Waterford and the Mohawk River

Kim’s Korner:
We spent five nights at Shady Harbor Marina due to the fact that several of the Erie Canal locks were closed due to high water from rain. Things north of us were getting bottlenecked again and more loopers were arriving each day. We did an oil change, defrosted the freezer and other maintenance activities which needed doing. We took several walks even though the road was narrow with no sidewalks and little to no shoulder. When the locks opened, we moved north to Waterford, going through the Federal Lock in Troy (E1).
Waterford has a tremendous amount of history here concerning the original locks and the current locks. On a 1000 ft. long dock at the Waterford Visitor Center, we got the last available spot which was right at the front closest to the famous Waterford Flight of Locks which were built to allow boats to navigate around Cohoes Falls. The Flight of Locks is the first five (E2-E6) locks along the Erie Canal and is the largest lift (165 feet) in the shortest distance (1.5 miles) of any system in the world. We stayed here two nights in order to see the old Erie and Champlain Locks, Peeples Island State Park and other historical sites that were nearby. Waterford is an interesting town.
The old locking system included very narrow locks and canals on which “canal barges” were pulled through the water using mules led by children (indicated by the footprints and hooves in the picture).
Let me say that we are experiencing what they call the “June snow” while here. There is what appears to be cotton blowing through the air which in reality is from cottonwood trees. I took several pictures so if you are wondering what the white snow is – it’s stuff from the cottonwood tree. We put our screens up – not to keep the bugs out but to keep the cottonwood out!
We started the Flight of Locks with five other boats. It took us two hours to climb 165 feet over 1.5 miles. At the end were two gates which protect Waterford in case of flooding. The first gate normally remains open and the second gate is normally kept closed as a precautionary measure.
My friends father contacted me some time ago and shared some childhood memories with me. He was born near Schenectady and later moved to a house on the Aplaus Creek off the Mohawk River. I was so glad that he reached out – it made this stretch of our journey so much more interesting! His family owned boats that they traveled in this area including the old canals. We stopped at Schenectady Yacht Club because they had some of the original Erie Canal locks on it – one of the locks is now used where they lift boats out of the water. Although we didn’t get to see inside, the clubhouse is the original building where the mules were kept. I tried to take lots of pictures for him. Once we got situated at the Schenectady Yacht Club, David and I hopped on our bikes and rode over to a bridge that crosses the Aplaus Creek. On the way, we passed a fire station that looked like parts of it could be old and I wondered if he had ever visited there as a child. I hope you recognize some of the pictures Cliff! Either way, we enjoyed looking for landmarks that you might recognize. Thank you so much for sharing your memories with us!
The following day, we traveled 50 miles including 8 locks (E8 thru E15) – it was a long day! And hot! The Mohawk River is gorgeous – it reminds us of home as did the Hudson. We arrived exhausted at the St. Johnsville Municipal Marina for the night.

Waterford, NY Pictures!

Mohawk River Pictures!