Mohawk River, Colonie and Niskayuna, NY

The Mohawk-Hudson Bike-Hike Trail extends from the Erastus Corning Riverfront Preserve in downtown Albany west to Scrafford Lane in the Town of Rotterdam. The trail was constructed in the late 1970s and early 1980s and is built directly upon the old Erie Canal towpath and former railroad grades of the area's first transportation routes. Constructed between 1817 and 1825, the Erie Canal was 363 miles long with 83 locks built to overcome the differences in water height along its route from Albany to Buffalo. When the Erie Canal opened in the City of Schenectady in 1822, it flowed through the center of the City, along what is now Erie Boulevard. Currently, there are remnants of the Canal along the entire trail and throughout the region. Over its approximate 35 mile length, the trail traverses four towns and four cities. Management responsibilities are disjointed and generally change as the trail crosses municipal boundaries. Law enforcement and emergency response is the responsibility of each separate municipal jurisdiction.1 All nonmotorized uses such as walking/running, bicycling, and in-line skating are permitted with the exception of horseback riding. *

*This description is taken from a 1997 study of the Bike Hike Path by the City of Schenectady.