I went for a ride today with no real destination in mind. I rode from my house to Genesee Valley Park. From the park, I had my choice of trails — the Erie Canalway Trail, the Genesee Riverway Trail, or the Genesee Greenway. I chose to take the Canalway east, but I screwed up someplace and ended up beneath a highway overpass. It was a great mistake, because the concrete supports for the overpass were covered in graffiti, much of it pretty hip:
Graffiti beneath the overpass
The statement is broad, but the style is cool
Again, I’m judging on artistic merit
The area under the overpass was a bizarre landscape of cracked cement, enormous cut-down trees, graffiti and overgrown paths, with the Genesee River at one end.
The banks of the Genesee
I followed a part of the path that lead to a closed, paved road. After a few minutes of pedaling, I was looking at the back side of one of humankind’s most perfect uses for land: a golf course. I parked my bike beside the course and read Bicycle: The History
by David Herlihy.
A lovely spot for a bit of reading, don’t you know
I continued up the unused road until it ended at a larger two-lane road. With no idea of where I was, I turned right and hoped for the best. A bit later I passed the IBEW union hall and realized that I was on East River Rd. I still hadn’t decided how to get home, so I turned on to Ballantyne and had gone a few dozen yards when I saw a sign for the Genesee Valley Greenway. I turned south onto the Greenway and rode for a quarter mile or so:
The Genesee Valley Greenway (southbound) from the Ballantyne Rd entrance
I’d been out for a while by this point, so I decided to head north back toward the city instead. The Greenway is a completely different riding experience from the Canalway or Riverway trails. It’s a dirt trail with a lot of rocks and some tufts of grass in the center. I think this section of it was built on the remains of an old railroad track. A little ways north of the Ballantyne entrance, I came upon this historical marker:
Informative sign about Black Creek Culvert
The text reads:
Black Creek Culvert
You are standing on top of one of the largest culverts constructed on the 19th-century New York State Canal System. Built in 1838 to allow Black Creek to flow beneath the Genesee Valley Canal, it features two large arches. Because of quicksand, the culvert’s underlying timber platform rests on wooden piles driven 25 feet below the creek bed.
A Busy Center of Railroad Activity
To the north was Genesee Junction, once the intersection of the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad and the West Shore Railroad. In 1885, the latter became part of the New York Central Railroad system. In 1902, a station and freight house were located here. North of Genesee Junction are the remains of the last active piece of the Rochester Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
I continued riding north and came to a barrier that said TRAIL CLOSED. It seemed weird because the trail wasn’t just closed, it was nonexistent. The trail ended at a set of railroad tracks:
The (right? wrong?) side of the tracks
Pedaling along the tracks for a bit brought me to Scottsville Rd. I figured my brief time on the Greenway was over, so I decided just to head back to the city on Scottsville Rd and call it a day. But about a mile down the road, I spotted a tiny Greenway sign and turned into the parking lot of the diner it pointed to. Behind the diner was an entrance to the trail, which followed the river back to Genesee Valley Park. Along the way, I saw this:
Remind me not to book a flight on this airline
At first I was completely mystified, but I saw a sign that explained everything. Turns out this is a training ground for firefighters, and these metal planes are where they practice putting out airplane fires. So it’s not Area 51 Upstate. Too bad.
- The rest of my photos from today are here.
