Walking the D & H Canal

We live in Wurtsboro NY where the D & H Canal used to pass through. The canal was also one of our first hiking trails we did when we moved upstate. If you don’t know, the Delaware and Hudson Canal was a channel that went from Pennsylvania to the Hudson River carrying mostly coal and lumber. In essence, without that coal NYC dwellers wouldn’t have their heat, or they would have had to look elsewhere.

Walking the Canal

The D & H Canal was 108 miles long that took over 2,000 men to construct and finish. I’m still in awe at the hard labor that went into constructing the canal. We were walking a section recently and were saying how each of those stones were touched by the original people- the builders. Those rocks are almost 200 years old, but still standing in most parts of the canal. It’s such a shame that we let the canal deteriorate and the efforts, sweat, blood and tears of those men and animals go to waste.

We’re just glad that there are those that want to preserve the history and make sure we never forget them. The D & H Canal Museum in High Falls is where we get our information. We learned a lot about the canal and its history through their feed. While most sections of the canal have some kind of plaque that tells a little story, you don’t get the full picture. Bill Merchant is passionate about the history of the canal and that makes us even more intrigued. If you want to learn more about this incredible canal, I suggest you check out their virtual videos.

So far, we’ve walked most of the canal in Wurtsboro going towards Port Jervis. While we biked in Kingston a few times, we never did the canal walk. Now that we have 4 new tires, we can venture further away from home and start the D & H canal trail from Kingston and work our way down. The only issue with the canal is that it becomes private land in some sections so you can’t follow the old route. You can utilize Avenza to get to connecting trails and will have to walk the streets in some sections.