Learning to appreciate the outdoors sights that are close to home.
My wife held her hands out, palms to the sky. Despite a strong wind and a few hundred feet of distance between us, I could still hear her shout, “What were you thinking?”
We’ve been married long enough that she should’ve known. I wasn’t thinking.
My 10-year-old daughter, who we call Little Wren, and I had climbed a steep, exposed section of lava on Stark’s Knob with no thought about how we were going to get down. At least one of us had the excuse of being 10.
Stark’s Knob was the first hike of a day I’d dubbed “the Schuylerville Three,” a collection of separate short trails we would mix with history to create a stew of endorphins and learning.
Akum Norder, the Albany author of “The History of Here,” laments we don’t do enough to celebrate our area’s rich history. The three of us set out to change whatever part of that lament we could. We didn’t make it very far before I went historical fanboy crazy at the Henry Knox pocket park where our hike began.
Knox was a Boston bookseller at the beginning of the American Revolution. During the battle of Boston, George Washington and his troops had a superior position but lacked sufficient cannons. By some accounts, the Americans painted logs to look like cannons to fool the British into thinking they had more artillery.
Enter Henry Knox and Fort Ticonderoga, which was the cannon fulfillment center of its day. Knox made the journey to Ticonderoga and used oxen to drag cannons through Schuylerville and Albany back to Bunker Hill during the winter of 1775-76. The cannon-hauling trip was an epic tale of hardship and innovation.
When Knox delivered his cannons, the British soon retreated. You should support your local booksellers not just because bookstores are awesome, but because their owners may help expel imperial tyrants.
Stark’s Knob is a modest rise just north of Schuylerville. There’s a nice view of the Hudson as a reward for the climb (after Little Wren and I found the proper trail.) After losing the Battle at Saratoga, General Burgoyne and his British troops headed toward Fish Creek and the Hudson before finally surrendering. Local lore maintained that the American revolutionaries placed cannons on Stark’s Knob to prevent the British from escaping. There’s no historical evidence to support this, but it’s a cool story.
You could tell when American revolutionary troops had been through a town because the streets were covered in blood from their shoeless feet. We wore comfortable boots on the Siege Trail just south of Schuylerville. The trail climbs through a grove of oaks to a small rise above Fish Creek where the Saratoga Monument is visible across the water.
My family, like my country, doesn’t have a shared racial identity, but we share a civic identity that’s more important. Like the American soldiers long ago on the shore of Fish Creek, we value democracy and freedom and won’t be ruled by those with the preposterous audacity to call themselves royals.
We left the Siege Trail and walked toward the Schuyler House. Despite his military service, wealth and accomplishments, thanks to the hit musical “Hamilton” Phillip Schuyler is now mostly know as Alexander Hamilton’s father-inlaw – sorry Phil. I hiked with two “Hamilton” fans who sang King George’s “You’ll Be Back” as we passed the Schuyler House beside Fish Creek.
We made a transition from Revolutionary War history to early American history as we walked the old Champlain Canal Towpath north over Fish Creek and then toward Hudson Crossing Park.
After Stark’s Knob and the Siege Trail, the towpath was more walk than hike but with the canal on one side and the Hudson on the other, it made for a beautiful ramble. We watched muskrats and ducks swim and laughed at fake alligators someone had placed in the canal.
Mules used to haul goods along the towpath. The ambitious canal system embodies the restless and striving nature of New York. Near Hudson Crossing Park, past and present routes meet as we crossed part of the Empire State Trail – 750 miles of beautiful possibility in the form of a multi-use trail that crosses New York.
Eagle Point on the Hudson was our final destination on the Champlain Canal Path. We looked out over the river in the late afternoon light and then turned back toward Schuyler House.
There was no guarantee of success for Henry Knox and his cannons, for those diggers of the canal or for the soldiers who defeated Burgoyne. Much like democracy, their strength was their faith in their endeavors.
We walked back carrying thoughts of them. The sun and the temperature dropped after a long day of discovery. On the hill above us, the sky behind the Saratoga Monument streaked orange and red. Night would soon come, but there would still be light from the stars.