LVRR Bicycle Trails

I recently picked up a copy of the book "Take Your Bike: Family Rides in the Rochester Area" by Rich & Sue Freeman, published by Footprint Press.

Much to my surprise, many of the Lehigh Valley Railroad right-of-ways have been converted into bike or hiking trails. Now, I knew about the Lehigh Valley mainline, which has been converted into a trail throughout Monroe County, extending from the County Line on the east to the Genesee River on the west.

I did not know the mainline ROW trail extends from the Monroe/Ontario county line, across the old Auburn Road and into Victor, almost right up to the end of tracks as they exist today. (By the way, much of the old Auburn Road is also now a bike trail). Furthermore, the LV line from Cato to Fair Haven is now a bike trail. Part of the Rochester Branch, from Rochester Junction to Pinnacle Road is now a bike trail. Naples to Cayward Cross just south of Middlesex is now a bike trail (by the way, where is Glenloch on the LV Naples branch?) Parts of the LV in Henrietta, beginning at Cedar Swamp, are now a bike trail, and also parts of the LV ROW near Genesee Valley park are now bikable.

I have a new bicycle, and I can't wait to "ride the Lehigh Valley"! And I'll most likely bring Mr. Camera with me and take lots of pictures to share.

I have biked many of these trails!
the LV mainline east of the Genesee is very nice!
very smooth.
the people who have done the trail work in this are have done a fantastic job!
I have biked from the Genesee up to about Rochester Junction.
the trail now crosses the Genesee on the LV mainline bridge!
and connects to the Genesee Greenway Trail. (the PRR and Genesee canal)
from there, you can bike the Greenway all the way to doentown Rochester, or south all the way to the Portage bridge in LEtchworth park and beyond.
I highly recommed biking from the old canal locks at Nunda, south through Letchworth, to the Portage bridge..(have to walk through one section, the "slide area"..but thats short)

from Mendon eastward on the LV it was quite rough and "undeveloped" about 2 years ago. lots of ballast still on the trail, not great for biking.
might be better now, but not sure.

Fair haven trail is very nice!
I have biked from Fair Haven maybe 5 or 6 miles south.]
they say there is a LV telltale still on the line, but I didnt see it. probably didnt go far enough.
excellent trail.

the bike trail on the LV from Naples heading north SUCKS!
very very bad for biking.
very rough, rutted, we turned around after a mile..totally not worth it.
might be nice for walking, but it was dismal on a bike.
this was also 2 years ago..might be improved now, but I doubt it.

Scot

Those trails sound like a lot of fun, maybe one of these days I will get up that way and try them out.
I wish the LV bed from a few miles south of Kendaia to Van Etten Jct was trailed. Much of it is still in good condition and in use as either official or unofficial snowmobile trails. Scot, I am assuming you and I both take the same way, beginning at Dresden to get to the valley and once you get to Odessa its all right there along the road. Its too bad something cant happen with that. Although, there are a few places nearer to Van Etten and Alpine that doing some ROW walking could wind up placing you squarely in a Deliverance sequel.

Greg,
I bet you could bike some of the ROW from Vanetten westward!
only potential problem might be private property..
probably be a bit rough though.."undeveloped" ROW's tend to have a lot of ballast on them still..although if dirt bikes and ATV's use them, there might be a thin cleared line..
next time I drive down to Waverly I will take a more carefull look!

I doubt that section of ROW will ever get any serious "rails to trails" work done, mainly because its such a rural area..no big population density like up here around Rochester..

(but then again, Fair Haven isnt exactly urban! and they did it out there...hmmm..)

Yeah, thats a good point. Actually I just realized that some if not most between Alpine and Burdette is owned by either New York State and the Horseheads snowmobile club. Some use it for access roads also for fishing and the section from the lumber mill in Cayuta...eastward to where the newer road crosses it is laced with old ties so that is basically unusable by vehicles. Maybe with the resurgence of shortlines that line would get redeveloped...although highly unlikely.

According to the book about the Naples LV rail trail, "Don't let the fact that this is an old rail bed fool you into thinking its an easy ride." Also, "Most of the rail bed is a raised platform through a wetland. But because it passes through wetlands, it may be impassable during the wet season."

So I will probably still give the Naples trail a try once the rainy season ends (when is that in Rochester, anyway)? At least, it will be a nice drive down to Naples.

dj_paige wrote:So I will probably still give the Naples trail a try once the rainy season ends (when is that in Rochester, anyway)? At least, it will be a nice drive down to Naples.

Well, from what I have seen, it dries out about August 29th and then starts raining again Sept. 1st..... enjoy your 3 day summer

that reminds me..one other major drawback to the naples trail..
MOSQUITOES!!!
millions of them.

probably the best time to try it would be on a warmish October or November day..late fall.
AFTER we have had a few heavy frosts to kill off the skeeters.
Spring is probably useless (mud and wet)
Summer has the bugs..
so maybe October or November would be good!
dead bugs, and maybe dryish if it has been a dry summer.

Scot

When I'm railfanninig or hiking, I've found that May and June can be quite nice. The ground is usually dried out 'cause there's a reverse lake-effect that suppresses rain & T-storms to a certain extent. (Boy, my parents would be glad to know that meteorology course work actually came in useful!) The snow melt is also gone by then. The mosquitoes don't tend to show up in large numbers in the Fionger Lakes till July unless it's unusually wet.

Haven't there been some major improvements to the ex-LV trail between Rushville and Geneva? I think I saw something about that in the Rochester D&C about that sometime last year.

I woudln't hold my breath waiting for any of the old LV to get converted from trails back into rails- the business simply isn't there to support a shortline. Nice thought, Lehighrrgreg, and I really wish it could happen...