Karen and I chose a different sort of paddle this year. Not as long as we have in the past. And in a place that is dear to me: The Chemung Valley of the Southern Tier of New York State. We enjoyed three days on the Chemung River starting in Addison, NY, and making our way to Athens, PA, where the Chemung meets the Susquehanna River. A total of about 55 miles. We paddled another five miles on the Susquehanna to the next boat access point, five miles that we had paddled a few years ago as part of our four-year journey on the Susquehanna from Cooperstown, NY, to the Chesapeake Bay. And we hit some of the same headwinds that reminded us how difficult some of the larger rivers can be to navigate! We don’t tend towards paddling the same waters more than once but the need to find a spot to get out overtook that. Too many rivers left to repeat any of them!
The weather was great during the day. It was too cold for my sleeping gear in the evenings. Lesson learned there. I will invest in new equipment and remember my long underwear next time, regardless of the weather forecast. The scenery was as beautiful as ever we find on our river trips.
The nostalgic aspect of this trip was strong. Born in 1956 in Elmira, NY, which straddles the Chemung River, memories flowed back to me as we approached the city. Bottcher’s Landing is a river access point now, and I recall back in the day it was a farm and farmstand where my mom would go for flowers and/or vegetables.
And what was that park that was accessed by trolley? Boom, the memory came back: Rorick’s Glen. It had been an amusement park and entertainment center for a couple of decades at the start of the 20th century. It was long gone when I was a child, but we still managed to get over the old wooden bridge and spook around. Nothing remains of the bridge but the abutments.
Bottcher’s LandingOld Abutments
Paddling towards West Elmira where our house was, we passed under Fitch’s Bridge, one of the many bridges connecting downtown Elmira and its Southside. My mother used that bridge to “relocate” the squirrels she trapped in her yard. It was a never-ending job! Speaking of my mother, Mary, I had a chance to reunite with her Goddaughter and my friend who lived next door, Mary Marsden. By chance we were both in the area and it was fun to include her in this year’s journey.
Fitch’s BridgeMary, Maggie, KarenNew friends with Friends of the Chemung River Watershed
A special highlight of our trip was meeting up with the Friends of the Chemung River Watershed. Not only did they meet us, but they brought along two TV stations who interviewed us. It was our 15 minutes of fame and a great way to help the cause of the river! Each took a different slant on our story. One (WETM) was focused on the river. The other (WENY) focused on these old women paddling our hearts out! We laughed as we listened! We were in the local Star Gazette as well.
The dam in Elmira was our only portage this year. Our new friends had cleared out the spring growth (nasty knotweed that overtakes indigenous plant) the day before so that we could pull up the gear and the canoe and get it around the dam. The dam creates a pool of water that is treated to become the drinking water for the city. The portage is very near where my parent’s first apartment was and where my sister came into this world.
Skyline of Elmira, now minus the roofline of my home church which burned to the ground in February 2025. Dunn Field, Elmira’s Minor League field and where my high school graduation took place in 1974 with a streaker crossing the field as people were leaving!
As we paddled out of downtown Elmira, we approached Dunn Field, forever emblazoned in my mind not for my high school graduation but for the streaker who stole the show at the end! My first of two streaker spottings in 1974
The derelict hotel and restaurant is where we would go with our grandparents. It overlooks I86.Way up on the hillside O’Brian’s was once a great place to stop on the old road to New York City, before the interstate was built.
Winding beneath the remains of the hotel that used to be on a main road, we made our way from the nostalgia of the Elmira area toward Waverly where the river dips into Pennsylvania, heading to the Susquehanna. At that point it was back to things as usual on the river: beautiful scenery, heron, osprey, eagles, turtles…and even a two-foot-long water snake which Karen spotted just as I put my feet in the water on either side of the canoe! Needless to say, I pulled my feet in quickly and never saw the snake slithering off.
Elmira is behind me now, literally and figuratively. Much of what I knew growing up is gone. It remains a river town, with all the challenges and hospitality that we have experienced on every river we have paddled.
One last bit of nostalgia: Kim, who Maggie met in elementary school 60+ years ago, was our river angel who came to fetch us at the end of our trip and take us back to Corning where our cars were. I have only seen her twice since graduating from high school at the above-mentioned Dunn Field.
We were happy to join others on the river/canal or hiking/biking on the trails alongside the canal on what was called the Canalway Challenge!
We seem to all know the song even if we weren’t born in New York State. That’s because the Erie Canal had a huge impact on the growth of the United States in so many ways. We think there was only one day, however, that we actually did about 15 miles. Generally, we did more.
Looking at the maps ahead of time, the best place to put in looked to be Rome, NY. We had hoped to actually get to some place considered the headwaters of the Mohawk but we could not get a straight answer about whether we could paddle from the headwaters so we found the closest convenient place which is where the original Mohawk River meets the Erie Canal in Rome. The next step is always to find help in taking Karen’s car after we put in and keeping it for the week, then meeting us wherever we get out. Maggie always does this work of finding our helpers or “river angels.” This year she took at extra chance that is quite a story. Maggie and John adopted their daughter Chelsea and knew that her bio family was from around that area. We have become acquainted with them over the last several years. So, Maggie reached out to bio-Mom, Angela, to see if there were any relatives who might take this on. Angela would not be in NYS at that time but arranged for her college age nephew Charlie to meet us.
Charlie and Friend enjoying pizza with us prior to taking off.
Chelsea and granddaughter Pippa (4 years old) were there to see us off as well. It was part of the logistics of me getting there. It was fun to introduce the next generation to our trips. And we were excited to meet another member of the bio family. What we didn’t know was that Charlie did not know that Chelsea was related to him. The look on his face when he learned that the two of them were first cousins was priceless. He and the friend he had with him handled it well and we all became friends fast. Charlie kept in touch with us as we made our way across the canal and was there for us in Rotterdam when we get out of the canal. What we have learned on our journeys more than anything is that we are all connected to each other on this planet. On this trip there was a closer biological connection.
Day One: Bellamy Harbor Park in Rome Mile Marker 114.97 to Utica Historic Marina, Mile Marker 100.85 – June 1
We put in about 1 pm on June 1 at Mile Marker 114.97. Bellamy Harbor Park had a good dock and, with the help of the abovementioned team, we carted all the equipment from the car to the canoe and set sail. The timing worked for our first night to stay at this decommissioned lock. We were fortunate throughout the week to be able to stay along the river on grassy areas around the locks, often with the comfort of a portapotty and sometimes water. This first night did not disappoint. We pulled up to the shore and climbed the steep incline up to the mown grass. A walking/biking trail went right through the area. For most of the length of the canal one can find this trail closer or farther from the water. Here it was right where we were planning to camp with no cover. There was a family fishing and we asked if they thought it was safe to camp there. They pointed to another tent tucked further way along the trees. We took that to be a yes and set ourselves up against this concrete structure. We were thankfully not bothered by any passers-by on the trail. And, having slept on everything from flat rocks to mud to pebbles over the years, we were particularly thankful for that soft grass.
Our first night on the canal in Utica near the old lock that used to serve as the port of Utica.
Day Two: Utica Historic Marina to Little Falls, Mile Marker 80.10 – June 2
We set out at 6:45 am. We have learned that it is good for us to break down our camp and set out before we eat breakfast. We get a few miles under our canoe before we find a place to eat our eggs and crackers. The going seemed quite tough this year, but we think it’s that our aging bodies are … well, aging! Also, no current to help us. But we enjoyed the challenges, the beauty, the interesting places enough to make ourselves tired and sore! We found a beautiful tiny marina in Little Falls complete with showers and toilets: Little Falls Canal Harbor and Rotary Park. Thank you, Rotary Club of Little Falls. Sleeping on grass once again (a treat on any of our adventures), Maggie took to her tent as soon as she had some peanut butter and crackers. She was done in after the long day of paddling: 12 hours on the river. Karen had a little more stamina to catch up on Facebook posts. Lesson learned at this stop: if there is a key to the bathroom involved, make sure that both parties have access to it so as not to have to wake the other up in a moment of desperation. The park was too public to use Mother Nature!
We couldn’t get through the next lock until 7:30 or eight the next morning so we planned to take a leisurely walk to find a diner for breakfast before heading out. The photos below are from the bridge crossing the canal over to the quaint town of Little Falls. We thought this was going to be a different kind of trip. But we did not expect most of the wildlife would be in the form of people in yachts coming from the south back to the north to various ports and bays in the Great Lakes. Several are docked here this morning. They have great stories to tell.
Our new toy/tool this year – a marine radio. On the Ohio River we called the locks from our cell phone to let them know we were approaching. This year we brought a marine radio, and we are glad we did. The first lock master today didn’t answer the phone so we set the radio to channel 13, for the locks, and learned the lingo enough to let them know we were eastbound and wanted to lock through. As helpful as it was, it also caused some tension between us as Maggie liked to call the yachts to see where they had come from and where they were going. Sometimes Karen thought Maggie stayed on too long chatting as the radios are supposed to be used for navigation or emergencies. But we ended up learning that some boats were finishing year long trips, some coming from the Gulf of Mexico and others coming from the Carolinas. This was our first introduction to this kind of boating. Though we had been on bodies of water that connected major ports in the world to the interior of the United States in the past, most of the previous traffic we came into contact with on the big rivers was commercials. Some of the folks on those yachts were equally impressed with our journeys in our small boat.
This is the part of the river that skirts the dam.
This is the part of the river that is navigable. You can see why locks and dams are so important.
Little Falls is a cute old mill town that has turned factories into shops, as so many post-industrial towns and cities in the northeast have done. Crossing the bridge over the canal and the wilder Mohawk River gave us a different perspective than when we’re on the water.
Day 3 Little Falls to Canajoharie, River Mile 60.55 – June 3
After a good breakfast, we were on our way and through our next lock almost immediately. It was the first of four the day. That may have been an all-time high for us. The structure of the canal was very clear there with some of the high sides cut into rock and some made by building walls. Today brought a little current our way and made our 20-mile paddle easier and shorter. Weather was beautiful and hot, and the river scenery a bit different than the two previous days. We continue to run parallel to the interstate and to a double set of railroad tracks, so lots of traffic and train noise serenades us as we go. Nature sightings featured one bald eagle and lots of goose families.
Our day ended in Canajoharie which is another cute little mill town. Since we arrived around 5:45 we had plenty of time to find dinner in town at a taco joint called Taco 29, and to spot a restaurant for breakfast the next day. The restaurants along the way are among the highlights of our trips. We never know if and what we will find. A beautiful sunset and a walk across another bridge over the canal for Karen gave her an opportunity to capture a great sunset and finished things off well for the day.
We pitched camp in the Canajoharie Riverfront Park. We are always a little leery of being exposed to the public that may come down to the water at all times of the day or night, but we set up the tents a bit off the beaten track and felt safe. Some of the entertainment there included the fire department teaching some teenagers how to use the fire hoses. It was hot and, at first, we thought they were filling a portable container as a small swimming pool. And then the hoses came out.
Setting sun over Lock #4 at Canajoharie
Day 4 Canajoharie to Lock E12, Tribes Hill-Mile Marker 43.52-June 4
Trains, boats and automobiles. And lots of trucks! Canajoharie was perhaps the noisiest of camping places we found. Peaceful sleeping was not in the cards. The Erie Canal lies in the middle of a transportation corridor that is centuries old. In this era, the highway and the railroad carry the freight, the Canal is pretty much for recreational vessels. As we hear the constant high-speed traffic around us, we are reminded of the need to slow down, relax, stay in the moment. And that’s what we tried to do today. For the first time on a canoe trip, Karen didn’t check her watch and the maps to try and compute the speed we were traveling or think too much about what our daily destination would be. We decided to take it a bit easy and enjoy both the ride and the stops. We enjoyed at stop and rest of the offices of the Canal Corporation offices in Fonda where we ate our lunch.
Part of taking it easy was taking the time to visit an historic site along the way. We were going to be going right by the ruins of the Schoharie Aqueduct at the Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site at mile marker 43.90. We decided to take the time to walk inland a bit and explore the historic area. We were not disappointed. The aqueduct was a narrow part of the old canal that passed OVER the Schoharie River right near where it dumps in the Mohawk River/Erie Canal. The stonework was amazing and imagining water crossing water and carrying barges pulled by mules was not difficult. As well as ruins, we found many signs warning us of the dangers of ticks. Nasty little things but we were well prepared throughout the trip with repellent and spray for our tents and equipment as well. It was a bad year for ticks in New York State.
Another gorgeous day on the canal came to an end with enough firewood for a campfire. We enjoyed watching a young man skipping stones. And a land turtle visited our site!
Day 5 – June 5 – Lock E12 to Scotia/Rotterdam Mile Marker 24.04-June 5
Further down river we took a break on this hot day at the Amsterdam Riverlink Park. We walked over the pedestrian bridge with art installations and saw the local Peregrin falcon. We found a “famous” hot dog joint (Guge’s Dogs) and chatted with others along the away.
We finished the paddling part of our journey on June 5 at about 7:30 pm. A summary of our last day:
Three things characterized our day: fun nature sightings, a beautiful riverfront park, and headwinds. Ugh! We battled headwinds for much of the Ohio River, expected as we paddled toward prevailing winds. But we didn’t expect them on this trip paddling west to east. So, we were surprised and aggravated that most of the wind we experienced was in our faces. Oh well, we still made our 20-mile goal for the day and we are sure we’re stronger for it
June 6 – 90 miles later…
Met by Charlie who brought Karen’s car to us and John who came to fetch Maggie back to Vermont. Our initial goal was to try to get to Troy and to descend Waterford Flight on 5 locks, one right after the other, dropping down to the Hudson River. We would likely have needed at least another full day and, having learned over the years when to stop, we were happy to end safely in Scotia.
Paddle With Us 