A Walk Along The Old Champlain Canal While Waiting For Jon At The Dentist

This time, while Jon was at the Dentist, I walked a little further along the Old Champlain Canal.

The old tow path, that Mules used  to pull the boats through the canal, is now a peaceful  gravel walkway.

I imagine the Great Blue Heron I saw aw the same one I took a video of  a few months ago. This time he was standing still as a statue on a branch in the water.

The canal borders the  backyards of the houses in the town of Schuylerville.   There are even some houses on the small slip of land between the canal and the Hudson River.

Many of the trees growing along the path are huge, both in height and circumference.  There were a lot of very big mushrooms too.  The acorn at the center of this one is a good indication of just how big they were.

A couple of years ago I used to see a Green Heron flying over the farm almost  everyday,   but I’ve never seen one up close.  Today I saw three of them on the canal.

This part of the path was very quiet, even though it’s so close to the town.  But there was still lots  of evidence of people.  There were bottles floating in the water and I even saw a whole cooler.

On the way back, a black cat was sitting on the path ahead of me. When I got closer she jumped into a tree.  But she was waiting for me, and after I took her picture, she meowed at me and we chatted for a bit.

There were also a few ducks in the water  and some Canada Geese on the path who hissed at me when I walked by, but didn’t move.

What is now a very peaceful walk,  used to be a way of life for many people.

When I first moved upstate I wondered why there weren’t more old houses built on the Hudson River. It’s because  the river and the canal was like a busy highway.  There were boats and industry all along it.  It would be like living on the New Jersey Turnpike.  The Canal boats were like the eighteen wheelers traveling that travel across the county delivering goods, only, on the canals,  the whole family came along for the ride…

“While husbands traditional captained, wives ran the household as they would on land. Small children would often be tethered on deck to prevent them from falling overboard while their mother completed her chores. Once they reached the age of six or seven, children  were considered old enough to be put to work as mule drivers, (hogees), often walking up to 25 miles a day.”