Volunteers Joanne and Paul Coons show off the Byway and alternatives for visiting.

The Canal Fest at Mabee Farm provided excellent exposure for the stories of the Mohawk Towpath Byway. The event attracted all demographics from teens to seniors, families to individuals, and a large variety of ethnic backgrounds. The key message we were trying to emphasize was the self-guided cell phone based tour of features along the Byway corridor. It was enlightening to learn the variety of individual comfort with communication technology, people [like me] who still have flip phones for emergencies only to those who sport large screen devises with all the latest apps.

The Canal Fest attracted a wide demographic as seen in this shot of the Glenville Traveling Museum.

The big draw at the inside exhibits at the festival were the Stewart’s ice cream and the folk toys on display by the Glenville Traveling Museum.

For me there was an opportunity to network with other not-for-profits who have stories that intertwine with the Byway stories:

• The ALCO Historical Society
• ECOS, the Environmental Coalition of Schenectady
• Schenectady Historical Society
• Solar Sal Project
• The Audubon Society and others.

Truly something in it for everyone.  Be sure to mark your calendar for the last weekend in July 2016 for the Mabee Farm Canal Fest.

Coltsfoot are blooming, buds on the red maples are bursting, pussy willows are beyond, painted turtles are out sunning, and the skunk cabbage looks fully mature.  Spring is here!  It’s like once the snow melted Mother Nature is trying to catch up.

A trail cleanup crew discusses what seems to be part of the early “Clinton’s Ditch” north of the Clutes Dry Dock.

While participating in the Canal Clean Sweep event, a hardy group of Friends of the Mohawk Towpath Byway including Paul Olund, and neighbors Maryanne Mackey and Susan Lasker rediscovered a “back water” north of Clutes Dry Dock.  The waterbody is elongated in an east west direction complete with what seems like a distinct towpath on the south side.  Was this part of the original 1825 Erie Canal or and early excavation for a dry dock?

What is this water body? Is there a Byway story here?

This type of exploration would not be possible after the vegetation fully emerges, because of the buck thorn, honey suckle, multi floral rose, and other thick, emergent undergrowth.

Get out there and make your own discoveries along the Mohawk Towpath Byway as spring returns to the northeast.  A hardy thank you to all of those who were up and at it for explosion of Canal Clean Sweep events this weekend.

The Mohawk Towpath Byway in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Shenendehowa and Riverview Orchards will host a day of family fun at 660 Riverveiw Road, Rexford on Saturday, May 9. There will be nature hikes, cooking demonstrations with local ingredients, local food, a working model of a canal lock, hay rides, childrens games that were a part of our heritage, giant bubble blowing, ice cream eating contest, and much more.

The Apple Blossom Festival starts at 9 AM and wraps up at 4 PM.

The event is free and food will be available at reasonable prices.

There is a meeting of the Friends of the Mohawk Towpath Byway on Tuesday evening, April 14 at 7 PM at the historic Grooms Tavern, at the intersection of Grooms and Sugar Hill Roads in Clifton Park (Rexford mailing address).  The meeting is open to the public and you are invited!  

The agenda…  coming soon.

The ice on the Byway’s water bodies is starting to yield to the warm spring sun. It is said that one of the reasons that the Erie Canal was constructed on the north side of the Mohawk River was because the spring sun warmed the waters on the north side of the valley first. Even though it has been a cold, snowy winter and our vegetation is at least two weeks behind the usual, there are larger areas of open water becoming apparent.

As these open areas of water grow the spring bird migration starts. Today’s beautiful azure skis provided a unique backdrop for a flight of snow geese high over the Byway corridor. I have only seen such a sight once in my life as I happened to be traveling down the Lake Champlain Valley one fall day about 15 years ago. I saw a flock of snow geese lit by the setting sun against a grey sky. That flock, as impressive as it was, was southbound and warned of the coming Arctic Air. I was also viewing the flock from a moving vehicle which muffled any sound they made.

Today I was on foot and heard the flock before I saw their majestic flight. I got the whole show with the warming sun over my shoulder. I know a picture is worth a thousand words, but no picture could capture this experience.

As the remaining accumulated snow drifts continue to melt and the surface ice continues its retreat I will be looking for the red maple buds to open, skunk cabbage to emerge, and the promising yellow coltsfoot. Get out there and see what is emerging today even if it’s just the moss in the sidewalk joints. Don’t forget your boots as you step off the sidewalk. Trails are muddy as they melt the frost beneath.

Spring is coming to renew us all.

Construction of the dam across the Mohawk River at Vischer Ferry started during the construction season of 1907.  By the end of the following construction season a coffer dam had been constructed between the south side of the river to Goat Island and construction of this segment of the dam was well under way.

Note that the horizontal top of the berm and towpath of the Enlarged 1842 Erie Canal can be seen below the tree line on the north side of the river in the right background.    This photograph must have been taken from the top of the upstream head wall of lock 7 as shown in the back ground of the following photograph.
Construction of the north wall of Lock 7 is taking shape in this October 1908 photograph. In the foreground we can see form work for the down stream gate pocket under construction. The forms for the upstream gate pocket have not been removed. In the background to the left we see a couple of buildings of a large complex of shops and construction support buildings. In the right background one can see three barges on the 1842 Enlarged Erie Canal just above the coffer dam.

Construction of Lock 7 is and the dam is functionally complete in this October 1911 photograph. Progress on the construction of the early power house slices through the 1842 Enlarged Erie Canal. The towpath of the canal is seen in the foreground. This construction promptly brought an end to any remaining Erie Canal traffic that used draft animals as propulsion. All traffic in 1911 was using steam power.
An interesting footnote to this construction is added a century later. During the flooding that occurred after Hurricanes Irene and Lee the earth dam between Lock 7 and the bank of the Mohawk on the opposite side of the river had to be reinforced on an emergency basis when seepage was noted undermining that small portion of the dam. Thousands of yards of fill was brought in and placed on the toe of this earthen portion of the dam. Had this part of the dam failed the downstream flooding in Vischer Ferry all the way to Crescent would have been much worse. With this emergency fill Lock 7 was again functional by December of the same year.