Hike #1395; Rotterdam to Troy

 

Hike #1395: 2/27-3/1/21 Rotterdam to Troy with Jillane Becker

This was another long trip Jillane and I took, keeping with the theme of pushing further in every direction that we'd ever gone before.

Actually, this was close, but north the farthest north we had ever been. The distinction of farthest north was still the previous trip on the Erie Canal to this one, at Yankee Hill along the Mohawk River. However, this was the first time we'd be on the north side of the Mohawk River, so there's that, even if it was only for a brief moment.

We got a hotel in Troy NY, the Courtyard Marriott, and the next morning got an Uber to the west.

The point of starting would be Lock 9 on the Erie Barge canal, which is the canalized Mohawk River. We got dropped off at the Stewarts Shop across the street from it.

We had passed through Rotterdam Junction on the south side of the Mohawk River years ago hiking the Erie Canalway Trail, bu then took the Long Path up into the Plotterkill Preserve. We then descended back to the Erie Canal in to Schenectady, so we missed walking the bit between there. I wanted to do it all, so we could fill in the gap there.

The point we started on was along the route of the Long Path, the long distance trail originally proposed to go from New York City to he Adirondacks. Blazes of the trail have been extended north of the Mohawk River, but not too much farther yet.

I really hope to one day finish the entire Long Path, but like everything else, I have so many other trails I'm working on, it seems like it'll be forever before I finally get it all done.
I can't say I'm getting nowhere. I'd gotten a whole lot of different trails finished. I just have so many of them started, I need to focus more on finishing some of them.

We would only be on the Long Path a bit. This hike was more about following the designated Erie Canalway Trail, which is complicated enough to explain. 

I didn't understand the half of it, even by the time I did the last trip up there. The different incarnations of the Erie Canal, and then what the trail actually was, it's just so damned confusing. I hope that I am able to adequately explain all of it while describing what we saw.

Our hike started at the Stewarts, and the Long Path blazes led across the dam of the Erie Canal Lock 9, and then passed into the village of Rotterdam Junction on the other side.

The bridge here is like others that are located at the modern day lock sites. They have an odd dam style on a lot of these in that they are removable. They can function like a curtain and the bridge is part of its function. In most cases, the bridges are not open to vehicular traffic, but rather only for workers to get through. The dams can be opened during the winder months and the Mohawk River takes on its natural flow.

We looked down from the bridge as we crossed at Lock 9 and the ice jams in the Mohawk River above.

This was not always the Erie Canal, and it is not the Erie Canal that old songs describe, nor was it the towpath canal. This was the last of three incarnations of the canal route.

The original 1820s Erie Canal is often referred to as "Clinton's Ditch", for then New York Governor DeWitt Clinton. The plan was ridiculed to open this channel for trade early on, but Clinton became quite a celebrant when it turned out to be an immediate success. Canals began development all over America after that.

The Erie Canal soon outgrew its original configuration due to the amount of traffic, so in the 1840s, the entire canal was enlarged. All of the locks were doubled for opposing traffic.This is often referred to as the "Enlarged Erie Canal". At times, the original Clinton's Ditch and Enlarged Erie are not exactly the same location. It seems to me that usually they are together, but they do deviate at times.

Work began on the current incarnation of the Erie Canal in 1908. It was completed in 1918, and that was the end of much of the old towpath canal. The majority of everything we've followed on this was simply the canalized Mohawk River. It's a pretty amazing thing, that it is still in operation, but it is apparently a major drain. There were talks of abandoning the entire stretch around the time we did this hike, and merging it with another highway authority or something.

We followed the Long Path blazes along the road for a bit, and then to Iroquois Street where we headed to the south a bit to reach the enlarged Erie Canal.

We had been here backpacking many years ago, but we couldn't get through then. An active railroad crosses over it and there wasn't a way through without climbing over the tracks, so we just went out and around, then backtracked and camped at quarry lands out there.

This time was different. I found out the trail supposedly was just completed through.

We walked along, and I was surprised to see the Lock 25 was in place and in good condition. We checked it out, and there was what looked to be older stone work further up that might have been remnants of the earlier Clinton's Ditch. This lock was rebuilt in 1848, and then upgraded again in 1890. The lift of this lock was 8 feet.

We moved ahead, and although construction work was still going on to get the path beneath the railroad tracks, it was open to public. We walked through it and continued on the canal towpath to the east.

There was a big watered area on the right that was the canal. As we walked there was a large quarry area on the left where we had camped the last time we were out there. We just hadn't been able to go all the way through that time.

Also beyond this area, there was another ditch to the left of us when the canal was to the right. I wondered if this might have been the earlier Clinton's Ditch alignment.

We crossed over Mabie Lane, then made our way out to the crossing of Rt 5S. It was at this point that the last time we turned right, on the route of the Long Path, up to the Plotterkill Preserve. This time, we went straight and covered new ground on the old canal.

The next section was really pretty, directly beside the Mohawk River with continuous nice views.

There was a view of the five span through truss railroad bridge upstream on the Mohawk from here, and we continued east.

After the nice views of the Mohawk River, the next point of interest was the historic site of the Plotterkill Aqueduct.

 There was a nice little park to the left, and the stone arch bridge section that carried the 1841 towpath was still in place and looked very nice. 

The trough section that carried the water is all gone, but was obvious where it was. To my left, I could see some remnants of what might have been an earlier aqueduct from 1825. This aqueduct was rebuilt after a flood in 1891.

The canal disappears beneath Rt 5S at this point, and the trail has to circumnavigate for a while. The canal wasn't accessible for a bit because of the construction of the interchange between 5S and Rt 890.

This area was known as Wyatts. We took the sweeping curves around the cloverleaf interchanges, passed beneath the bridge, and then hugged the edge of the highway, but below it, heading to the east. 

We passed through a wide open area after the last interchange, and saw foundations and walls of some old estate that was destroyed here. Interstate 890 covers over a section of the canal ahead here, and the trail hugs the narrow land between highway and river. We paused to watch some Black Capped Chickadees here.

Just ahead, the trail picked up the Erie Canal towpath again, and we began to approach the bridge dam for the barge canal Lock 8.

The bridge dams used on the current Erie Canal alignment are also called Mohawk Dams, and apparently are the only place in the world where they are still employed. 

Unlike the Dam 9 bridge, this one was only used for workers to get across the river.

We continued along the canal from this point, which became more obvious what it was as it emerged from under the highway. We then approached the enlarged Lock #23, which replaced the original Lock 26.

There was an abutment of where a bridge once went over the canal here and some foundations.
This lock was enlarged as recently as 1889, but by then the railroad had pretty much overtaken all of the business.

We took a little break at a shelter thing at this lock before moving on.
It was at this point that we had returned to the canal when we last hiked it, after a road walk section down from the Plotterkill Preserve. 

After the locks, there was a lot of artwork affixed to a chain link fence on the left side of the towpath. It was kind of nice. There was a lot of virus type of stuff on there, but for the most part it was pretty cool.

It said stuff like "Hope", "You're doing great, keep it up", "be your own kind of beautiful", "stay safe make art", and more.

The canal apparently disappeared under highways and on ramps again as we got closer to Schenectady. The is paved and then skirts the edges of the highways, sometimes taking on cluttered debris from river flood surges. The canal eventually makes its way into Schenectady, and follows what is now Erie Street through town. We continued on the trail closer to the river where a stream historically known as the Binne Kill joins.

We just followed the trail around and then down onto State Street into Schenectady. We turned left onto Washington Street, and then walked through the Stockade District.

I had walked the entire Stockade District by myself before when we hiked this last, one day that Jillane wouldn't get up. I ended up doing that and going to the local library, then following some of the trail eastbound.

This time, we followed Washington Ave to the end, and then turned to the right into the Riverside Park along the Mohawk River.

We were treated to an amazing sunset while walking this stretch. There was also an old cannon and some beautiful giant Cottonwood trees.

Ahead, we could see the New York Central Railroad bridge crossing over the river.

We followed the path along this for a ways, and it turned to the right to head down to Ingersoll Ave and Front Street. Jillane went that way, but I went straight and cut along the back of Front Street Park, then climbed steeply up over the active railroad tracks. 

I watched from the other side after crossing as a train went by, then headed down slope on the other side to the ALCO Heritage Trail. Jillane made her way to that from Front Street on River Street.

The trail is named for the American Locomotive Company that operated its plant in Schenectady. 

Prior to ALCO, the site was the Schenectady Locomotive Works, which opened in 1848.

The company merged with and formed ALCO in 1901. There are only about ten known Schenectady Locomotives still in existence throughout the world. I'm not sure how many there are made by ALCO after that.

The ALCo company continued until 1969.

There were a lot of interpretive signs along the trail through this area that gave the stories of famous locomotives that were built at the locomotive works here.

Now, this area has a hotel and all sorts of businesses and other stuff going on including a marina and a brewery.

We had a really nice walk along the waterfront, then along the marina, and through the developed area t settle in at a room at the Courtyard Marriott.

Once we had everything down, we took a walk back to the Druthers Brewing Company for dinner.

I had a really terrific chocolate Russian imperial stout, and we each had a personal pizza that was quite good. And that concluded our first day out of this trip.

DAY 2

We would shift gears on our trajectory for the second day to follow the Mohawk-Hudson Trail, which is shown as part of the Erie Canalway Trail on most maps, although it deviates from that historic route a lot.
Completed in 1841, the Troy and Schenectady Railroad traveled 21 miles between its namesake towns.
In 1853, it became part of the New York Central system.
The line remained in use until early 1965 when most of it was abandoned.
Much of the route was developed as the Mohawk Hudson Hike and Bike Trail, and is also now part of the Empire State Trail.

Schenectady was actually one of the major start points for railroads in New York. A simple look at the straight line drawn between Schenectady and Albany shows it was just begging to have a railroad, which is how the New York Central was first founded. Because of politics and investors in the Erie Canal, the railroad was allowed only to carry passengers, no freight from its inception and for many years to follow, as not to take away business from the canal. The Troy and Schenectady was similar in that way for a time as well.

We walked from the hotel across the active tracks to Seneca Street where we picked up the paved former railroad bed we would follow for the majority of the rest of the trip.

We continued northeast and the ALCO Heritage Trail joined in on the left. The first part of this trail was great because it was totally plowed. 

Then, as we got a little farther away from Schenectady, it was no longer plowed and much harder walking. Something came in from the left that looked like it was part of the Erie Canal, but the canal was shown to have been a little further away from the railroad here. Perhaps one of the older incarnations of it.

We passed by a spot where a trolley line used to cross over the railroad, and a little after that, an old stone ruin of some sort, and a view along a power line clearing where the aforementioned trolley used to cross the Mohawk River.  This was once the longest trolley bridge in the world.

We crossed over Aqueduct Road as we reached the little community of Aqueduct, named for the Rexford Aqueduct that carried the Erie Canal over the Mohawk River here.

We look from the Rt 146 bridge at the highway bridge and the former site of the Rexford Aqueduct. TheErie Canal was enlarged and rehabilitated in 1842, when the aqueduct was constructed. The settlement on the north side of the Mohawk River is called Rexford, and the south is simply "Aqueduct".

The aqueduct remained in use until 1916, when the new state Barge Canal opened; the canalized Mohawk River.

Because it created a navigational inhibition, most of the Rexford Aqueduct was removed in 1918.

On the east side of bridge was the site of Aqueduct Station. I wasn't completely sure where it used to be, but I had an idea.

From here, the railroad bed curved to the south to follow the contour of the river.

We continued through a very nice woodland expanse that was pretty quiet, but then the railroad bed was blocked off by a chain link fence, and the trail went uphill to the right.

It had to be rerouted out of the way form the original railroad bed because it passes through the General Electric Laboratories as well as the Knolls Atomic Laboratories.

The trail came out to the edge of River Road, and then skirted the road somewhat closely, around a traffic circle by the GE Labs, then along the parking areas for Knolls Atomic.

When the trail reached Line Drive, it turned left into Jeff Blatnick Park. This used to be the Niskayuna town landfill. It is now capped and has trails over it with splendid views of the Hudson River.

We took a break near the top of the hill with the great view in a little shelter that warned by sign that it was not to be considered adequate shelter in case of emergency.

We continued downhill from here on a slanted path to reach the railroad bed once more.

There were some side trails I'd love to explore through the stretch, but no time for that this time. When we got to Lock 7 on the barge canal, the trail became clear or plowed, which made for much more pleasant walking.

After we passed the Niska Island Bridge, it started getting pretty dark. We continued along, and eventually we reached the Niskayuna Station.

The station at this site was constructed in 1843, but the current structure is either built in 1880, or it is the original structure only rehabilitated that year.

The railroad was financed by the City of Troy, and so it was a financial burden that made it ripe merger fruit for the picking early on.

Much of the line was abandoned by the 1950s, and the station was converted to a private home for a time.

It was regarded as the nicest station on the 21 mile line, precariously perched on the slope above the Mohawk River with a scenic view.

In the 1970s, it was decided to preserve the old station, which remains a museum piece to this day.

We turned away from the railroad bed at this point, as I had secured a room at the Hampton Inn up the hill to be home for the night.

We exited the Lions Park on Rosendale Road, and then turned right when it turned uphill. We continued up to the Troy-Schenectady Road, where there were lots of businesses, and our hotel was just a little down to the right.

We had a pretty nice room, and I don't remember what kind of food we got for dinner. We might have ordered pizza, or maybe we went to Wendy's because it was close by. I don't recall.

DAY 3

The next day, we just had to walk back down the hill the same way that we had gone up the night before.
The hotels were still only serving crappy bagged breakfasts that were nothing to be excited about, so we stopped at the Dollar Tree down the road before we continued on. I also went across to the Sunoco Station for better drink selection and got an Arizona tea.

We headed back down to the railroad bed the way we had come, and I spent sime time at the Niskayuna Station setting up then and now history compilations before moving on.

As we continued east, we went down off the trail to check out some more amazing giant Cottonwood trees, and I spotted what looked to be an old railroad spur, though I don't know for what purpose, heading south.

We passed through the area of Colonie, and came close to the river again. We crossed Shaker Creek with great views out over the Mohawk, and crossed Forts Ferry Road and Onderdock Ave twice.

Ahead, we came close to Interstate 87, and the railroad was bisected by it. Here the trail has to go downhill toward the Mohawk to the north, then turn right to go under 87, then return. It followed Island View Road.
We headed down, and this permitted us great views of the Thaddeus Kosciuszko Bridges.

The Thaddeus Kosciusko Bridges over the Mohawk River/Erie Canal in Dunsbach Ferry NY, also known as the "Twin Bridges" were completed in 1959 and named for (anglicized) Tadeusz Kościuszko, notable military leader during the American Revolution and preeminent national figure in Poland's fight for independence.

We continued up the other side on Island View Road, and when we got to Dunsbach Ferry Road, we went straight across on paved trail.

This trail turned to the right and passed through a new development, crossed Arbor Gate Court, and then reached the railroad bed again. The rail bed continued to the west just a bit to reach Dunsbach Ferry Road, and I assume this was the location of Dunsbach Ferry Station. 

I'm kind of assuming where the station was, on Dunsbach Ferry Road, and it was kind of small. There is a large private home that looks almost station like on the road near the tracks, but I don't think it's the station.

Whatever the case, I walked out to the crossing and back just to see if there was any remnant, and then we continued to the east again. The right of way went northeast for a bit, skirting development, past the Colonie Trailhead at Schermerhorn Road, and then it curved a bit and passed beneath Rt 9.

I was really happy the walking finally got easy. The forecast for the start of the hike and the end of the hike was substantially different in temperature by about ten degrees which is why we had so much snow at the start and so little on this day. I had checked the snow accumulations map before we left, and there was less than an inch in this area, but a couple where we started.

A giant pipe replaced the original rail bridge for Rt 9. We continued from there southeast on the rail bed.

We only stayed on the railroad bed as far as Manor Ave. From there, I wanted to try to head down and have a look at the Cohoes Falls, which is one of the largest waterfalls by volume in America. I hadn't told Jillane just how incredible this looked up till this point, so it would be kind of a surprise.

The entire industrial history of the town of Cohoes is absolutely fascinating, and I knew she would love it.

We followed Manor Ave down to where the enlarged Erie Canal used to cross it, where West Street and Erie Street break off to the left.

Just ahead, we hit Mohawk Street, crossed, and went into part of the Falls View Park where we could see the amazing Cohoes Falls.

Between the Mohawk River and falls, there is a power canal that served the Cohoes mills.

The original and enlarged canals come back together west of this point. They crossed over the Mohawk River on the Crescent Aqueduct. Then, the canal remained on the north side of the river heading west to Rexford where we had seen the aqueduct remains the day before.

The 1918 barge canal also takes on a different route and has a flight of locks to the north of the Mohawk River here, some of the most substantial rerouting of the entire Erie Canal. We wouldn't see any of that this time though. We'd continue to the southeast and follow some of the Erie Canal from here.

Lock 18 was prominent and pretty cool looking adjacent to this falls view park. This was a major area of history we were entering.

The giant old mill complex buildings towered nearby, just below the falls, and the raceway, former canal, went underground beneath the main drag it seemed.

Harmony Mills of Cohoes was the largest industrial textile mill by the time Mill #3 was completed in 1872.

The first mill, Mill #1, opened along the Erie Canal in 1837. By 1842, the canal was shifted with its first enlargement from the east to west side of the mill, and the original canal was kept in use as a raceway to provide power to the growing mill complex.
The Troy and Schenectady Railroad served the mill as well, but the last incarnation of the Erie Canal was a bit far away to serve the industry, over the rock outcrops north of the falls.
The mill slowly declined after the 1940s, until closure around 1988.
Mill #2 burned down in 1995, and Mill #1 suffered a devastating fire in 1998.
In 2000, the property was purchased by developer Uri Kaufman, and in 2005-6, he began opening Mill #3 as a very popular high end residential property. Further residential units were developed in the old mill buildings over the next decade.
The Harmony Mills are a prime example of how adaptive reuse can revitalize cities. Almost all units were leased even before renovations were complete.

We also so a nice old brick church where we crossed the street. This was the historic Calvary Grace Church in Cohoes NY, built as St Patrick's Catholic Church in 1895. It was built to serve residents of the Orchard section of Cohoes, who mostly worked in the Harmony Mills.
We wanted to cross the big foot bridge over the power canal to get over to Falls View Park, but it was closed, apparently due to the covid crap. Instead, we continued along and got to Overlook Park, which is behind some brick row homes that were originally created for the workers of the Harmony Mills.

There was a trail behind these buildings that continued along the steep cliff slope high above the Mohawk River that was quite lovely. We had views down stream from here to the railroad and road bridges that cross the Mohawk closer to its confluence with the Hudson.

We came to another south facing outlook, then passed by the residential buildings and back out to Mohawk Street. There, there were a lot of interpretive signs on the original and later Erie Canal, and noted that a couple of the buildings going down along the street were built on top of locks, which utilized the lock walls as foundations. So original locks 37 and 38 still exist, but they are under the buildings.

We got on the trail of the enlarged Erie Canal here, and then reached Lock 16. It is mostly buried, but the tops of the lock walls with gate pockets were still very obvious.

We continued along the trail and soon came to Lock 15, which had an excellent view to the Harmony Mill building with the ornamental tower section.

The towpath took us further into a more beat area, over grown with all sorts of stuff, and then reached the beat up and partially filled in lock 14 next to what might have at one time been a lock house.
When we came out to the intersection of Bedford Street and High Street, we were at the filled in site of Lock 13. Here, we left the canal route and turned right up High Street. We passed beneath the Troy and Schenectady Railroad bridge and then climbed up to it to resume following it to the south.

Just a little south of this point was the former station stop at the corner of Younglove Avenue. I did a then and now compilation of this, but I still have not published it on Metrotrails yet, so I haven't put it on here.

We took a little break in this stretch, because there were some really pretty great views out over Schenectady from the high shelf of the railroad.

There was also what might have at one time been a railroad scale, but I'm not sure. The High Street Station platforms were still pretty obvious where the High Street Station used to be.

We continued south, and took in more great views of Schenectady.

There were 1907 retaining walls along the right of way and other foundations down the slopes at times.

We crossed a bridge over Columbia Street and the trail did not go any farther than Alexander Street, where we had to turn away and head east on the road. 

On the way down, we crossed the enlarged Erie Canal again, and Lock 9 was to the left, in good shape. To the right, a park occupied the canal route, but abruptly ended. To the south of here, both the canal and railroad bed go into a quarry property and are inaccessible. 

We turned left on Lincoln Avenue, then right on Spring Street, headed down hill, crossed Cohoes Blvd, and continued on Dyke Avenue southeast. We turned left on Veterans Memorial Drive, and then right on Cannon Street down through the community of Green Island. 

By the time we got to all of this, it was totally dark, and we were closing in on our destination.

The Hudson River Lock and Dam were off to our left, which is kind of considered to be the first lock of the modern Erie Canal. The Hudson River is tidal to about this point.

We passed beneath Rt 7, and then came to the Green Island Bridge where we would turn right to cross over the Hudson River. The old railroad station was still standing to the right of this intersection before crossing.

The Green Island Bridge was constructed in 1981 between Green Island and Troy.
It was the 4th crossing to occupy the site, starting with the wooden Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad bridge in 1832. A second wooden bridge was built after the first one burned (and took 75 acres of Troy with it) in 1862. The third was a metal truss structure built in 1884.
Flood damages claimed the third bridge in March 1977. This explains why there is a railroad station immediately on the west side of the Hudson from what is now just another road bridge.

The views of the Hudson were amazing through here.

We turned left on the street once we were across the bridge, and made our way through Troy to the Courtyard Marriott where we had parked three days earlier.

I don't recall if we stayed there again on this night or not, as we might have just driven home from then. I would have liked to continue on more from here, but it was still a good three day run.

We had knocked out a bit more of the Erie Canal, and almost all of the Troy and Schenectady Railroad. We'd have a bit more to do on the Erie Canal, from the eastern terminus to Cohoes, and from there along the actual canal on the other side of the Mohawk River, but it was a good section to knock out.