Geology

Ever wonder about the geology of the Mohawk Valley our area?  What formed the cliffs that gave Clifton Park its name?  Why is the valley so narrow where the I-87 Northway bridges the Mohawk?  How old is the Cohoes Falls?

Eastern Mohawk Valley from atop the escarpment in Rexford

The most concise answer I have read is from the draft Mohawk River Basin Action Agenda published by NYSDEC, “Glacial ice and meltwater played a major role in the geologic and landform development of the Mohawk Valley. Prior to the last glaciation, the Mohawk drained south from Schenectady and joined the Hudson River near Coeymans, NY. Following glaciation, this route was buried by glacial sediments and a much larger ‘Iromohawk’ river drained through the valley. For a period of a few hundred years, while the St. Lawrence Lowland was blocked with ice, the Iromohawk conveyed the drainage of the Great Lakes and the meltwater of the eastern Laurentide ice sheet through the valley.  The Iromohawk cut wide channels across the Hudson-Mohawk Lowland, deposited cobble-sized gravels in many locations east of Little Falls, and eroded bedrock between Rexford and Cohoes, forming the route the modern river follows today.”

I also understand that the very hard basalt geology over which the Mohawk River Falls at Cohoes is one of the youngest, surficial geological formations within what we now call New York State.

Volunteerism

A rising tradition associated with the Martin Luther King holiday is the pledge to volunteer to do something to make your community a better place to live.  Here on the Mohawk Towpath Byway we want to make it easy to find an opportunity to volunteer.  In fact, last year more than 190 residents along the Mohawk Towpath Byway contributed 1400 person hours of volunteer time valued at more than $29,750.  This in-kind service is used, in part, as a local match for a number of funding grants.

What are some of these opportunities?

1. Clutes Dry Dock, Clifton Park

• Landscape clearing to open up the view of the historic dry dock community site.
• Clearing the historic 1824 canal towpath close to Riverview Road.  The trail has become over grown over the last several years.
• Clearing along the historic canal towpath reconstruction project underway as a joint project with town of Halfmoon.   – contact Jennifer Viggiani, 371-6651

2. Adopt a roadside in your area:

• From Clamsteam Tavern, Halfmoon west on Riverview Road to VanVranken Road , Clifton Park
• Riverview Road from the hamlet of Vischer Ferry west to Sugar Hill Road
• Riverview Road from Droms Road west to Route 146
• Also a number of segments in Waterford, Cohoes, Colonie, and Schenectady – contact your local highway department.

3. Legal Assistance:

• Review and evaluate the Mohawk Towpath Scenic Byway Coalition’s risk management policies.
• Review and evaluate the Mohawk Towpath Scenic Byway Coalition’s internal controls.
• Assist in fostering a memorandum of understanding with each of our municipal and commercial partners.  Contact Eric Hamilton 371-7548.

4.  Assist with a baseline traffic count on the Byway.

• Includes a fun training session.
• We will use the traffic count on the Cohoes – Crescent Road as a model.  Contact Eric Hamilton 371-7548.

5. Take pictures of people enjoying the Byway. Even in the winter there are activities going on: snow shoeing, cross country skiing, skating, snowmobiling, ice fishing, sledding.  Pictures help us tell the story of the Byway and of life along the waterway west.

These are only a few of the many ideas.  Even though this is not the best time of the year for volunteering on the Byway you can still organize an activity for when the weather changes and the first peepers start calling and the first skunk cabbage emerges.  The whole idea is to make our community a better place to live.  A better place to live will be a better place to visit: the Mohawk Towpath Byway.  Volunteer today and remember Martin Luther King.

Visitor Center Ribbon Cutting

Philip Morris proudly MCs the ribbon cutting for the new Schenectady Heritage area and Mohawk Towpath Byway visitor center.

Today marked another achievement for Schenectady and the Mohawk Towpath Byway.  Proctors Executive Director Philip Morris and Mayor Gary McCarthy led local and county officials and regional tourism enthusiasts by officially cutting the ribbon to the Schenectady Heritage Area and Mohawk Towpath Byway visitor center.  The visitor center is in “Robb Alley” immediately across from the Apostrophe Cafe and the Proctors Box Office.  Over 600,000 people annually pass through the visitor center.  It will be interesting to see what sparks the most interest within the several themes included in the visitor center exhibits.

Representatives from numerous organizations came together to develop the content of the exhibit including the Schenectady County Historical Society, Schenectady Museum, Mabee Farm, local historians, Proctors History Committee, Mohawk Towpath Scenic Byway, Revolutionary Byway and the City of Schenectady.

A unique feature of the Visitors Center is that it is designed to be a revolving exhibit, enabling Proctors, with the help of contributors, to introduce new subject matter throughout the year. The exhibit panels are designed to be easily and cost effectively updated.

Judith Dagostino, Chair of the Schenectady County Legislature, also announced that Proctors will be the tourism promotion agency for the County.  Having the County’s cultural center involved in tourism promotion is expected to be a boon for this facet of economic development for Schenectady and this end of the Mohawk Valley.

Mayor McCarthy and Philip Morris prepare to cut the ribbon for the Visitor Center.

Family Appeal

I had the opportunity to accompany Avi Kaptzan of Kay New Century Tours on a familiarization tour of the Mohawk Towpath Byway.  The “fam” tour was arranged by Lori Duell from the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor.  It was an excellent opportunity to see the Byway from another perspective.

One thing that I know we are good at is marketing to a certain demographic.  That demographic is a mature couple, “empty nesters”, perhaps newly retired.  Look around our Board meeting next month.

The question I came away with was, “What can we offer families?”  A road trip?  Families have their best experiences when they get out of the car.  That’s exactly what a number of us have been trying to do for the last twelve years as we created and now implement our corridor management plan.  So what’s the best way to get families out of the car?

On one of the back trails of Peebles Island State Park in Waterford. Photo by Henrietta O'Grady.

Have you taken your grandchildren to the river bed trail at the foot of Cohoes Falls?

Sure you have seen the big boats come through one of the huge locks in Waterford.  Kids look at this as a boat elevator, and for parents… none of the water that raises the boats is pumped.  Still have questions about how a lock works?  Visit the Waterford Museum where they have a working model.  If that doesn’t appeal how about the model of the Burr Bridge.  Can your protege make that out of “Legos”?

Take your family for a spin in a kayak or canoe at any number of access points on the Byway.  Watch nature unfold around you.  Now that it’s winter see how many different animal tracks you can find in a new dusting of snow.

Last time I took my (reluctant?) grandsons for a walk in the Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve an American Eagle circled overhead at tree top level for a magnificent show.  Grandpa may have forgotten his camera, but I will never forget the kids’ awe.

A rainy day? Visit the Schenectady Museum.  They have something that will interest every member of the family.  And be sure to take the kids into Schenectady City Hall and stand them in the center of the rotunda on the first floor then dare them to speak (and listen).  That will keep them entertained as parents soak in the majestic architecture.

What is your favorite story about introducing someone to a discovery moment on the Mohawk Towpath Byway?  Sharing that story is the best way we can learn during “hospitality training”.  Share your experience in the comment opportunity below.

By the way, doing a “fam” tour with someone else on the Byway is the best way to learn new secrets along the Byway.  Share a few: learn a few.

Full Moon Walk

I just got back from an evening walk on the Mohawk Towpath Byway.  It is a beautiful night with close-to-full moon.  The ski is clear and you can just feel the radiational cooling taking place in preparation for our first significant snow fall.  There’s very little traffic, as everyone seems to be in a frenzy preparing for the coming holidays.

The quiet is surprising and unexpected, just the rhythmic sound of sneakers on pavement.   The amphibians are all well burrowed into the rich mud and the warm-blooded creatures only venture out to gather more food.

Suddenly off to my right I am startled by a large animal sloshing through the wetland.  It has to be a deer.  There are plenty around.  He must have heard me coming and stopped his grazing or foraging to determine if I was friend or foe.  Unaware of being watched I just walk on.  When I pass, the deer must have felt safe continuing his movement through the standing water and thin-film of ice.  The ice is what seems to make the most noise as the chrystine, thin sheets break up with the passing animal.  Even though the moon casts enough light so I can see the road ahead like mid day I can’t see the deer in the wooded underbrush with the dark water background.  The deer stops when I stop, no movement, no rhythmic plodding just the moonlit night and a million stars.

Reflective wrist band available for visibility and safety on the Byway.

I moved on to observe whatever else might be out on a cold, crisp evening.  But other than a distant light in a farmhouse nothing captured my curiosity like, why would a deer be out grazing in a wet land a couple of hours after sunset?

See what you can discover on the Byway after the sun has set.  From cultural events and performances, shopping, ice skating, maybe later this week cross country skiing, there’s always something going on.

If you are out and about after dark on the Byway remember to dress in light or reflective colors so you can be seen.  Take a light.  Dress warmly with many layers.  I make a point of wearing a reflective vest and one or two reflective wrist/ankle bands (pictured above) available for the asking.  Drop a self-addressed, stamped envelope in the mail to Mohawk Towpath Byway, P O Box 90, Clifton Park, N Y 12065.  We will mail you one.

No Passport Required

It has been said that if you look like your passport photo you are not well enough to travel.  Let me assure you that no one on the Mohawk Towpath Byway has the slightest interest in your passport.  We just want you to have the greatest experience possible.  Come and discover the Erie Canal, the Mohawk River, the waterway west and the role our communities played in the westward expansion of the country and in the Industrial Revolution.  The Byway is a public road open 24/7/365 days a year with exhibits that change daily.  Want a tour?  Try a self guided tour from this basic tour or one of these special suggestions. Or make an arrangement with one of our volunteers for a personal tour of the Byway.  Just drop an e-mail to us with date, time and number in your group and we will try to accommodate your request.

This is a great time to visit.  The leaves are down so you can see a number of features that were not obvious with bountiful foliage.  Even with a first dusting of snow and the winter sun closer to the horizon the lighting provides contrasts that are not available at other times of the year.  Check out the new information kiosks at Clutes Dry Dock, at the main entrance to the Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve at Riverview and Van Vranken Roads, or at the end of Ferry Drive.  These new kiosks supplement those along Canal Road in Halfmoon: one at Dunsbach Ferry and one at Crescent Park near Route 9.

But most of all get out and enjoy the fresh air and watch, remaining feathered friends in their migration south, check wildlife as they prepare for winter, and enjoy exploring some of out historic features without the drone of insects that were so pesky this past summer.  Whether you do it on foot, in a canoe or kayak, or on skis on the first new snow, do it safely.  But do it!

Recommended Read

“They passed Schenectady in the morning, with the canal once more astir with boats.  They went through the cut of the Young Engineer and the Wat Hoix Gap, with the Mohawk roaring through the heavy rapids on their right, and the White Horse tossing his mane of spray.

“Then over the long aqueduct and down the locks; early in the afternoon they floated out into the basin, and by six o’clock saw Albany rising on a hill to their right….”

Walter D. Edmonds wrote this passage in Rome Haul in 1929.  I recommend this masterfully done historic fiction about the life of a “canawler”.

Annual Erie Canal Inspection

Part of the Inspection Team on deck as we move downstream of Lock 7

I had the honor and pleasure of accompanying Canal Corporation Director Brian Stratton and his crew today as they completed the annual Canal Inspection on “our” section of the Eastern Division of the Erie Canal.  It turns out that this is the first time in ten years that the Legislatively required inspection has been completed by water.  I boarded the Tug Grand Erie at lock 7 in Niskayuna and passed through the lock on to AlCathy’s (the anchorage at the end of Flight Lock Road in Waterford).  It was a fantastic experience which I recommend to anyone even remotely interested in Erie Canal stories, history, or current day operations.  What did I learn?  Plenty:

I talked to the Division Engineer about the “critical path” of urgent work needed to open the Canal to navigation before winter.  There are a number of large vessels and commercial shipments in Oneida Lake and the central N Y area that need to get to the east coast.  Dredging in the channel between the historic Niskayuna railroad station and the Vischer Ferry Preserve is one of these critical needs.  Our vessel was drafting 4.5 feet and momentarily hit bottom in this section (affectionately known as the “duck pond” to the Canal Corporation).  A 14 foot depth is needed.  This is historically the area where sediment is deposited as the down stream currents quiet and settle out particulates in the “water column”.  And we all know all the sediment and debris that came down in the tropical storm flooding.

I also shared lunch alongside the Canal Corporation’s groundwater hydrologist who very graphically briefed me on the concern for the threat of failure of the earthen portion of the Lock 7 dam.  Remedial construction that I had seen previously suddenly became more obvious and reassuring.

Southern Saratoga County Chamber CEO Peter Bardunias and I spent some time “conspiring” on a number of things from geo-tourism and heritage tourism; a community service project around Lock 19 in the Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve; to a possible community clean up day along the Mohawk River in conjunction with “Canal Clean Sweep” next April 21.

To avoid making a long story longer (with more engineering) let me offer the following.  The target that the Canal Corporation and other state agencies is feverishly working on is to have navigation open by Thanksgiving.

All of you that find traffic on the waterway interesting will want to keep your eye to the Mohawk River the weekend after Thanksgiving through the first week of December.  Some unique large (for the Canal) vessels and interesting commercial traffic will be passing through the Mohawk Towpath Byway corridor.

Apple Picking

The apple crop on the Byway is a prime one this year.  Plenty of juicy, flavorful, ripe fruit still hangs on the tree for easy picking.  You will not find better prices for apples than pick-your-own.  There are three large orchards along the Byway that cater to the pick-your-own market.  The three are Bowman’s Orchards, 141 Sugar Hill Road; Lindey’s Idyllwood Orchard, 267 Sugar Hill Road; and Riverview Orchards, 660 Riverview Road, all in Rexford.  I have my favorite, but each of these orchards is unique.  Explore each and figure out which you like best.

One orchard has signature apple cider doughnuts made fresh before your eyes by the doughnut robot, another has the freshest apple cider sold in bulk, all have fresh home baked fruit desert items, and two offer hay rides and farm animals to admire.  What better way to introduce your family to home grown food from the agricultural area right on the Byway.

While you are at it, enjoy the rich fall foliage at its peek, now.

NYS Army National Guard Partnership

The following article by Danielle Cherniak in the Spindle City Historic Society Newsletter provides an excellent example of the great projects that can be accomplished with partners along the Byway.

“In mid- June, a group of engineers from the New York Army National Guard worked at Lock 15 of the enlarged Erie Canal and along the canal bed between Locks 14 and 15 in Cohoes. About two dozen members of the 1156th Engineering Company based in Kingston and the 152nd Engineering Company based in Buffalo spent several days clearing trees, brush, and debris from the lock and adjacent sections of the historic canal. The group working on the canal sites expressed great interest in the city’s history, and appreciation for the amazing engineering feats of the past in constructing the canal and building the industries of Cohoes.

“The towpath along this section of canal is scheduled to be restored as a trail for pedestrians and bicycles, and will be part of the Cohoes Erie Canal Heritage Trail. The NYS National Guard’s work on the canal is part of their mission to assist New York’s residents and communities, while helping the Guard’s engineers hone their skills and obtain additional experience using equipment. Many thanks to the Guard for their efforts in restoring one of our city’s historic treasures.”