19 Mile Ride on the Lehigh Valley Trail
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Lehigh Valley trail (north section) map (PDF)
Lehigh Valley trail map (PDF)
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Lehigh Valley trail (north section) map (PDF)
Lehigh Valley trail map (PDF)
On one of our trips this summer, Ann and I noticed that the rail trail heading north off the Lehigh Valley Black Diamond trail between Rush and Mendon had been resurfaced. I had also noticed recently that several stretches of trail labelled Lehigh Valley Trail had been opened over in Henrietta, between the general vicinity of RIT and Genesee Valley Park. So today we packed up the bikes and headed over to check out some new places to ride...
Our first attempt at riding the new trail was very brief - we headed out on it from the Henrietta Highway Department and approximately a mile later found ourselves on a major road with no sign of where the trail continued. So we headed back to the car and drove down to Rush, and did the rest of the ride from there.
I'm always struck by how different this trail is now from when I first rode it, back in 2002 and 2003... back then it was a rough and ready rail bed, and only a crazy person would have ridden a narrow-tire road bike on it (that was my 2002 ride!) Even riding it with an ATB in 2003 was a challenge, between the flooded sections and the places where huge mounds of cinder had been piled (for eventual use in resurfacing the trail.) Now it's a fairly smooth stone dust trail... not as exciting to ride, but I suspect it gets a lot more use than it did before being resurfaced.
We rode from Rush out to the old Rochester Junction station (all that's left is a concrete and asphalt platform, mostly overgrown, through there is a very nice informational kiosk and a small picnic area. From there we headed northwest on the trail heading toward Rochester. At times the trail was bright and sunny (not the best option, on a hot July day) but there were also long wooded stretches which were great to ride through.
The resurfaced trail ended just before the Thruway, so we followed the unfinished path a little ways further (bringing back more thoughts of my first rides on this trail system) until we finally reached a point where it became so overgrown that it seemed pointless to keep going, just to end up at the same major road we'd stopped at previously. On the way back, we were lucky to see a fox go bounding down the hillside in front of us, across the trail, and into the woods.
Our first attempt at riding the new trail was very brief - we headed out on it from the Henrietta Highway Department and approximately a mile later found ourselves on a major road with no sign of where the trail continued. So we headed back to the car and drove down to Rush, and did the rest of the ride from there.
I'm always struck by how different this trail is now from when I first rode it, back in 2002 and 2003... back then it was a rough and ready rail bed, and only a crazy person would have ridden a narrow-tire road bike on it (that was my 2002 ride!) Even riding it with an ATB in 2003 was a challenge, between the flooded sections and the places where huge mounds of cinder had been piled (for eventual use in resurfacing the trail.) Now it's a fairly smooth stone dust trail... not as exciting to ride, but I suspect it gets a lot more use than it did before being resurfaced.
We rode from Rush out to the old Rochester Junction station (all that's left is a concrete and asphalt platform, mostly overgrown, through there is a very nice informational kiosk and a small picnic area. From there we headed northwest on the trail heading toward Rochester. At times the trail was bright and sunny (not the best option, on a hot July day) but there were also long wooded stretches which were great to ride through.
The resurfaced trail ended just before the Thruway, so we followed the unfinished path a little ways further (bringing back more thoughts of my first rides on this trail system) until we finally reached a point where it became so overgrown that it seemed pointless to keep going, just to end up at the same major road we'd stopped at previously. On the way back, we were lucky to see a fox go bounding down the hillside in front of us, across the trail, and into the woods.
The ride back was challenging, mainly because we were both getting pretty hot and tired. But eventually we made it back to Rush, and headed home for some well-deserved food (dinner, I guess) and cold, refreshing drinks.
This is a really nice trail system - it offers a great escape from the city and suburbs, and if you wanted to you could make full day of riding on it - plus it connects to the Genesee Valley Greenway south of Scottsville, the Auburn Trail over in Victor, and Genesee Valley Park (and thus both the Erie Canal trail and the Genesee Riverway) over in Rochester - that offers a tremendous number of options for riding! In most places the surface is good enough for a road bike, though a hybrid or mountain bike is probably the better option (there are places where the path is slightly washed out, and other spots where the stone dust is pretty loose.)
JMH
