Black River Canal - Day 169

  Eight road miles today, and then the rest of the day looked pretty much like this!

This is the towpath, now a ski and hiking trail, of the Black River Canal which goes from Rome, NY, north to Carthage (not far from the St. Lawrence River). It was only 35 miles long, but there is so much elevation change that in that distance there were 109 locks.

Every time there was a ten-foot rise in the trail, if you looked in the weeds and brush, of course there was a lock! You can see the hump and the end of the lock on the left. Look harder- through the greenery.

This canal had a few special features. Because there was so much elevation change in a short distance, it used combines quite often. A combine is what locks are called when they are in series so that when the boat leaves one lock it is immediately in another one. In fact, the Black River Canal has the only five-lock combine in the world.

The last time I hiked this, the locks were completely overgrown and full of debris. It was really difficult to tell anything about them. They aren't totally cleaned up now, but much better. I think this is the five combine. I shot this picture from the top of the series. If you look down the "slot" you can see how it just appears to fall away. If this isn't the five combine, it's four. I'd need more time and fewer encumbrances (no pack), waders, and some loppers! to putz around and count the levels.

Higher up the canal, the beavers have been making sure it was watered.

And in many places it was a lovely waterway. The locks with no watergates just let the water spill over their upstream wall, so there is a waterfall at each one.

What a wonderful relaxing lunch break I had! Green leaves, blue sky!

The Black River Canal was economically viable longer than most of the canals. Because the route covers such an elevation change, it wasn't feasible to build a railraod to replace it. Some segments remained in operation until 1920.

Miles today: 15.6. Total miles so far: 2185.2

BONUS SECTION: Stunned!

I had to have help to ID this little bird. It had apparently flown into the side of a car, but it was only stunned. I checked it over, and it wasn't quite ready to fly, but seemed to be recovering. It's a female American Redstart. I've never seen one before, and if asked I would have said they were larger. But I have friends who are much better birders than I am, so I was able to find out what it is.

See Fort Stanwix