Another cool, crisp morning for us to travel. Leaving the city dock wall, we head south on the Champlain Canal.
As I studied the navigational chart I could see those who planned the canal used the Wood Creek as much as possible in these first miles. Where the canal follows the creek there are lots of grasses on shore, in comparison a forested shore where the canal was man made. The train track is still quite evident close to the western shore. Where there are tree breaks, you can see farmland and the Adirondack Mountains beyond. There is the first hint of color in the leaves. Was also interesting that there were campsites along the canal which the locals were enjoying on this Labor Day weekend.
The further south we go the more rocky the shoreline becomes and you can still see the Adirondack in the distance to the north. Along the way we have seen lots of turtles sunning on logs, blue and green herons and lots of Kingfishers. We were surprised to see a bald eagle in a tree top and enjoyed watching him fly in circles above us. Also had the pleasure of watching two broad winged hawks soaring above us for quite a long time.
Use your imagination to see the bald eagle in the treetop in the picture above!
Today we locked through Lock 11,9,8, and 7. And yes, there is no Lock #10 as it was deemed unnecessary during construction. The first two locks raised us 28 feet and the last two lowered us 21 feet. The remaining locks will continue to lower us to the navigable level of the Hudson River. Now it is all downhill from here!
All along this stretch of the Champlain Canal the French established trading posts and later the British built blockhouses and small forts to protect this trade route. The most noted were at Fort Ann and Fort Edwards. Neither of theses sites served past the Revolutionary War and quickly fell into disrepair.
We spent the afternoon walking around town a bit and then hiking up the Scenic ByWay to the original Champlain Canal structures that remained from when the canal was rerouted through Fort Edwards and deepened and widened in 1916. Was a bit longer walk than we had anticipated but it was worth it to see the old lock and dam structures and see the original dimensions which were 70 feet long, ten feet wide and three feet deep. Hard to imagine barges in those tight locks being maneuvered by hand or by mule. Got some great shots of the old locks.
Here are some of the neat old homes and the train station in Fort Edwards. The homes dated from 1777-the late 1800’s.
And here are the shots of the old section of the Champlain Canal. Much of the old locks had been overgrown with vegetation, but you could still see some of the hardware used for the locks gates and the lock walls were surprisingly intact.
Bill, of course, stopped to check out the local wildflowers and wildlife and took a nap.
Having walked 6 miles, we returned to the boat and put our feet up and relaxed.
Bill helped with dinner by cooking corn on the cob on the grill and communed with a flock of wood ducks as they floated by. They even answered to his quacks!
