(Our eight-day, 400-mile Buffalo to Albany Cycle the Erie Bike Tour with Parks & Trails NY continues from the 9/11, 9/18, 9/25, 10/2, 10/9, 10/16, 10/23, 10/30 columns.)
Day 7 of the 17th Annual Cycle the Erie 400-mile bike tour from Buffalo to Albany is a comparatively short 45.7 mile ride from Canajoharie to Niskayuna (Schenectady) that takes us alongside the scenic Mohawk River, the only water-level passage through the Appalachian chain of mountains. It is this geologic opportunity that explains why the Erie Canal was built across New York State’s mid-section, giving shippers and settlers a route from the Atlantic Ocean to the interior of the United States. Today, as we follow the trail that was once the towpath alongside the 353-mile long canal, we also trace 400 years of American history.
The trip organizers, Parks & Trails NY which operates the annual tour to raise funds and awareness of the need to complete the Erie Canalway (now only 70% complete), offer us an alternate route (unmarked) which I don’t take but am really anxious to return to do, which would take you to the Kanatsiohareke Mohawk Community which has a farm, a BnB, Mohawk immersion classes, and the National St. Kateri shrine.
It is fascinating to me how the pieces fall together – you pick up information from here, from there, and the picture comes together in a whole new way. So we visit a small canal museum and see the original locks adjacent to the “modern” lock (still nearly 100 years old), and get to see what is left of the early manufacturing plants. We visit a tiny museum along the canal housed in one of the general stores that would have served the boatmen and the passengers, another historical museum that tells more of the people who lived here, and the “official” Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse with its weighlock, which informs as much about the engineering and the politics as the day to day business of the canal and how it shaped society of its time.
A highlight of this section of the Cycle the Erie ride is Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site – which looks fairly innocuous at first, a farm house along the canal. But here is the only place where you can see all three alignments of the Erie Canal – the 1825 “Clinton’s Ditch”, the 1836 expanded canal and the modern, 1918 “Barge Canal.” The house, now a visitor center, contains a fascinating exhibit, and is adjacent to what remains of Fort Hunter.
What is most interesting is you can stand over the East Guard Lock, the original 1820s “Clinton Ditch” canal (now overgrown) and see the same scene, minus water, as depicted in a historic photo. Behind you, standing beside the water, you can look over to the Schoharie Creek Aqueduct, built between 1835 and 1841 for the enlarged canal, a grand 14-arch, 624-foot long aqueduct which carried the canal above and apart from the Schoharie Creek (it enabled the canal to continue to function during flooding). The aqueduct was abandoned in 1917 when the Barge Canal opened on the Mohawk River, and over the years it declined so only six of the arches remain.
Though you don’t really see anything of Fort Hunter, it points to how significant this area was in colonial times: Schoharie was a place of key interactions between Europeans and Indians, setting up clash of cultures later.
During the 1600s, the British and French competed for control here. In the 1690s, the British forged an alliance with Iroquois to establish a permanent structure – a fort/trading post – in order to solidify their standing.
The Indians at the time of the Revolutionary War were settled on farms and in towns. They employed European style farming techniques, lived in houses, and the gender roles started to shift away from the matriarchal society to male-dominated, copying the Europeans.
By the time of the Revolutionary War, there might have been about 10,000 Indians living in the area – a population decimated by disease brought by the Europeans, and over-trapping which pushed many further west.
“They didn’t have a concept of property ownership. They were outnumbered early on” largely because of the diseases the Europeans brought that wiped out large numbers of the population, and over-trapping which pushed many further west.
“They were very good at diplomacy – well organized – and controlled access to the waterways. They played the European powers,” David Brooks, Education Coordinator says.
A short ride further, you can visit Yankee Hill Lock #28 and the Putman Canal Store – the last double lock that was completed in eastern New York. The Putman’s Lock Grocery was constructed in 1856 and owned by the Garrett Putman family into the 1900s. (Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site, 129 Schoharie St., Fort Hunter, NY 12069, 518-829-7516, SchoharieCrossing@parks.ny.gov).
The initial appeal for me to join the annual Cycle the Erie bike tour was the exciting prospect of biking 400 miles, point to point, mostly without cars (and mostly on a flat trail), with support services to carry our gear and host meals. But each and every day, I am pleasantly amazed at the array of sites to explore and discover. The Parks & Trails NY people who have designed the tour not only arrange visits at important sites along the way, but for morning and afternoon rest stops at interesting attractions that you might not have considered visiting on your own.
This is the case for our afternoon rest stop (at Mile 33.6), at the Mabee Farm Historic Site, which houses the Schenectady Historical Society Museum. Here, you can visit the Mabee’s 1705 Dutch-style Stone House, which was owned by the Mabee family until 1999.
This is one of the oldest homes in New York State and the oldest in the Mohawk Valley. It was first founded in 1670 by Daniel Janse Van Antwerpen, who, it is believed, established it as a fur-trading post. The property was sold to Jan Pieterse Mabee in 1705 and stayed in the Mabee family for 288 years. It was given to the Schenectady County Historical Society in 1993 by George Franchere, the last descendant in that part of the Mabee line, for the purpose of being a museum and education center.
It is a surprise to most who visit these colonial sites to learn that slavery was practiced here some time after the death of Jan Mabee in 1725 and ended 100 years later in 1827 with Jacob Mabee, his great grandson. Among the 583 original documents from the farm are three bills of sale for slaves, wills giving slaves to children and a receipt from the Crown Point Expedition in 1755 when a trusted slave, Jack, was sent to Fort Edward and Lake George with supplies, two weeks before the Battle of Lake George.
“What is significant about the Mabee family is that they were ordinary,” the docent says.
Jan Mabee, born in Holland, bought the property from a neighbor in 1705, and lived in the cellar as he built the house. Jan and his wife Annette had 8 kids.
He built the house quickly – the family lived in the cellar as he built it. The house partly made out of stone; the wood beams are 1000 years old.
Jan was likely involved in the illegal trapping business. His wife was part Mohawk so they had a good relationship with the local Indians. The Dutch were tolerant and fair with the tribes (it was the British and French who cheated them).
Over the years, the house was turned into the Mabee Inn. Simon Mabee farmed the land and when he died, he left everything but the Inn to his son, Jacob; the inn was left to Jacob’s two sisters.
It turns out that the Mabee farm is more than a history lesson, but a study of a dysfunctional family.
“Jacob was not a nice man. Jacob evicted them. He hired a carpenter and flips the staircase around so they have no way to get up to the second floor. He built a new door. The sisters lived in one room. Jacob died 6 years later and the land passed to Margaret.”
Just outside the house is the family cemetery. You can visit the 1760s Nilsen Dutch Barn, see the beautiful Mohawk River flow alongside the site. Tied to the dock or parked behind the Dutch Barn is a reproduction 18th century bateaux, the De Sagar and the Bobbie G , which provides an idea of how goods were shipped up and down the river.
(Mabee Farm Historic Site, 100 Main St (Rte 5s), Rotterdam Junction, NY 12150, 518-887-5073, schenectadyhistorical.org/sites).
The Schenectady History Museum offers wonderful exhibits that follow the history of the county from the early settlers who traded with the Indians and farmed, to the 19th and 20th century. There is a collection of early American artifacts of the American Revolution era, the impact of the Erie Canal, and artifacts that show the role this area played in technological innovation and industrialization because of General Electric and the American Locomotive Company.
When we visit the Historical Society, which is enormously refreshing with its air-conditioning, we get to see an intriguing and imaginative “Sci Fi” exhibit that explores the “what if” questions that have inspired writers, artists and innovators connected to Schenectady, which is home to General Electric.
Kurt Vonnegut, for example, transformed Schenectady into Ilium, a dystopian society where machines replace the work of humans, exploring implication of industrialization and rise of major corporations like GE; Ray Faraday Nelson, an American science fiction author and cartoonist most famous for his 1963 short story “Eight O’Clock in the Morning” , was inspired by a brutal murder of his classmate during his troubled boyhood in Schenectady; Pamela Sargent wrote five Star Trek novels.
This ride into Schenectady from Canajoharie brings you into modernity – the trail now goes beside Interstate 90 and other highways, and along the massive General Electric plants.
Our campground tonight is on the grounds of the Jewish Community Center at the William and Estelle Golub Family Park. We are invited to swim in the pool and use their indoor facilities.
It is our last night, and they have turned this into a catered cocktail party and banquet, with special program under the pavilion consisting of a choir of riders, and a “talent show” (okay, that’s overstating it).
It’s a wonderful celebration and chance to meet up with people who we have come to know over the course of the week.
That is the special dimension of this trip – it’s not just what you see and do, but the camaraderie that forms from the shared experience and living together in these mobile communities we form each night. Every morning at breakfast and every evening at dinner, we meet new people (or catch up with people we have met before) and share our stories – people from 36 states, a half-dozen foreign countries, people of all ages and backgrounds. The constant emotion is good cheer.
I see Stuart Lovengood, the 91-year old from Boyartown, Pennsylvania, who I met on the first night, in Buffalo. He is completing his fifth time doing this 400-mile ride, and is riding with his daughter, son-in-law and 21-year old grandson. (There’s also an 89-year old woman doing the ride.)
Still one more day to go to Albany.
Day 8: Niskayuna to the Albany Finish Line, 27.5 Miles
Our last ride is the shortest, at 27.5 miles to the finish line at the Albany Visitors Center, and is also mostly on a paved path rather than crushed stone. It’s also surprisingly scenic, as we ride along the Mohawk-Hudson Bike Hike Trail, passed the historic Niskayuma Train Station.
The highlight of today’s ride comes at Mile 12: Cohoes Falls, one of the most powerful falls east of the Rockies, and a major challenge for the Erie Canal engineers. Some of our riders who started their journey visiting Niagara Falls outside of Buffalo, and now are ending with Cohoes Falls, outside of Albany.
As has been the case all along the 400-mile ride, communities come out to do special things for us, and this is the case at Waterford, a charming village right beside one of the Erie Canal locks, where a Farmers Market is underway.
Our ride takes us onto Peebles Island State Park, Waterford, where our final rest stop is arranged at the Erie Canalway Visitor Center. During the Revolutionary War, American forces prepared defenses here to make a final stand against the British. (518-237-7000, www.eriecanalway.org).
We ride through city streets – notable for the American flags that are flying – neighborhoods that have seen better days but nonetheless evoke Norman Rockwell paintings.
Now, we come to the Hudson River, a goal in itself. We ride along a beautiful paved trail beside the Hudson River that takes us into downtown Albany, New York State’s 300-year-old capital, and finally, cross the finish line, 400 miles.
You realize you haven’t just traveled 400 miles, but 400 years of American history, back to its very founding. And you understand so much better, the trajectory from colonialism and the clash of cultures with Native Americans, the transition from an agrarian economy to the Industrial Revolution and renewed immigration, the progressive movements that followed the changes in society: labor, Women’s Rights, abolition. Most interesting of all, is how all of these seeds still flower in contemporary culture and politics.
The tour is meticulously planned, well organized and supported, and how we have such wonderful opportunities to meet people from around the country (36 states are represented) and around the world (travelers from a half-dozen countries are here). A gathering like this prompts such fascinating interactions as people share their backgrounds, perspectives.
And all of us have been so impressed by how well organized the trip is – from the truck drivers who pick up and drop off our gear each day, to the people who set up our breakfast and dinners and the morning and afternoon rest stops, to the SAG drivers and the riders who are there to assist if we have a problem.
This has been one of the best, most memorable trips I have ever taken because the end-to-end Cycle the Erie ride hits on all cylinders: physically active and challenging so you feel you have really accomplished something at the end, communal – being with like-minded people from all over the country and the world, rich in heritage, scenic, affording real exploration and understanding.
Cycle the Erie is an annual event, but you can download the route and do it all, or do segments as you like (and a novel way to do it is by houseboat through companies like Mid-Lakes Navigation Co., Ltd. (11 Jordan St., PO Box 61, Skaneateles, NY 13152, 315-685-8500, 800-545-4318, info@midlakesnav.com,www.midlakesnav.com), providing a unique experience. (Be aware: they pull the plug on the Erie Canal – actually drain the water – from November through April).
The 18th Annual Cycle the Erie Canal ride is scheduled July 10-17, 2016 (www.ptny.org/canaltour). In the meantime, you can cycle the trail on your own – detailed info and interactive map is at the ptny.org site (www.ptny.org/bikecanal), including suggested lodgings. For more information on Cycle the Erie Canal, contact Parks & Trails New York at 518-434-1583 or visitwww.ptny.org.
Information is also available from the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, Waterford, NY 12188, 518-237-7000,www.eriecanalway.org.
More information about traveling on the Erie Canal is available from New York State Canal Corporation, www.canals.ny.gov.
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