Written by Dave

Day 74 – August 10 – 61 Miles,  2,060 feet climbing (Herkimer to Arrowhead RV Park)

First up – no rain and sun today. I suppose I could just end the post there. Faith has been restored in the fun factor of bicycle touring!

Other than the sheer joy of riding in the sunshine, today’s one big decision was to ride the tow/bike path, or to stay on the highway. Yesterday was all roadways to avoid potential low lying areas. The other days on the Erie Canal have been a mix. We mapped a full highway route today but ended up riding about one third on the towpath. The towpath is flatter and after the first couple testy hills, we decided to try the path. The path was sealed all day but still had a good number roots raising ridges in the surface, meaning it was a lot slower and less comfortable to ride. Path or highway – if we had to pick, so long as it’s sunny like today, we’d probably go highway.

Today was our last day on the Erie Canal. As such, I thought I’d better get around to my summary of the canal. It turns out that it is way more important than my grade school memory. The canal was the brainchild of then NY Governor DeWitt Clinton (we stayed in DeWitt, NY two nights ago and rode through Clinton yesterday – are both towns named for the same guy, not sure). His critics didn’t like so much money being spent on one area of the state and originally called the project “Clinton’s Folly” and “Clinton’s Big Ditch”. Construction on Erie Canal was started in 1817, with the canal opening in 1825. Within a year of opening, the canal toll revenue covered the full cost of construction. There was significant demand to move goods from the east coast sea ports to the other side of the Appalachians Mountains. Until the canal, most goods moved on rough tracks by mules. The same mule could move 95% more goods pulling a barge, at a fraction of the cost and time.

The canal enabled goods to be unloaded in NY harbour, floated up the Hudson River to Albany and then moved on to Buffalo via the canal. The westward connection gave New York City a huge “first-mover” advantage over all other U.S. seaports and brought major growth to New York State and canal cities such as Albany, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. Initially the canal was 40 feet wide and 4 feet deep. It was expanded in 1863, 1905 and again in 1918. Through realignment, both expansions caused sections of the original canal to be abandoned. Even though the canal was a huge success and instrumental in making New York the economic powerhouse that it is today, abandoned sections retook  the name Clinton’s Ditch. Poor old Clinton, couldn’t buy a break.

By the 1890’s the writing was on the wall in the form of railroads. The canal gradually became less viable, even when they dropped the toll to zero in 1902. Trucking eventually killed a lot of railroads and completely killed commercial viability of the canal. A few companies hung on with the last regularly scheduled barge only ceasing operations 1994. Today, the canal only serves pleasure boaters and the occasional maintenance barge.

It took me a while to get my head around the canal not having locks all going the same direction. This makes sense when you consider that it was traversing rolling hills but my head really wanted to see the canal water always flowing the same direction. Other than Albany at close to sea level, the low point of the canal is in Rome, NY at 450 feet. The high point is at Lake Erie at 570 feet. We rode past Rome yesterday but it was raining way too hard to notice which direction water was flowing, other than the vertical water that is. The lower quarter-ish of the canal from Albany is actually the Mohawk River – we crossed it several times today. It is much wider and more wild than the canal up near Buffalo.

Our campground, which has dried out nicely after Debby’s dumping, is right on the edge of the Mohawk River. The river is chocolate brown and no one is going anywhere near the water today. We have to cook for ourselves today so we’ll see how dinner goes. I don’t quite understand why Jim isn’t here with the grill but I guess we can make do. At least it’s dry and the sun is out.

So tomorrow, after 5 days, we finally leave the canal and head north toward the Adirondack Mountains. We only have 5 days left to ride to reach Portland, ME and by going north now, we get the pleasure of riding across the mountains of upstate New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. Our last five days, the trip will be earned.  I think Chris is really looking forward to the hills between here and Maine so he can finish off with a bang.