Well, our last day on the canal. Sort of. We only passed one old lock structure, No. 23 (technically Enlarged Double Lock No. 23) near Rotterdam, and that was about it. The rest of the riding was nice but mostly rail trail and local roads. And most of the river views were shielded by the foliage. So it was sort of an anticlimactic end! My bad for not getting a picture of the last lock!
Tom FlournoyTo Karen PoretI don't know if it's just a case of the grass is greener, but we loved touring in Europe. Tom didn't like the flats at all. I always chided him for being lazy on the flats. LOL He sure was strong on the hills though. -Mark Reply to this comment 3 weeks ago
Getting out of town was easy, but the trail, we found out, is still under construction! In fact, a worker told us they had just removed the old rail and ballast, which explains the nice new asphalt we've been seeing. So we had to ride the parallel road a bit, past two quarries with the attended truck traffic, before getting back into solitude.
This is a view to my right, which is suggestive of a canal, but it wasn't really clear. What is clear is the hills!
One pleasant diversion was meeting these tandem tandems! They have been on a long trip, over 3700 miles, and their blog can be found here. Pretty amazing folks (and better writing, too lol).
I learned a little about these structures today. There are about ten on the Mohawk River. They are "movable" dams, meaning the gates under the trusses can lift and lower as required to control the water flow. The historical marker next to this one was a bit confusing, but there is information online that can enlighten you (if interested)!
We then passed through Schenectady, which has a nice historic district (the first in the State of New York), and then made our way around the inside end of a bend in the river . . . which usually means climbing. And there was one particularly steep section that topped out to reveal more. Well, I made it without stopping and had a nice view as my reward.
A sign, somewhere in this picture, says, "Walk your bike to the lower section." I laughed at that one.
And then there was this nice bridge from the riverfront to the city, crossing several freeways and the railroad tracks. The only problem is it leads to a long flight of steep stairs. Well, there was an adjacent garage with a ramp down to its upper level, so that's how I got out. Jerry later told me about the sign that said "NO BICYCLES." Oh well. Then fix the problem!
The funny part is the hotel seen in the bridge picture, Hilton, was our hotel for the night, so I had to bike by it to reach the Capitol building. Jerry never saw it since he arrived in a downpour. And it's his last day! Lousy luck . . . or my fall guy. ;-) What am I going to do without him?
Today's ride: 48 miles (77 km) Total: 1,152 miles (1,854 km)
