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Print Friendly MapThe North Branch of the Lehigh Valley Trail connects the campuses of the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology. The trail’s northern terminus is where the Erie Canal Heritage Trail connects to the university’s parking lot, accessed by Intercampus Drive. From there, the trail uses a concrete-and-gravel bridge to cross I-390. A path continues 0.2 mile to East River Road.
From East River Road to Brighton-Henrietta Town Line Road (1.5 mile) the trail is stone dust. Users must then use the sidewalk (concrete, 5-foot wide) of Brighton-Henrietta Town Line Road for 0.25 mile south and cross Jefferson Road at a controlled intersection with a push-button walk sign. South of Jefferson Road, the path is a paved asphalt multi-use path parallel to John Street for the remaining 1.5 mile. The multi-use path terminates at Bailey Road.
Turn left onto Bailey Road and follow the small green “Lehigh Valley Trail” trail signs for 1 mile to Route 15/W. Henrietta Road. Turn right onto Route 15/W.Henrietta Road and travel 0.3 mile and make a left turn onto Calkins Road following the trail signs. Travel 1 mile on Calkins Road and make a right turn into Veterans Memorial Park (no park sign, across from the terminus of Hylan Drive). You will pick up the stone dust trail again; head south. The stone dust trail ends at Florendin Drive.
Continue south on Florendin Drive 350 feet and cross Lehigh Station Road onto Nevins Road. Travel 0.5 mile to end of Nevins Road and the stone dust trail begins again and goes approximately 5 miles to the terminus at Rochester Junction, where you can connect to the rest of the Lehigh Valley Trail system.
Parking is available midway in Veterans Memorial Park (595 Calkins Road) and on its southern end where the trail crosses East Henrietta Road.
From the "Rochester Junction", where the northern branch of the Lehigh Valley Trail meets the main line, there are signposts marking one's progress every half mile. The first 5 miles going south to north get you to about the I-90 underpass. Right here is where the trail gets very sketchy. South of this point, the trail is mostly stone dust and would be doable on any functioning bike. Starting around the thruway, the trail seems to be torn up a bit and gets hilly for a very short wile. A road bike won't cut it, and there was standing water today on many parts. The sign at the Nevins Road outlet said "temporary" trail, though I couldn't find any permanent trail. Also, the Nevins Road outlet has barricades on it so that I needed to physically carry my bike over them in order to get it through. Someone without panniers might be able to squeeze through, but I'm not sure why they are so tight (maybe 10 inches?). Certainly my 14" dropdown handlebars didn't make it. There are a lot of crosstrails through here that aren't too confusing going south, but coming back north it might be a little more awkward. Of course, perhaps I missed something and I was supposed to bypass this area entirely??? [Ed: Nevins Rd is not a trail exit; the trail dumps on to the road for a while. Thus, presumably, all bike trail traffic will need to lift their bikes over the barricade to continue on the trail.]
The southern 5 miles is very nice, with little to no elevation change. It is wooded pretty much the entire time. In my opinion, this trail is a fine link to the (longer) southern Lehigh Valley Trail, but if you're just looking for a trail to ride, the latter is a better choice. It's more scenic and in better shape. The North Branch is, however, not by any stretch impassable, so if you're looking to make a loop or a connection by all means go for it!
Trail in Genesee Valley Park and East of I390 is pretty good. Trail in Henrietta is street level, rough and poorly marked. We ended up missing the temporary trail at an intersection of five trails. There are also a number of dirt bike cutoffs that are confusing.
I love trails, but this one had a mix of good trail and rough to the point of near impassable, which I found out on the way back that there is a temporary detour of 1/4 mile or so which ends up in a construction yard! The trail then continues on streets with cross signals that don't work to let you cross streets, and cars don't pay attention to bikers crossing, one that made me stand my bike on the front wheel. Just after John street you pick up the trail again which is the best two miles of the whole trail. The trail needs some work, but you can't fix the drivers there.
I use this trail for about half my commute to the University of Rochester from Henrietta and I love it. Really well maintained and not too much traffic but not desolate either. The only thing I don't like is the two blind turns near Brighton-Henrietta Town Line road and Crittenden Road. I've had one collision there and a couple near misses and is the reason for 4 stars and not 5. A little trimming of the brush there would help a lot. I l also have biked from Henrietta south to the main trail and thought it was a really great trail.
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