the Way of the Turtle

14.7 Mile Ride at the Rochester Water Supply
Saturday, August 11, 2007

Rochester water supply (Hemlock/Canadice Lakes) info
Rochester watershed visitors permit/brochure (PDF)

Both Ann and I wanted to get outside today, and since I didn't think I'd convince her to ride along with me while I ran, and she felt it was too hot to go hiking, we packed the ATBs on the car and headed south to the Rochester water supply at Hemlock and Canadice Lakes. Both have trails along at least part of one shore, and the pictures I'd seen looked pretty nice, so it seemed worth to road trip...

Hemlock Lake is the larger of the two. Originally the shore was lined with cottages, but in the late 1800's Rochester began using the lake as a water source and by 1947 the city had bought up all the shoreline and removed the cottages, allowing the cleared land to be reforested. (Take Your Bike - Family Rides in New York's Finger Lakes Region, by Rich & Sue Freeman, 2006.) There are trails along the east shore, as well as north and west of the lake. The public is allowed to visit the property and one can even go boating on the lake, as long as the rules outlined in the Watershed Visitor's Permit (see the link at the top of the this post) are followed.

We parked at the permit station, ate a fairly relaxed picnic lunch, and then rode down the dirt road to the boat launch. No great surprise, it was a fairly busy area. From there we continued down the doubletrack trail until it ended, a little over 1 1/2 miles later. (I've since found out that if we'd continued a bit further on the narrow singletrack trail, we'd have come out on a nice viewpoint... oh, well.) Then we headed back to the car. While this wasn't a bad little ride, I can't really say I was all that impressed... the road down to the boat launch was fairly busy, and much of the doubletrack had fairly large gravel laid down on it, making for somewhat rough riding. The views of the lake were nice but nothing spectacular.

From there we drove over to the trailhead at the northwest corner of Canadice Lake, a much smaller lake than Hemlock. The property around the lake was also purchased by Rochester and the shoreline is thus undeveloped. Since Canadice Lake is at a higher elevation than Hemlock, water from the Canadice Outlet Creek is diverted into Hemlock Lake where it is conditioned and piped 29 miles north to the city.

The trail along Canadice Lake is a doubletrack running down the entire western shore and around the southern tip (actually, through a marsh at the southern tip.) While the terrain was hillier than at Hemlock, the path was considerably smoother and shaded in many spots, so this was a fairly pleasant ride. Initially views of the lake were obscured by all the trees, but further along the trail was closer to the shore and we got to see the water. At the southern tip of the lake, I rode a short mowed loop trail through the marsh - that was very difficult riding, and there was a heron in the marsh that definitely didn't appreciate my being there. After I startled him for the fourth or fifth time, he headed off to the north, presumably to find a spot away from annoying riders.

Overall, I enjoyed the Canadice Lake trail quite a bit more than the one at Hemlock, and would definitely recommend it for someone looking to do a short, relatively easy ride. We had originally thought to visit the Harriet Hollister Spencer Memorial State Recreation Area while we were at the lakes, but in the end it was getting too late in the day and we were both hot and tired. There are also some trails at the Conesus Inlet Fish and Wildlife Management Area just south of Conesus Lake which sound really nice for viewing birds and wildlife - I'm wishing I'd looked that up beforehand, because we might have gone down there to take a look while we were in the area. Another time, I suppose!

JMH