The Champlain Canal (excerpted from Cycling Along The Canals of New York State.)
After you have visited Waterford, you are ready to start north, on Bike “9.” From Waterford, it is just about sixty miles to Lake Champlain at Whitehall and this short distance is packed with history.
Back in the early 1800s, the original Champlain Canal was built parallel to but separate from the Hudson River. The initial canal followed the west shore of the river northward from Waterford to Schuylerville. Then, for a few years, it used the river to reach Fort Edward, but that option worked poorly and soon a canal bed was dug along the east shore just north of Schuylerville. As noted earlier, the old towpath is being opened for recreational use. Largely intact, it waits to be re-developed. You will see many signs of the old Champlain Canal alignment as you pedal north.
Bike “9” turns north onto 3rd Street in Waterford. In two miles you will pass a historic marker indicating the furthest north point reached by the crew of Henry Hudson. In the same year that Henry Hudson’s crew reached this point, just a few months earlier in 1609, Samuel de Champlain reached what is now Ticonderoga, about seventy-five miles to the north. There, at the instigation of his Huron allies, de Champlain launched a punitive raid against the Iroquois. This began more than a century of hostility between the Iroquois and the French, and a strong permanent alliance between the Iroquois and the Dutch and British.
Continue north, passing through Mechanicville to Stillwater, eleven miles from Waterford. There, in Stillwater, you will find a historic blockhouse immediately adjacent to Bike “9.” There is also an attractive canal park at Lock 4 in Stillwater. To get there, leave Bike “9” and cross over the bridge over the Hudson and turn immediately to your right. Not too visible, but just beside the Lock 4 canal park, the Hoosic River enters the Hudson River from the east.
The Emita II, a retrofitted 1953 Maine ferryboat now used for canal trips,
approaches Lock 4 near Stillwater. Louis Rossi
There is a significant bit of untold canal history here. First, the Hoosic River extends southeastward to the border of New York and Vermont; it crosses the southeast tip of Vermont and enters northeastern Massachusetts where its source is found high in the Berkshire Mountains. For centuries, the powerful Mohawk Indians used this waterway to dominate the Indians of New England. It was the watercourse followed by General Burgoyne’s troops to the historic Battle of Walloomsac (Battle of Bennington) during the Revolution. Later, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts considered using the Hoosic as a route for a cross-Massachusetts canal that would link Boston with the Erie Canal. This canal was never built, because a four-mile canal tunnel would have been required to bring the canal under the Berkshires. It was impossible to even try this back in the early 1800s. However, the tunnel was ultimately built as a railroad tunnel (1851-1875) and is still one of the longest railroad tunnels in the world.
From Stillwater, for the next dozen miles, you will be passing through the various historical sites that mark the wide-ranging Battle of Saratoga. Plan to take your time — historic markers abound. There are plenty on both sides of the Hudson, identifying all the sites of the many skirmishes that took place as the British tried to attack and then retreat from the blocking American forces.
A historic overlook at the Saratoga Battlefield.
American forces and cannons posted here closed off the Hudson Valley route to Albany. Tom Eagan