stairs to find a really cool RS-3 Diesel Locomotive on display in a little park. There were benches and an interpretive sign that showed the internal workings of the machine. I sat down on the bench here for quite a while and relaxed.

I made my way back to the hotel again, but Jillane didn't want to go anywhere, so I headed back out and walked back around the Little Italy area, a little bit through town, and then back to the locomotive again and had a seat. I then talked to the guy at the counter at the hotel for a while before retiring for the night.

DAY 7

My goal was at least to make it to Albany. Jillane was up to walking on again, and I was happy that at least we got the first five days straight in together without a single fight, really enjoying each other's company, in the most boring backpacking trip we've been on by far. Of course it was very nice, but in terms of excitement and how much we really saw, there was a lot less for us on this one than all of the other ones we did. We did very well together on most all of it.

We headed out of the hotel and went directly into Vale Park. The trail took us along the edges of ponds and such, and then through some nice woods. We made a couple of wrong turns thinking that we'd get through, but had to turn back. While some of the park, like the afore mentioned playground were in bad shape, there were some nice foot bridges and such along the pond.

It was strange when, as we continued through woods, there were cemetery sections in the forest just down hill from us. As we continued on, the old roadway led directly into the Vale Cemetery, a more common looking cemetery in an open setting.

We walked across the cemetery heading east, which eventually took us out to Brandywine Ave. We turned left, then soon right onto Bradley Street, which soon took us to Central Park. We headed through the park, and down past Iroquois Lake. We walked along the edge, and then passed a smaller pond called Duck Pond. We continued along the edge of ball fields and then crossed Fehr Ave.

On the other side was a trail into Amy Lemaire Woods Preserve. We followed the trail to the right, which looped around, and was unblazed. Still, it was going where I wanted it to based on the maps and aerial images I saw. A path emerged from the woods into Parkview Cemetery, as I had planned, and we followed the cemetery lands here out to Consaul Road. We crossed onto Laurel Ave and followed it to Rt 5, once a native American route, and later a stage road I mentioned earlier, that connected Schenactady and Albany. We turned left to follow the road, one of the longest, most boring sections of the trip.

We followed the road for a ways, and when Balltown Road came in from the left, there was a Barnes and Noble, so we decided to take a break there and check out some books. It was quite nice, and there was a guide to all of the canal paths in NY. Jillane bought it for me, which was great, because it helped me to learn a lot about the Erie Canal after the trip was over.

We continued down the main highway for what seemed like an eternity. All that pavement walking really does suck.

When we took a break beneath some trees, two guys behind a chain link fence came up to us and asked if we were the same people they saw walking a few days earlier up by Rotterdam Junction. They were impressed! Another lady pushing a baby carriage I think it was, was also interested and she told us she would give us water and other drinks if we needed it. Like usual with our backpacks, people are not used to seeing anyone backpacking through these areas. There's always the inevitable question: "Are you guys hiking the Appalachian Trail?", because everyone seems to think that's the only place you can hike.

We at least saw one cat on this long road walk, which liked our attention, as they often tend to do.

We finally got off of the main road when we reached Jupiter Lane to the right. We took this to Walker Way, then to Petra Lane and Lincoln Ave. Then, at a corner, was the entrance to the Albany-Pine Bush Trail System. This section was known as the Rapp Barrens.

The trails were not well marked, and the map was not great. I had downloaded it at the recent hotel, along with everything from the Albany-Pine Bush Trail system with the idea that if not this time, another time I'll cover it all.

We somehow got onto an unofficial trail to the right, and then followed it to wetlands where we weren't supposed to be. It ended up looping us back around the Lincoln where we got on it in the first place. We had to just walk the road right back to the trail head where we'd first gotten on! We headed back in at the Rapp Barrens kiosk and simply tried to follow the most obvious paths rather than what the map was showing, and that took us on a more acceptible route.

The trail was nice, with natural surface. It was great to be on this instead of pavement for a while. Unfortunately, this too led to pavement, and the trail took us beneath Adirondak Northway, and crossed the Rensselaer Lake. We followed the south shore of the lake, and near the spillway to an access road to the right. We followed this to Fuller Road and turned right along walkways beside the road toward the SUNY Albany College. We crossed Fuller at the next crosswalk, then passed beneath the Thru Way, I-90, and continued a bit. There was a retention pond on the left, and then a footpath beyond it. We followed the foot path which cut us through a swath of woods to reach the Excelsior Drive section of SUNY Albany. We then cut through the campus and along parking lots heading straight toward Collins Circle, where the buses all arrive. The modern college looked interesting, but I'm not sure I'm a fan of that type of architecture. It was different to see, especially with the sun going down.

I called around to different hotels, of which there were a lot on the adjacent Washington Avenue. I think we settled on Red Carpet Inn as the cheapest, and quickly checked in for the night. I believe we ordered pizza or something. There were places nearby that sold stuff, and we didn't have much of anything although we spend most of the day walking busy streets.

I also took a walk up to the nearby gas station store less than a mile up the road for snacks and drinks. I can't believe I was able to nearly run the whole way there after all the pavement all day.

The next day would be only a little walking, and mostly riding home.

DAY 8

We left the hotel, crossed the road and arrived at the college circle.

I had seen the Mega Bus schedule before, which showed the bus arriving at a certain time at the circle. I didn't buy tickets ahead of time thinking that I'd be fine just to show up and pay at that time. I saw that there was a bus arriving at a certain time, I forget which at this point, and we opted to arrive there just before.

When I checked my phone next, the bus I was planning on taking was not shown! Either it was cancelled, or I guess it filled up and was removed.

I looked quickly and found another similar bus that would arrive there, as they do so often, and figured we'll just board that. While we were waiting, and well before this bus arrived, a lady got out of a bus and yelled "ANYONE FOR RIDGEWOOD NJ???"

"RIGHT HERE!" I said. We quickly boarded, but didn't pay anything yet.

I wasn't expecting any other bus to simply arrive like this.

We rode this bus to the other station across the Hudson, in Rensselaer, and more people boarded. I got out and asked the bus driver about paying, and she said "Don't worry about that now, just get back on the bus".

I did as she said, and she didn't ask me for payment.

We arrived in Ridgewood NJ, got off, and never payed a cent! The only down side to this was that we had to walk a couple of miles from this point to the train station. I'd never been to Ridgewood as I could recall, and there were a couple nice little parks, but I didn't know how they would fit in yet. Joe Tag called us up and offered a ride, but it was actually quicker for us to take the train. We'd ride that, switch in Hoboken or one of two other places, then ride the Morris and Essex line back to Netcong where Jillane's mom picked us up. This was the worst part of the whole time, knowing we were finished but having to deal with public transportation.

Overall, it was again not the most incredible backpacking trip. It was an opportunistic improvisation because we had the opportunity to see these old Catskill hotels with Justin and Lerch. Perhaps it would have been better to take a southern route from Sharon Springs into the northern Catskills, but that was something that might have been more rugged, colder, and might not have any accomodations. I'm glad we had the opportunity to experience some of the Erie canal, the Capitol District, and those old hotels. Like with the day hikes, it doesn't always have to be the most incredible thing. It's about discovery and experience, and the fact that we never know what we might find.