A BIKING WEEKEND

Saturday, June 20

Another day in Little Falls, NY. We check out all the canal news - Notice to Mariners by the Canal system, rumors from other boaters, etc. - each day, but it’s all the same, locks won’t open until at least next Wednesday. On a positive note, it appears that we got stuck at the nicest community in the area. Boats stuck in other towns wish they would have stayed here in Little Falls where there’s more than just a convenience store and pizza parlor.

We started the day by walking into the farmers market in town and, although small, it was nice, with incredibly cheap prices (dozen eggs = $2). We got back to the boat and took down the bikes.

Some of the old tow paths for the old Erie Canal (where barges were towed through the canal by horses or mules) have been turned into bike paths which, pretty much, follow the new Erie Canal.

Elaine on the bike path

We took our bikes on one of the paths to the Herkimer State Historic Site, about 5 miles away. So, either I wasn’t paying attention that day in history class, or somehow it didn’t warrant an important discussion, but I had no recollection of the name Herkimer as it related to the Revolutionary War and the battle at Oriskany. Well, things are different around here. There’s the Herkimer Park, the town of Herkimer, Fort Herkimer, the Herkimer obelisk, Herkimer’s gravesite…

Herkimer obelisk

The story goes that he was a General in the militia and was leading his troops to defend against the Loyalists when they were ambushed at Oriskany. Early in the battle, Herkimer was shot in the leg. Seriously wounded, he refused to be removed from the battle and directed his troops in spite of his wounds. A few days later, an amputation by an unskilled surgeon lead to his demise. He is now a legend around here, and we did get to tour his house and farm to wile away the day…

Herkimer's house and farm

Sunday, June 21

A heavy rain overnight - I hope it doesn’t delay the opening of the canal on Wednesday. This morning was cloudy, but dry, so we decided to go for a bike ride west to the next town with a marina, just to see how things are over there. It was a very nice ride through a verdant rural area, a few hills and a couple of miles of fast traffic, but a good shoulder and decent pavement. We stopped to look around a bit in Mohawk, then rode on to our destination, Ilion. We ran into some people we had travelled with a few days last week, and they were sorry they had not stopped in Little Falls, going to Ilion instead. They said there wasn’t much there and the town appeared to be pretty depressed. It used to be the site of the Remington Arms manufacturing plant, but apparently that has been closed for some time, although a small museum remains. As we rode back, the sun broke through the clouds and it did warm up quite a bit. It was probably well into the 80s, but, what was worse, was the very high humidity. After our 25 mile bike ride, we were glad to get back to the boat, button it up and turn on the air conditioner…