Monthly Archives: October 2016

Fantastic

16 Sunday Oct 2016

Posted by in Event, Mohawk Towpath, Recreation

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“Hi, I’m Rick Lage from Manotick, Ontario.  My wife and I come down every year to this race and you folks do such a great job!  It’s the only race we do in New York State and we love it!  All those out on the course and the great people, we come back every year!  Thank you.”  The words and the warm handshake left me speechless.

That’s the sort of feedback that warns my heart to the point that I have to share it with the Friends of the Mohawk Towpath Byway.  In deed, these people from a rural suburb of Ottawa have, for the last five years, made the event an international experience by driving four and a half hours to share what we have to offer.

With that I want to thank each and every one of you out volunteers for your help in making the Duathlon and the Mohawk Towpath Byway a success.

Over the next few days I will be crunching the numbers, collecting facts, and linking photographs for our sanctioning body, for the respective Boards of Directors, and for our own gratification.  But finishing the day with a safe race, happy competitors at the awards ceremony, and competitors and hosts sharing the post race feed… what could be more perfect?  Thank you, each of you.

Connecting

09 Sunday Oct 2016

Posted by in Event, Mohawk Towpath, Recreation

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The Mohawk Towpath Byway had an information booth today at the Adirondack Sports and Fitness Health Fair for the Mohawk Hudson Marathon.  There were two types of people who visited the booth: long distance runners and friends or families accompanying them.  For the athletes we were trying to interest them in a fun recovery workout next Sunday morning, the Mohawk Towpath Byway Duathlon.

The other group consisted of family members or friends that are in-town with their favorite athlete and might be interested in discovering something new in the afternoon or later in the weekend.  We were trying to encourage them to discover something unique along the Byway corridor.  We provided them with a copy of our self guided cell phone based tour.

While I was doing a stint in the booth we got one registration for the Duathlon.  However, there also was a spike in on-line registrations today.  It will also be interesting to see if there are a spie in the number of calls to the cell phone tour number 518-649-9990.

I would like to thank Mary MacDonald of the Friends of the Mohawk Towpath Byway, Chris Brownell, who has, over the years, volunteered many hours, many times for the Byway, and Darryl Caron who has helped the Byway publicize some of our stories and events.  Each were an immense help with the booth and the Byway!
marathonstart

Good luck to all the runners in this great event along the Mohawk Towpath Byway corridor.

Work Together!

06 Thursday Oct 2016

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Sara Foss in her Tuesday, October 4 column in the Gazette is so correct, “spot-on” with her conclusion that we all have to work together to make this Capital Region a world class destination. Right now the international traveller may venture out of the New York Metropolitan area to visit the New York State Museum or “the track”. But then they’re to the airport and gone. If it’s a nice day they might notice the expansive grey rock outcrops or an unnaturally straight ribbon of reflected sky as they look out the plane’s porthole and wonder what else they missed. But they are gone.

The expansive grey rock outcrop, of course, mark the northern edge of the Helderbergs.  The unnaturally straight ribbon of reflected sky is the old Erie Canal through the Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve.  No matter where you go on this earth you can find a person who has a perception of the Erie Canal as well as the Pyramids or the Great Wall.  She or he might not speak your language, but the words are international.

By working together we, no matter which county we call home, can share our varied heritage, show off our changing seasons, draw them to our unique recreational resources, and share our “sense of place”. Who knows, the international traveller might even come back for another discovery. We in turn might learn more of the story of our guests and where they call home.

Towpath Trail Update

03 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by in Recreation, recreational assets

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towpathtrailConstruction continues on the Towpath Trail.  Clearing a grubbing of the entire length (shown above in red) will be completed shortly.    The contractor is trying to move a barge into Weger’s Pond outlet on which a pile driver can be mounted.  The piles are necessary as a foundation for the 140 foot bridge across the outlet.  The bridge will arrive in 20 foot sections.  The fabricated bridge will be lifted in place by two “small” cranes at either end of the trail.

This dump truck backed over a half mile into the woods to get a load of debris!

This view at left was taken from atop the farmer’s bridge abutment to the east of Clutes Dry Dock. You can see that the trail is wide enough for a good size excavator as well as the construction sized dump truck.  The truck backed over a half mile into the woods to get a load of debris.

This week the Preserve is closed to all but duck hunters, so work on the eastern Halfmoon end of the trail will be the focus.

Work on the 10 foot wide stone dust trail is expected to be complete by the end of the year.  Its is truly exciting to see the progress.  This will be a wonderful recreational recourse for the Byway corridor.