Walk - Mohawk River Bike Path

After yesterday's one-day January thaw, my yard is bare of snow, and the rivers are running high. We got about 2" of rain, and with temps in the high 40s, there was a lot of snowmelt as well. Today, I went for a short walk on the bike path in Rotterdam, despite the "Road Closed" signs blocking the path. There had been a serious ice jam on the Mohawk River earlier, and the river had approached flood stage before the jam broke up (nice video here - not mine, and another here, from the Daily Gazette) and the water dropped and started moving again. The bike path was now a safe place to walk, so I ignored the signs.

The river was high, and large chunks of ice lined the shore about 10-15' above the current river level, where the water had been before.



There was a lot of ice piled up at Lock 8, which is where I turned around and headed back to the car.



As long as I was out and about, I decided to continue the river tour by heading into Scotia. At the Western Gateway bridge, there are actually two separate channels, and this secondary one was still clogged with ice.



Finally, I headed to Schenectady's Stockade, on the opposite side of the river. This area is always among the hardest hit when the Mohawk floods, and it looked like this episode had been a close call. The river was still close to full in Riverside Park, and had been much higher, leaving big chunks of ice on the walking path and nearly up to the foundations of the buildings nearby. There are more great pictures from the Stockade at this link.



We're expecting colder conditions over the next few days, but the chances for any significant snow are pretty slim. So we're left with ice and mud for now, and the choices for outdoor fun are pretty limited. Hoping that an expected coastal storm overnight on Friday gives us a better shot of winter than currently forecast - fingers crossed...