Hike #1458; Cohoes to Vischer Ferry

Hike #1458; 11/28/21 Cohoes to Vischer Ferry NY with Jillane Becker and Everen.

This next hike would be a point to point in New York State, a return to the Erie Canal which Jillane and I had hiked to a pretty great degree over the years.

We had backpacked bits of it years ago. We followed a section from Canajoharie NY, with a short detour, all the way to Schenectady. Then we ignored it for many years.

When Jillane got pregnant with Everen, we started doing several hikes to keep her in shape so that she'd be better off through her pregnancy and hopefully make it easier on her. A couple of those trips involved the Erie Canal.

The Erie Canalway Trail follows more closely the West Shore Railroad to the west of Schenectady, except for a bit of it where it is directly on the canal from Rotterdam Junction. We had skipped a section of it there where we followed the Long Path.

Heading east of Schenectady, the Erie Canalway Trail doesn't really follow the canal much at all. It follows the former Troy and Schenectady Railroad. 

Just east of Schenectady, at Rexford, the old canal followed along the north side of the Mohawk River, so we had missed all of it on that last trip. All we did was a segment of it in Cohoes where we checked out several locks on a side trail.

When I first started learning about the Erie Canal, I was quite frustrated by the complication of it. It seemed impossible to understand the timeline, but I do now.

The Erie Canal was completed in 1825, opening quicker trade between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes. Governor DeWitt Clinton was at first criticized for supporting the canal, which they referred to as "Clinton's Ditch", but then it became hugely successful. 

The canal was in fact so successful that it was decided to enlarge it. The enlarged Erie Canal had double locks for opposing traffic, but was still a towpath canal built in the 1840s. Some of it is the same as the original Erie, but the two routes diverge from time to time.

The last incarnation is the Erie Barge Canal developed in 1918. More than half of the original canal was abandoned in this realignment which to great degree meant canalizing the adjacent rivers like the Mohawk.
There are times when the original Erie Canal, the enlarged Erie, and the barge canal are entirely different routes, and some of these times all three are worth walking. That would make up some of the theme of this hike. The official main trail follows the railroad bed.

The barge canal bypassed the Cohoes Falls by way of a flight of locks to the north, which can be walked. Beyond that, the original and enlarged erie canal routes cross from the south to the north side of the Mohawk River to continue west. I found out there was a trail on that as well.

My plan would be to park in Cohoes on the canal, and then just walk as far west as we could get in the day, which would be over fifteen miles for certain.

We chose to park on Alexander Street in Cohoes, adjacent to Alexander Street Park, which was the route of the Enlarged Erie Canal. The original one was down a bit lower at this point.
A short walk from the start brought us to Lock #9, which was in nice shape. The surface of the towpath had an improved surface walkway on it.

There was a carved out stone reading "Erie Canal" on it, and from the top of Lock 9, Lock 10 was clearly visible, but only top of lock walls were somewhat visible, and the rest of it was filled in as part of George Street Park.

At George Street, the canal was on private land to the west, so we had to go slightly right and then north on St Rita Lane. Behind buildings to the left, we could see some of the stone work of Lock 11 in place. 

We paralleled the old canal route and then turned left on Newark Street, followed by right on Sandusky Street. To the left of the road, where there is the current Cohoes Fire Company building, were some exposed stones of the walls of Lock 12. The fire department had been built directly on top of the lock.

We continued ahead on Bedford Street, and the canal used to go right along it. When we got to White Street, the canal is now partially a swath of grass to the right.
We continued ahead on Ontario Street, and turned to the right, down away from the former canal route. Jillane and I had followed the section to the north of here the last time we were out, as far as the Cohoes Falls. 

We continued ahead on Bedford Street, and the canal used to go right along it. When we got to White Street, the canal is now partially a swath of grass to the right.
We continued ahead on Ontario Street, and turned to the right, down away from the former canal route. Jillane and I had followed the section to the north of here the last time we were out, as far as the Cohoes Falls. 

We descended to an old mill building to the right adjacent to Ogden Mills Plaza. This swath of grass between buildings was the original Clinton's Ditch. 

Across the street from these mill buildings was the historic Egberts and Bailey Mill site.

This was the first building in America erected for manufacturing knit goods in 1836. The first power knitting machinery was used in Cohoes in 1832.

Harmony Mills of Cohoes NY was the largest industrial textile mill by the time Mill #3 was completed in 1872.
The first mill of that family of mills, 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, and the Erie canal, in its final enlargement, was moved to the other side of the Mohawk River, so much of the mill product was left to use solely rail for movement of goods.
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.

As for "Clinton's Ditch", foundations of some buildings are actually the original canal locks!

We continued to the east until we got to Rt 32, and then turned to the left, to head to the bridge over the Mohawk River adjacent to the big dam. Just upstream, the deck lattice truss bridge of the former Delaware and Hudson Railroad obscured some of the view up to the Cohoes Falls. This was called the Saratoga Street Bridge, and it was a rather new one. It opened in 2017 to replace a multi arch structure built in 1933.

Once on the other side, we turned right on Museum Lane, and went down around a corner. This was just above the outlet lock of the old Champlain Canal. 

A historic view of the 1830 Hugh White homestead above the old Champlain Canal in Waterford NY, with the White Family posing.

Hugh White helped to develop local water power industry and was brother to Canvass White, engineer of the Erie Canal.

The home was to be demolished in 1964, but moved to present location for use as the museum.

After Canvass figured out how to make natural cement from the dolomite found in 1817 while constructing the Erie Canal, the White brothers created the Town of Whiteport in the early 1830s in the northern part of what became Rosendale. It became a large community of some 1500 people and made 1000 barrels of natural cement a day in the 2nd half of the 19th century.

Near the museum building was a set of steps that went down to the outlet lock of the Champlain Canal. 

It was built simultaneously with the Erie Canal, and opened completely in 1823. Like the Erie, it was given the barge canal treatment in the same way in the early 1900s. Mostly, the Hudson River through this area was canalized with the original towpath canal abandoned.

We started walking the historic route to the north. One flow of the Mohawk River heads north parallel with the Hudson and has a riffle cascade nearby with some big rock outcroppings, and heads to a dam before reaching the main part of the Hudson. Another flow of the river passed directly to the Hudson from the Saratoga Bridge we had crossed. There were ruins of a former dam at the riffle in the river we could see at some angles.

The Champlain Canal was still watered, but kind of crappy. I wouldn't even want to bring a canoe through the mess of branches and weeds in it, but at least it was kept nice and clear.

Pretty soon, we approached the underpass of the Mohawk Avenue Bridge, a girder structure that is now closed to traffic. When we got under it we could see why. The beams were rusted completely through in areas. 
When we looked across to the west abutment of the bridge, we could see how the bridge was enlarged at some point with concrete capping, and the original size based on stone work beneath. The Champlain Canal had a similar treatment to the Erie Canal with enlargement in the 1840s.

When we reached O'Connor Drive, we could not continue on the towpath unfortunately. It was going through some kind of maintenance and/or construction, so we had to turn left and then right on Saratoga Ave heading north.

 

On the left side of the road, we passed the historic Waterford  cemetery established 1774.

At the end of the cemetery, we were able to continue back across the canal and resume walking the towpath at Burton Ave. We did just that, and followed a nice section, where we spotted what I think was an old waste weir now filled in.

The canal was in really nice shape at this point, and soon we came to the junction of canals, which is a bit complicated.

The Barge Canal opened in 1915 here, and it has a literal intersection with the old Champlain Canal. We had to turn right and follow the barge canal from here to Lock E2 on the barge canal. Old canalers used to refer to this as "the crossroads".

Off to our right, we had view of the former Ormsby-Laughlin Textile Company Mill, built in 1894, the last surviving structure of the Waterford NY industrial community that was located here.

This was an amazing little area, and I was blown away at what I was seeing. 
Lock E2 is named such because Lock 1 is actually out on the Hudson River, which is also canalized just above Albany. This first part of the barge canal is a built canal, not canalized Mohawk River, and the locks, while the same in principal, are enormous.

What really shocked me most about this site was the fact that we had full access to the lock. I could walk right up along the edge of it with just some simple guide rails that hold no one back. There is a bridge over the end of the lock to allow for walkers to move on along the canal, but I didn't have to take that. I could walk right along the tops of the lock doors as well. I did that myself, but was a bit nervous about taking Ev with the stroller across. I'd have Jillane hold onto that while I did a little more exploring.

I could go down steps to the bottom of the lock and look up as well. At old through truss bridge carried South Street over the canal just below the lock.

On the opposite side of Lock E2, there was a flight of locks to the right. These were built during the Champlain Canal's rehabilitation in about 1860 as a shortcut from the Hudson River up into the canal without having to go all the way down to Albany to get into the Erie Canal. Another junction canal with step locks once existed in West Troy, now known as Watervliet. 

When the barge canal went into service, the old locks were repurposed as a spillway for excess water coming down, as not to damage the working lock mechanism. The official name for them is apparently the "side cut locks".

We continued around the top of Lock E2, and then off to the grass along the Champlain Canal again. 
We took that to Broad Street and left the canal, crossed it, and followed the street side to 8th Street where we turned right, all parallel with the Erie Barge Canal.

Joseph L. Geiger Memorial Park was on the left ahead, and I figured we might be able to get over to the canal from there, but I decided not to try it because if we had to turn back, it would add some considerable distance. 

We just continued on 8th Street ahead. We headed to Washington Street and turned left beneath the former Delaware and Hudson Railroad, and then continued out to where the barge canal was again closely parallel on the left. In this area was Lock E3. It was barely in sight to the left of us, because of wide water in between.

These five locks, E2 through E6, are collectively referred to as the Waterford Flight, and they were so nice to walk, I'd really very much like to do them again, some of them from the other side. I can't stress enough how awesome this was.

Washington Street is part of the colonial military road known as the Fonda Road. We continued on that ahead, and a crushed stone trail was soon parallel with the edge of it.

There were a lot of old historic homes along our road walk, and one to the right was collapsing. I'd have typically tried to go into these things, but with the baby a lot of things are different. 

We turned off to the left into the grass more closely parallel with the barge canal, and Lock E4 came into view. This bucolic setting was stunningly beautiful and looked to me like something out of a century past. The lock still looked like the old functioning locks of yesteryear, only much larger. From our vantage point, the size of them was not so apparent until we were very close to them.

The still water in the canal, and approach to this lock was something that I would never have assumed was in America if someone had just shown me a photo of what I was seeing.

The edge of the canal was full of moorings for waiting boats to lock through. I suppose at one time this was probably much busier, but the canal is mostly used for boat tourism today. 

We approached Lock E4, and when Jillane caught up I had her watch Ev while I climbed the stairs to the top, walked over the lock doors, and down the other side. I really wanted to experience every bit of this site as best I could. There have been talks over the years of abandoning the current Erie Canal because it apparently loses money in its operation. The only argument that is made for it is the recreation that the towns along the route capitalize on. 

I took the stroller, and I gave Jillane some time to climb the stairs and have a good look at the lock functions as well, then we moved on uphill gradually to Flighlock Road to the right.
This took us up parallel with the canal a bit. Jillane remained along the top from the lock and walked out along it to where the road came back to it. There was a large basin, a sort of parking lot for boats, at the top of the lock. Locks E3 through E6 each had a basin after them, and there were sort of guide walls with openings for through boat traffic.

Lock E5 was set back away from the road a bit, but we had a reasonable view of it from where we were. If we had more time and no stroller, I might have gone and looked at each of these more closely because I found it so fascinating, but that will have to be for another time.

Lock E6 was back in plain view of the Flightlock Road again, and once again an amazing sight to behold unlike anything I've seen anywhere in America. We continued on the road past this, and then there was an opening to the left where there was an amazing flood gate built to protect the canal functions in the event of flooding from upstream on the Mohawk.

We continued past this, and then there was a bridge that crossed the canal, just barely below the confluence of the canal and the Mohawk River. We went across and back to take in the views before we continued on.

The original Erie Canal was at this point still on the other side of the Mohawk River, and did not cross to the north side of it until what is known as "The Crescent", where the Mohawk makes a big dramatic turn.

We continued up to the river side and parking area, to a very large parking area and a boat launch. We continued past the launch, and there was no way to continue along the river/canal at this point.

There was a trail near the end of the launch that took us over crushed stone out to Mallard's Landing, a road in a cookie cutter development just to the east. We reached the road and turned to the left.

I had looked at this road walk ahead of time as the only option to really get through for a long hike, and it ended up not being so bad considering all of the history along the way. In retrospect, I quite enjoyed most of it.

There was a crushed stone trail right alongside the road, so we got over on that, and it took us to the north just a bit to a small municipal park and a pavilion. We went over to there to take a short break, and I think we did a quick diaper change because there were garbage cans. We might have waited due to a store coming up ahead, I can't quite remember, but it went alright.

The trail continued through a swath of woods parallel with the road for just a bit, but then the path ended at the intersection with Canvasback Ridge Road.

From here, we just stayed on Mallards Landing to the north. We took it almost to the Fonda Road again, but just before, we went up into grass around ball courts of the Strawberry Ridge apartments. I carefully pushed Ev up the hill in the grass, parallel with the fence lines, and then turned left to continue along the fence to the north parallel with the Fonda Road. Aside from a few branches coming down and hitting me in the face, it was an easy and more pleasant way to walk and skipped a bit of the Fonda Road. I waited in the shade of the trees to avoid the wind a bit while Jillane caught back up with us.

The worst bit of road walk probably of the entire hike was this bit of the Fonda Road to the north, just to the Stewarts Shop at the corner with Middletown Road. We stopped for a break there. 

I don't remember exactly what I had in the store, but I think some sort of cheapo fried chicken or something that was under the heat lamp. We both wanted something, and there was a pizza place in the building area as well. We went in there to see if maybe we could get a couple of slices, but as I recall they didn't sell pizza by the slice. I don't think we got anything there.

We ended up going back into the Stewarts, and I got Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA.

I waited around for a bit because the restroom had a changing table in the women's side I think. Jillane went in to give Ev a diaper change. 

When we were finally on our way, we had to walk along the Middletown Road for just a little bit, and then turned left on Halfmoon Road.

The little settlement of Halfmoon started pretty soon as we turned onto this road, and there were quite a lot of lovely historic homes.

We soon passed the homestead of C. Boughton built around 1850. It was later the home of C. S. Hawley, secretary to President Grover Cleveland and founder of the Halfmoon Academy, a former school in the middle of the settlement.

A side road to the left had a sign that denoted the site of the first post office in Halfmoon, now a back yard.
There were a lot of signs spread throughout the community giving little blurbs of history, which I was very thankful for. It was one of the things that made this road walk bit much more enjoyable.

The settlement was originally called Middletown, but several other towns in America had the name. When the US Postal Service was created, many towns changed names as not to confuse addresses. We've seen this in a lot of places in our travels.

As we walked, we came across the aforementioned  Halfmoon Academy founded by C. S. Hawley. It served as a private school until 1877, and then regular school until 1951. Now it is a private residence.

After a bit, Guideboard Road was more the main road to the right, and we continued straight ahead on Church Hill Road.
It took us rather close to the Mohawk River, then back uphill a bit onto the slopes above it. 

There were some very nice homes on the bluff overlooking the Mohawk, and one of them was Oakclliff.
Oakcliff is a Greek Revival mansion in Crescent NY, built in 1840 by Judge Duncan McMartin.  It was later the home of T. G. Younglove, who was a civic leader and prominent business man. 

We soon descended to the intersection with Rt 9 where there was another Stewarts shop. I can't remember if we got anything at this one. We turned right through the parking lot of the Stewarts, and then into the little settlement of Crescent.

The settlement is named for the crescent shape taken by the Mohawk River at this location. I assume that the settlement of Halfmoon probably derived from some of this as well, although it might have something to do with Henry Hudson and the name of his ship which explored some of the Hudson as far as Albany in 1609.

The parking lot along the river where Rt 9 crosses was originally the site of the Crescent Aqueduct that carried the Erie Canal across. 

Originally a wooden span, it was rebuilt of 26 stone arches at 1,137 feet total length in the 1840s. It was demolished just after 1915 opening of the Erie Barge Canal and only abutments remain today. Route 9 was originally a long series of pony trusses across the long span. I understand it was also referred to as the Lower Aqueduct at some point.

From here, we took a short break on a bench beneath the Rt 9 bridge, checked out some of the stone work remaining of the former canal, and then continued to the west.

The canal was filled in ahead, as it paralleled very closely Old Canal Road. The trail itself shifted from the original towpath route to in the prism area, which is filled in. It was a really pleasant walk, and the road was not busy at all, so it wasn't even like we were walking a road through this stretch.

I cracked another beer open and we meandered along this fine trail with great views out onto the Mohawk River. While we moved on, there were cop cars and I think an ambulance up ahead along the Old Canal Road, within plain sight, so I figured I'd better hide it. There was clearly some sort of altercation we had just missed because the sirens were sounding when we were back in Crescent.

We continued to where the canal used to cross over the road, and there's a bit of a hump left where there would have once been a bridge. The trail continues parallel with the road, but also goes inland quite a bit at one spot where there might have been a basin or something. It then comes back to the road side. It might also be the difference between the original Clinton's Ditch and the later enlarged Erie.

The trail section ended at Beach Road, and so we had to continue ahead on the road, which is on or next to the canal anyway. At one point there was a spot that was either a basin or a dry dock next to the river.

When the dam was built for the barge canal, it put some of the old Erie Canal under water and raised levels as much as 28 feet, so the original shore line is not always the shore line we see today, or most likely is not.

We passed by Krause's Grove, which used to be a restaurant out on a peninsula into the river. It was abandoned, and tempting to go out and check it out, but the problem we faced here was that we were losing light fast. I wanted to try to get out onto the towpath further to the west before dark so we would have an easy shot to where we would finish.

The Old Canal Road changed names to Beach Road as the road that had come in from the right continued on the canal. It stayed that until we came to a tavern on the right side, and it changed names to Towpath Road. Here, there was a boat launch down to the left, and the trail continued along the Mohawk River closely. As I understand, this section of trail follows the original Clinton's Ditch pretty closely, but the later canal that was used for longer was up closer to the road. We remained on the trail through this bit.

I had to wait a bit at this point, which was said to be an old rope ferry site across the Mohawk River established before 1705 by Cornelius Claus Vandenburgh, to connect an old native American trail. 

The ferry was purchased by Henry Dunsbach in 1813, and the settlement became known as Dunsbach's Ferry. The south side is still called that today. He also operated a hotel.

There was a bridge established across the river at this site and served from 1898 to 1900 when it was destroyed by ice flow, and the ferry was re-established. The state purchased the ferry in 1910 for the creation of the barge canal. Unfortunately, the 1718 ferry house was also destroyed for that.

We continued along the trail, which took us out to Towpath Road where we turned left, and then passed beneath the Thaddeus Kosciusko Bridges. 

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.

Old Erie Canal was actually just a bit north of this point, and just after passing beneath the bridges, a trail went uphill to the right to head back to that route.

It was just starting to get darker at this point, and we fortunately made it to the towpath again before it got too dark. I was happy that I was going to get to see at least a little of this great next section.

This section is known as Vischer Ferry History and Nature Preserve. It was a really great walk.

The route had water all around. The raised level of the Mohawk River certainly turned all of this into wetland, but not so much that it effected the canal and towpath, which remained all above that level. It provided for some really great wetland views, and at one point the entire towpath was like a causeway on water. At one point there must have been a purge, but a very long foot bridge has been erected over the missing area with a great ramp to it.

We came to a point where there was a foot bridge over the canal to some sort of access to the north, and we then came to what was known as Clute's Dry Dock. The bridge had been there much earlier because it had stone abutments with concrete caps for the foot bridge. 

There was a lock area across the canal where boats could pull into the dry dock, and then it could be drained for work probably using devices we couldn't see on the other side. Just after the dry dock, we passed abutments from another old bridge site.

Next, there was a wide section of water to the right. Across that waterway, there was a level grade in pretty plain view. This was the towpath of the original Clinton's Ditch. This too is a trail through the preserve, but we didn't get to walking it this time. It went from right by the dry dock site as a trail on through to our end point.

We went as far as an access road out across the wide water to the right. Ahead, the enlarged Erie towpath was kind of grown over, and I understand there is another purge in the towpath. We would have had to go to the left along some old roads and then along Mohawk River, then back to the next section to continue, so we instead turned right to the parking area just as it was getting dark to call it a day.

We could see the original route from the parking area continued as a trail also to the next location, but we opted not to push it too much farther because I had to get an Uber to get out of there.

I felt perhaps too confident that we would find something up there because Ubers are supposed to be pretty well available. When I searched and didn't get anything right away, I panicked a bit. It said nothing was available, and Jillane freaked out because it was getting colder and she was worried about Everen.

I was probably too worried, because we did get a Uber within about ten minutes. It only took a tiny bit of waiting, so my confidence wasn't misplaced. 
The driver showed up in short order and brought us back to the car in Cohoes.

If it weren't for the little bit of stress at the end, thinking we might be stuck out there, this trip was pretty outstanding.
It blew my mind that the official Erie Canalway Trail follows the rail bed to the south side of the river, which is cool and all, but this hike was just so much more interesting and enjoyable on so many levels than the rail stretch. I very much want to return and cover the other missing sections of all of the incarnations of the canal, then head to Canajoharie and continue up that way as well. And of course the Champlain Canal.
One of these days...