Little Falls to Canastota, New York Saturday, April 24, 2021
This is from the Springsteen version of the old Erie Canal song.
And today, Spring had finally arrived! Sunny, highs in the upper 60s, and only a 13 mph headwind! Like Bruce, I felt sprung from cages. The Mohawk had broken free from the gorge it was in, the land opened up, and I no longer had to climb a wall if I wanted to deviate from the route.
Time to make tracks. Rain was forecast for tomorrow, so it made sense to put in some serious miles today. When I say serious, I mean 65 miles. Pretty lame, compared to what I used to be able to do, but this journey is all about adjusting expectations, aging gracefully, making a passage. Hopefully, I’ll get stronger as I go.
A word on the topography. The last few days were all about the Mohawk dropping down to the Hudson, going over serious rapids at Cohoes and Little Falls, carving that gorge. The most dramatic defile was at the Noses, right before Canajoharie, where the River cut through a prominent ridge of the Adirondacks, and passed between the headlands Big Nose and Little Nose. Eagles were said to soar there, but I was too tucked down into that headwind to see or get a picture. I’ve brought along a GoPro, my birthday present, but haven’t had the time to figure out how to use it. Or maybe I don’t want to look dorkier than I already do, with a camera mounted on my helmet.
Little Falls has one of the highest-lift locks in the world, with unique “Guillotine gates”. Yikes.
But now I was up at the Rome Level, a long stretch of relative flatness with few locks, centered on the town of Rome NY. Here’s where the work on the Canal started back in 1817. They dug in both directions over this easy terrain, trying to make fast progress to satisfy their investors.
Rome itself is a cool town, not just for the Springsteen shout-out or the controversial Woodstock 99 concert, but for a little known chapter of the Revolutionary War. Fort Stanwix and the nearby Oriskany Battlefield were where heroic Nicolas Herkimer held off British general Barry St Leger’s attempt to unite with Johnny Burgoyne and cut the colonies in two. In what was considered to be the bloodiest battle of the Revolution, Herkimer was mortally wounded but continued to direct the battle as he sat dying under a tree. St Leger didn’t get through, Burgoyne was later defeated at Saratoga, the French were convinced that these ragtag Colonials had a chance and joined the cause, and we got ourselves a country.
I’d say Fort Stanwix was worth a picture. Good thing, too, ’cause it made me look down and see another “for want of a nail” screw had shaken loose on the stone dust trail, and my pannier was hanging by a thread. Steve from my first warmshowers home had commented on the blog I should get some Loctite compound to secure these screws, and like magic there was an Ace Hardware adjacent to the Fort, and a very helpful clerk who directed me to the Loctite and a proper Torx driver to tighten them all properly. Like Blanche DuBois, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.
Making the repair burned up an hour, so the sun was setting as I pulled into the motel at Canastota. At least the wind had died down, so I was making good time. I met the first long distance bike tourists of the trip, they were heading east from Buffalo to Albany. That was the smart choice, they had the wind at their backs. One of them had done the southern tier route across the country in February, which is part of my plan as well, and we talked about the effect of the wind on that.
Did I mention that it’s all about the wind? 🌬
Distance 65.3 miles, 319.1 total. Time 9 1/2 hours with stops. Elevation gain 694 feet.
The Ends of the Earth 