Muddy, Misty, Moist (Midway)

   During our second-to-last full day in Rochester, Sue asked if I had a route planned to ride the following afternoon. I told her that, I had pretty much visited everything that was on my own mental list, except for the El Camino Trail, which weaved through a more culturally diverse section of the city. Sue told me that I was to leave it to her to plan the day’s route, and I was also informed that I wasn’t allowed to question her choices of roads, if it seemed less direct than a course I might plot.
“I don’t want to ride the same streets we’ve been riding into the city,” which seemed like a reasonable decision, and she mentioned a thought of combining the cycling part with a bus ride, so that the mileage wouldn’t get out of hand. I had our “bicycles go inside the car when travelling” rule in mind when thinking of using the bus-front rack, and Sue ended up reconfiguring her route to sooth my apprehension.
   The weather again looked a bit unstable with a possibility of getting wet, but we had our “we won’t melt” attitude in place, and because of heavy overnight rains, we also had the “bikes/clothes/bodies will clean off” motto running through our heads when we reached El Camino. The stone dust surface was holding plenty of water, and many low spots were an inch or so deep.
   We were early into the ride, so gentle pedaling, to keep splash and a long ride with soaked socks out of the equation, seemed a wise idea. After a mile or so of weaving from dry patch to dry patch, we reached what seemed like the end of the trail, but we knew we hadn’t gone far enough. It seemed there was an alley to the left, and thinking it might be some sort of dogleg, we started to veer that way.
   “Nope, nope – it’s that way,” said an old lady who was sitting on a large rock near the sidewalk and pointing to the right. We thanked her and found the trail continuing about 50 yards to the right. However, because of the sloppy conditions, we decided to stick to the pavement on our way to Seneca Park.
   We entered at the zoo entrance on now-very-familiar St. Paul Street, and again stuck to the pavement as far as we could into the park grounds, before pedaling over mushy maintenance roads and some muddy single track into the woods. Sue voiced a bit of concern about whether we were on the right path, as there were no markings, but exclaimed proudly, “This is right where I wanted to be!” when we popped through a sketchy looking gate onto Seneca Park Avenue.
   Turning onto St. Joseph Street, it was hard to believe we were so close to the city in this hidden, very rural-looking neighborhood. We took on a challenging climb up Van Voorhis Avenue and reached once again the bridge over the Genesee River at Pattonwood Drive. Pattonwood actually becomes the Lake Ontario State Parkway, but we had to zigzag over to Latta Street to reach the entrance to its namesake trail.

   The sky had been getting a bit dark, and although it never poured, we did ride through a constant drizzle or misting the whole length of the LOSP Trail. We also never got soaked, but our moods were a bit sour, especially when the marking for the trail ended, and we mistakenly got onto a branch of the pavement that dumped us onto a limited access highway! Seeing a state policeman parked up ahead, we didn’t want to be questioned why we were riding somewhere we obviously didn’t belong (although there weren’t any signs telling us that, either), so we made a righthand turn across the shoulder, through the weeds onto a path paralleling a nearby housing development.
   We knew if we rode west, we would eventually intersect one of the roads we meant to be on, and sure enough, we were soon back on course to Braddock Bay. Sue’s intention was to ride the full length of Edgemere Drive on the narrow causeway between Lake Ontario and the handful of ponds that are located west of the community of Charlotte and Ontario Beach.
   The sun popped from behind the clouds, and we dried out completely as we passed a pretty neighborhood at Long Pond, where attractive shore houses lined a canal that connected the pond and lake. There was an unexpected short, steep climb just before reaching Charlotte, and I made an instant friend with a gentleman who had passed us going the other direction about ten minutes earlier.
   He said how much he liked my Bianchi, and I asked how many miles he was doing that day, since we had seen him before. He answered that it was his regular twenty-mile weekend circuit, and I wished him a good ride with a wave as he sped off down the gentle descent into town.
   Sue had planned a stop at another location that served what had become her favorite treat, Abbott's Frozen Custard. The chocolate with salted almonds was her go-to, and she managed to pair it with a different flavor "experiment" each visit.. Speaking of experiments, this last time I tried the pistachio-pineapple…eh, it was okay.
   We were back riding along Rochester Harbor and connected once again with the Genesee Riverway Trail, this time on a beautiful, curving bridge that swept out over the marshlands along the river, opposite a spot called Rattlesnake Point! Sue snapped a shot of me starting out across the bridge:

   We then made the grueling, long climb up out of Turning Point Park to Lake Street and laughed at the directional marker we had missed the other day. If I had some loppers, I would have cut away the branches that obstructed the sign from the view of northbound trail-goers!

   Crossing back over the river at Driving Park Avenue, we passed the massive Kodak Hawkeye Building that has been vacant since 2011. The visually striking edifice is said to be the one of the finest examples of “factory art deco” in the world, and it has a wonderful setting above the bridge and Lower Falls.

   Architecturally I was reminded of the Starrett-Lehigh Building (photo below) in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. I've passed the former Lehigh Valley Railroad warehouse several times when riding the Hudson River Greenway.

   The Hawkeye Building has an interesting history as a center for covert reconnaissance during the Cold War. A project there, known as Bridgehead, dealt with creating cameras that could withstand the rigors of a rocket launch and then take clear images from miles above the Earth. The images taken were on Kodak film that was parachuted back to Earth in capsules, picked out of the sky by retriever planes and whisked off to Rochester.
   As we pedaled through Park Avenue one last time, we had a good bit of fatigue in the legs and felt that we earned our planned dinner, courtesy of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que (housed, of course, in the downtown Lehigh Valley Station). Some pulled pork, ribs, black beans and rice, coleslaw and a big pile of fries would go down nicely!

   I highly recommend Rochester for a getaway destination, especially to those who like to get around easily on two wheels instead of four. There’s plenty to do and see, all within a safe bike ride. I enjoyed looking into the history of the delightful city and its surroundings, and I can’t ask for more than cycling destinations that involve scenery and a background story!