July 20, 2018
Webster, NY to Lakeside State Park
Day 15
Weather: Sunny, light winds
Ahh, nothing like waking up in a nice comfortable bed. But still woke at our usual time so got up for breakfast. Back in the room at 7:30 a.m. I started planning out the day. Realizing that the Charlotte Genesee Lighthouse that I wanted to visit didn't open till 1 p.m. and it was only 15 miles away the nice bed beckoned us and we caught up on some more sleep.
I woke again about 9 a.m. and got up and worked on the journal. Got going about 10:30 a.m. just before the final check out time.
From the hotel we immediately got on the bike trail that paralleled the 104 freeway and after a couple of miles turned right on to Gravel Road. Gravel Road morphed into Empire Blvd and become a 4 lane road. The shoulder was broken up so we weaved into the lane when needed but were thankful that we had left late and it wasn't rush hour traffic.
A nice down hill took us to the bottom of Irondequoit Bay but we soon had an uphill to contend with. The bike lane / shoulder at this stage was 3/4 covered in about 6 inches of sand left over from the de-icing from last winter. I guess after the winter is over they never come back to sweep this up and it eventually just builds up against the curb from the passing traffic. Anyway, it made it difficult to slowly make our way up the hill. At the top of the hill we thankfully turned off the busy road and worked our way back up the bay to towards the lake taking Bay Shore Blvd through a neighborhood and crossing over the 590 freeway several times.
Once back near the lake we were able to take some bike trails and Lake Shore Blvd until we crossed the Genesee River arriving about 12:30 p.m.
There is a nice trail here that runs all the way to downtown Rochester and in hindsight we probably could have cut across to downtown Rochester and ridden this trail out along the Genesee River.
We stopped here and read the history of the raised bridge and the lighthouses on information panels.
As we were early, we cycled out on the pier to the Rochester Harbor Lighthouse.
Rochester Harbor Lighthouse.
A wooden frame beacon was established on the pier around 1838.
After damage from storms, the pier light was replaced in 1854 with a new wooden tower and a sixth-order Fresnel lens.
A cast iron was erected and lit on November 5, 1880
In 1884, after the western pier was extended 270 feet, the lantern room from the Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse was transferred to a newly built thirty-one-foot wooden tower built at the end of the new extension.
The four-year-old iron tower was taken down in 1885 and transferred to Cleveland, where it was installed on the breakwater.
Further extensions to the pier added another 210 feet and necessitated the relocation of the tower again in 1889. The same year a sixty-foot open frame tower was erected at the inner end of the pier to form a range with the pierhead light.
In May of 1902, a beacon light was erected on the outer end of the east pier and the inner rear range light was discontinued.
The pier lights were converted to electric in 1917 with the establishment of a generator and storage batteries.
In 1931, the west pier light was replaced with a skeletal tower topped with a red box housing the light.
The last keeper left in 1947 when the pier light was automated.
The present-day tower on the pier was installed in 1995.
The old west pier tower was relocated to the Rochester Gas and Electric’s Russell Station in Greece, New York.
On the east pier, a skeletal tower replaced the wooden beacon in 1947. This tower which has now been replaced with a pole light can be seen at Shumway Marina on the east bank of the river.
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After visiting the pier light we had lunch at Ontario Beach Park, then cycled back to the main light.
At the Charlotte Genesee Lighthouse we visited the museum, obtained a passport stamp and then climbed the tower.
We also learnt that the pronunciation of Charlotte is like Shalot. Nothing like the North Carolina Charlotte.
Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse
The first lighthouse at the mouth of the Genesee River was forty-foot tower built of local sandstone and completed in 1822.
In 1829, two 2600-foot piers were built to enhance the harbor, however as the land filled in around the piers the entrance to the harbor moved north quite some distance from the lighthouse site.
An inspection report in 1838 recommended a new coastal lighthouse built on the west pier but a smaller frame beacon was erected on the pier instead.
In 1855, a fourth-order Fresnel lens replaced the lamps and reflectors at the Genesee Lighthouse.
A two story eight room residence was built at the Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse in 1863.
On February 21, 1881, Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse was discontinued.
After the pier light was automated in 1947 and the keepers left, the commander for the Coast Guard moved into the keepers residence.
A wooden platform was used to cap the tower now missing the lantern room that had been transferred to the pier light and the windows on the tower were cemented in.
After the Coast Guard left in 1982, the Charlotte Genesee Lighthouse Historical Society was formed to preserve the historic site.
A new lantern room was built by the Edison Technical High School and a fourth-order Fresnel lens was obtained from the Coast Guard. The restored tower and light was relit on June 18, 1984.
In 2011, the lens that had been on loan to the lighthouse was returned to the Lorain Lighthouse in Ohio. An anonymous donor supplied the funds for a replica lens to be manufactured.
The replica fourth-order Fresnel lens was activated on November 1, 2014, the anniversary of the first lighting in 1822.
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We left at 2:30 p.m. heading west on Beach Ave, then onto Edgewater Road along the lake. After another ten miles we crossed the Lake Ontario State Parkway and visited the Braddock Lighthouse which is now a bed and breakfast.
We stopped by and were able to get a passport stamp, but didn't get to go inside.
Braddock Lighthouse
The plans for construction of the Braddock Point Lighthouse were based on the Cleveland Lighthouse, built in 1872 and deactivated in 1892.
When the Braddock Point Lighthouse was completed in 1896, the ninety-seven-foot octagonal tower was almost identical to the light at Cleveland. However, the two-story red brick 9-bedroom keepers house was quite different.
The light was first lit on August 17, 1896 using a third-and-a-half-order Fresnel lens.
The light was converted to electricity in 1925.
The last keeper left when the lighthouse was automated in 1947 but a coastguardsman moved in and monitored the property until 1950.
By 1951, the brickwork in the tower had deteriorated with cracks running vertically up the tower. The Coast Guard deactivated the lighthouse on January 1, 1954 and it was replaced by a fifty-foot skeletal steel tower.
At the same time the upper half of the tower was removed.
The property remained vacant and was vandalized until sold in 1957. Restored, the property was sold again in 1986 with more restoration work performed by the new owners including in 1995 when the tower was rebuilt to a height of sixty-five feet.
After Coast Guard approval, the lighthouse was relit on February 28, 1996.
The property was sold again in 2006 and converted to a a bed & breakfast.
After leaving Braddock Point Lighthouse, the plan was to ride country roads west along the lake, moving west but dog legging north/south when needed. However once we got back to the Lake Ontario State Parkway that we had crossed earlier, we assessed the shoulder and traffic situation, and upon reading a sign that didn't ban bicycles we went for it.
Construction for the parkway which ends at Lakeside Beach State Park, was started in the 1940's and was proposed to run all the way to Niagara Falls. The last section between Hamlin Beach State Park and Lakeside Beach State Park was finished in the 1970's. The section that would continue to Niagara Falls was never built.
The road was really good with very little traffic.
Our destination for the night was Hamlin Beach State Park which would have made for us a 45 mile day and we arrived there at 5 p.m. hoping to get a campsite.
As we were riding up the road we spoke about it being Friday night and the possibility of the campground being full. We should have known because when we arrived they had no sites. However they gave a cheerful answer that there was another state park 10 minutes up the road with plenty of room. 10 minutes by car turned in to another 15 miles.
Even the other people at the check in remarked "You realize they are on bikes", however the park staff did not budge and just find us a piece of grass to camp on in a overflow area.
After filling up our water bottles we headed back out on the Parkway. After Hamlin the traffic really died off (this is the section they close in winter) and as the shoulder deteriorated we took the right lane. We were able to stop several times and just wander about on the road and take photos.
We arrived at the Lakeside Beach State Park at 6:30 p.m.
They had all electric sites so we were able to charge our devices. There is no swimming at the beach as the camp was situated on a bluff. Once settled in we performed the usual chores of, dinner, laundry, etc.
Today's ride: 60 miles (97 km)
Total: 723 miles (1,164 km)
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