Eastern Lake Ontario

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After our extended stay in the Rochester area, we head east and north to Henderson Bay on the eastern end of Lake Ontario. The drive from the west side of Rochester takes us right along NY Route 104 (Ridge Road). This leads us right past our old workplace of Eastman Kodak Company. It looks quite different even from several years ago when I finished up my 32 years with the company. I started my career in building 69 back in 1980. This building would have been visible from our drive if it hadn’t been imploded back in 2007. In those early years, I would have never dreamed that I would one day drive past here as a traveling nomad. 

Our destination is a little bit remote since the campground is is situated on an island. The 1000 Island/Association Island Campground actually encompasses the full island - all 60 acres. It stick out into the lake and helps to form Henderson Bay. It’s strange driving on such a narrow road with water on both sides. It also seems to be quite windy here probably since it is so exposed to the open waters. Our campsite is a pull in rather than a back in. But it is up above the rigs in front of us and provides for a nice view of the lake and sunsets.  There is a nice marina that’s part of the island permitting those campers with boats to have a place to dock when they return from their boat rides.

Spooky Building Adjacent to Our Campsite

Rain was predicted for our first day here but figured we would risk it and go for a bike ride. The roads we picked have very little traffic so it was a pleasant ride of about 7 miles down to an old lighthouse that is a private residence now. On the way back, we swing by Robert Wehle State Park. It is one of the newer parks in NY, opening in 2004. We biked around some of the park before we stopped for a break and noticed the ominous clouds forming to the north - right where our campground is. Of course we had left all the windows open in the rig since we didn’t see any real indication of rain when we left. We agreed to split up so I could hopefully bike back more quickly and close things up. In the 20 minutes it took to get back the wind had picked up and sprinkles were just starting. Chris made it back several minutes later just before the skies opened up. 

Lighthouse - Now Private Residence

By the next day the front had passed and the weather was wonderful. We decided to head north to Alexandria Bay along the St Lawrence River in the 1000 Islands region of New York. Our final destination there would be Boldt Castle but first we headed to Cranberry Creek Wildlife Management Area. Yet another of those little, out of the way places that many people would drive by and never realize it's there. A geocache hidden there along with some pictures other geocachers had posted made it look like a great spot to stop for lunch before heading to the castle. A battle during the War of 1812 took place here and there are several headstones in a small gravesite for the lives lost. There isn’t a picnic table, but the bench provided a nice spot to stop and eat while enjoying the scenery.

View at Cranberry Creek

More of Cranberry Creek

After lunch we head to the office for Uncle Sam Boat Tours. Boldt Castle is actually on one of the islands about 1/3 mile from Alexandria Bay. It is possible to take your own boat to Heart Island since they have a dock as part of the 7 acre island. Not having a kayak, we opt for the tour boat ride. With castle admission included, it costs us $19 apiece. Since it is a very short trip, the tour shuttle boat makes the trip rather frequently so it’s not a very long wait to board. With the dock on the north side of the island, we do get to see the buildings from the boat as we approach and the place is pretty impressive looking. Apparently the main castle is six stories tall and over 40,000 square feet! There are two other buildings on site. The Power House and Alster Tower are on the northeast and southwest ends of the island respectively. 

One of the Tour Boats

Alster Tower

Power House

 

Alster Tower (foreground), Boldt Castle above Trees

We got off the shuttle boat and entered the castle grounds and immediately started to wander the pathways through all the beautiful gardens to check out the everything else before entering the castle itself. For what it’s worth, I would suggest visitors first enter the castle and view the 15 minute video on the history of the island. It will put all of what you see as you tour in much better context. 

Truly a Castle

Smaller Outbuilding

Power House

Power House Again

Front of Boldt Castle

The brief story how this place came to be is both impressive and quite sad at the same time. George Boldt was a wealthy man from New York City and came to love this portion of the 1000 Islands. He bought the island and in 1900 started the construction of the castle, and other buildings including a yacht house not far away from Heart Island. It was to be a gift to his wife. In 1904 when the house was nearing completion, George’s wife died and he had all construction stop and was said to have never returned to the island. For over 70 years, the home was visited by thousands of people, many of them vandalized the building. Plus the harsh weather conditions, especially in the winter, caused all sorts of damage. In 1977, the Thousand Island Bridge Authority purchased the property and now charges visitors a fee to enter and has been restoring the property every since.

One of the Many Rooms Yet to be Restored

Inside Alster Tower

Ornate Room

Dinner for 18!

Big Kitchen Needed to Cook for 18

Dancing Room?

The main entry of the castle has a stained glass dome high overhead. We just assumed the dome was part of the outer roof. But after exploring some of the upper floors, we discover the dome is actually inside of the building with a glass roof overhead. Alster Tower was built as a playhouse for the children. Much of it still needs a fair amount of work to restore it. If you ever find yourself in the area, a trip to Boldt Castle should be high on your list. As the years go on, more and more of the rooms will get restored although I suspect it will take years if not decades to get the buildings to the intended level of quality. We catch one of the boats back to Alex Bay and do a little bit of touring the area before driving back to our campground. 

Stained Glass Dome from Inside

At Dome Level from Inside

An Upstairs Room Needing TLC

Looking Out Upstairs Room

View from Water

A second nice day of weather prompts us to drive to Sackets Harbor with the bikes. Chris had found a 22 mile loop that sounded like it could work for us. Sackets Harbor is a cute little town. As we head north, we pass what used to be Madison Barracks, an army facility up through WWII. It is now a nice looking residential area. We eventually get up to the town of Dexter using mainly quiet side streets or busier streets with decent shoulders for riding. It was a fun ride but not particularly scenic but we did manage to find a few geocaches along the way. I even found a wallet along the side of a country road and managed to locate the proper owner. 

Black Pond Wildlife Management Area was a short drive from the campground. There were far more cars than I was anticipating for such an out of the way location. We follow the boardwalk hoping to see some sort of interesting wildlife but didn’t find any during our walk. We eventually make it out to what is the likely draw for most people coming here - a nice sandy beach area. This explained the number of cars. I suspect even more people show up on weekends.

Along Boardwalk at Black Pond

There are only so many things to see that are close to our camp, so we decided to head into Watertown to check out their zoo. It’s called New York State Zoo at Thompson Park. The name makes it sound much more impressive than it actually is, but it was still worth the visit. They don’t have a large number of animals but do have a mountain lion, lynx, black bear, and elk. We had two favorite stops. The butterfly house had a good number of them flying around and was enjoyable to just stand and watch them. A pair of them were doing an odd flight pattern that looked more like an aerial dog fight. Maybe it was a mating ritual? The other neat stop were the wolves. We hadn’t made our way over to their habitat yet we could hear a couple of them howling to each other. They attracted a large viewing audience during their performance. 

Turtles are Better at Posing for Photo

Snoozing

We also explored a bit of Thompson Park, mainly to find several geocaches. Some of the trails would be reasonable for mountain biking but that wasn’t  in the plans for the day. We still had some time prior to the expected rain to move in so we headed to Joseph Blake Nature Preserve just to the east of Watertown. There were nice trails but midway through the hike, we could sense the rain was imminent so we hustled back to the car and headed home. 

Our last day in the area took us to the El Dorado Beach Preserve. It took us a little bit to find the proper way to the trailhead parking lot, but once there we enjoyed the trail out to the water of Lake Ontario. Just to the south is the beach we had visited a couple days earlier. As expected, there were many people there on this nice Sunday afternoon. A side trail takes us to both a geocache and a photographer’s blind. The cache was found easily but the location of the blind seemed a bit odd. A large sand dune prevents line of sight to the actual shore where the shore birds might be? A short drive took us to Sandy Creek Community Park. There is a nice hiking and biking and ATV trail system here and we practically had the place to ourselves. 

Pretty Iris along El Dorado Trail

From Eldorado Trail Looking Back at Black Pond Beach

Sometimes our weeklong stays seem to be too short while others seem too long. This one felt just about right to see the nearby sights while enjoying a nice campground when we’re back at the rig. Next stop - Massena NY.

Return to Rochester

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We left the Rochester area just about two years ago and have seen a lot of things during our travels predominantly out west. We have been methodically working our way east and north since early April and are now on the doorstep of being back. The drive from Warren Pennsylvania started to look very familiar to us. After so many months of always driving in places that were new to us, it felt a bit odd to experience sights and places that are ones we know. Of course some things have changed and I’m positive our memories have faded a bit in the intervening time but much of it looked the same as before. We used to spend a lot of time in the southern tier of New York and northern parts of Pennsylvania especially the Allegany State Park and Allegheny National Forest regions. We swing through Salamanca to get some relatively inexpensive diesel fuel for the motorhome at one of the many fuel stations on the Indian reservation. 

From there we head north, working our way to our next stop at Letchworth State Park. One thing that we notice all along the drive is the devastating impact the emerald ash borer (EAB) has had on the forests. Even at highway speed, I am able to distinguish many types of deciduous trees and nearly all the dead ones appear to be ash. When we left 2 years ago, we were told how bad things would get and by being away the whole time, we didn’t experience the decline in the gradual manner those living here have seen. It’s definitely a sad thing to see and is going to continue to cause havoc as the trees die and start to drop limbs. 

When we were planning for our return to the area, we found it difficult to figure out where to stay. We did a lot of camping prior to going full time, but we usually headed at least one or two hundred miles from the area. We didn’t have a ton of experience camping near home. One exception is Letchworth SP. It is only about 25 miles from our old home, but we have camped here a couple times during some geocaching events that are held here every fall. The park itself is tall and skinny - about 15 miles tall by 1.5 miles wide. The campground is about a third of the way down from the north. The Perry entrance brings us right into the campground area of the park. As we are coming around the last curve before entering the park, there is a 9’ 8” clearance sign. Definitely not the thing you want to see when driving a rig at least 3 feet taller than that. I was worried they had changed something since last being here but the sign only referenced the one lane that goes underneath the overhang at the entrance station. The other lane is without overhang - phew!

Possibly the main draw for tourists coming here are the three waterfalls along the Genesee River within Letchworth Park. The Upper, Middle and Lower Falls are all in the southern portion of the Park. The Upper Falls are at the location of a railroad bridge that spans the gorge. This was a new experience for us since the old trestle bridge has been removed and a new arched bridge is in its place. I had heard about the change and was concerned how the new bridge would compare to the classic old bridge. But I will say that we were pleasantly surprised. The new bridge no longer has the supports that reached down to the river so the view of the river is now wide open. Plus the arched bridge is nice looking. It is still being worked on, in fact the Portageville entrance to the park is currently closed while the work on the bridge continues. Next time we are in the area it will be complete.

Upper Falls with New RR Bridge

The Middle Falls are an easy walk from the Upper Falls. There are several viewing spots along the walkway next to the river. The Lower Falls are a bit further downstream and is better to be driven to unless you’re up for a good walk. It’s a wonderful park and definitely worth a visit, even if just a day trip to see the falls.

Middle Falls

Rainbow in Mist from Middle Falls

Selfie at Middle Falls

Walkway Just Beyond Lower Falls

Coming in on a Tuesday afternoon meant it wasn’t too busy and the loop we were in only had a few other campers. Letchworth camp sites are electric only with a few water spigots scattered about each loop and a dump station on the way out. We had reserved a spot that was next to a water spigot and near the restrooms which gives us a bit of buffer for our holding tanks. The weather was gorgeous our first day so we were able to do one of the many hikes within the park. Trail #18 heads right past the camping area and extends out along the Genesee River.

For our first day in town, we called our former neighbors to see if they might be around. We drive up to Rush and visit with them for a couple hours. There is a lot to get caught up on. Before heading out, we walk halfway up the driveway of our old place to visit the grave site of our beloved dog Shelby. We had lost her just a few months prior to selling the place so we had buried her next to one of her favorite spots on the 50 acres - next to the compost pile. The flowers Chris had planted at her grave, while not in bloom, made it easy to spot the location where the painted stone marked the spot. 

We were sad to see that the ash trees we had left in place when siting the driveway during home construction have also succumbed to the EAB. We didn’t head up the rest of the way to see the house figuring it was better to live with our memories. We headed to the town of Avon to have lunch at one of our favorite spots from our past - Tom Wahls. It’s a burger joint with an old time diner feel to it. Next was a bike ride along the Lehigh Valley Trail back up in Rush. Some local cachers have placed a whole bunch of new geocaches along the trail. It was a good way to see the area, get some exercise and find a bunch of caches. 

We take another day to do a bit more exploring of Letchworth itself. It is a beautiful park. It was even voted as the top state park in the country a couple years back. Since it was always so close to home, we may not have fully appreciated just what a gem it is. Coming back as a “tourist” gives us that opportunity. The nature center had been under construction during our last visit to the park in late 2015. With it now finished and fully landscaped, it is a very impressive building. We search for one of the newer geocaches that is now in place nearby before heading into the facility to check out the displays. 

New Nature Center at Letchworth

Falls Again

Great Bend Overlook

I have been getting in touch with many of our friends from the area to see if we can arrange for some sort of meet up. Our first one was to meet with a handful of former Kodak workers - during our working years, we would often head out for lunch on Fridays and have tried to get together once or twice a year after we all departed Kodak. For the past two winters, I have FaceTimed into their get together just before the holidays. Since we likely won’t ever be back in Rochester during the December timeframe, we managed to get much of the remaining group for a good lunch. It was nice to get to see them all and hear about how their work and families are doing.

We have a few overcast and rainy days during our stay in Letchworth. We do manage to get to a Geocaching event while we are in the area. This one was an ice cream social followed by a kayak/canoe ride on Canadice Lake. We came for the ice cream but aren’t big on water sports especially on a breezy day with rain threatening and a bit of chop on the lake. It was still fun to get to see many of our caching friends again after so long. Being in the area also allowed us to check on a few of our caches and do some maintenance. One of them was hidden years ago at the southern tip of Hemlock Lake along a nice trail. The trail may technically be there, but it hasn’t been mowed yet this season so the grass was nearly chest high and wet from the rains. It wasn’t a real fun one to check up on.

Cacher "ChickenElbows" Heads Out

Cacher "Mud Dancer" Tries a Kayak

Found While Geocaching Near Canadice Lake

Southern Tip of Canadice Lake

We also used a rainy day to go and tour the dam at Letchworth. We had lived in the Rochester area for over 30 years and hadn’t actually done the dam tour until a year or two before we left. It was a fun stop so we decided to go back for an encore tour. The dam is run by the US Army Corps of Engineers and they offer a free daily tour. There is a nice visitor center to explore prior to or after the the tour. Dam construction started in the late 1940’s and finished in 1952. It was built predominantly for flood control of the Genesee River and the downstream towns as well as downtown Rochester. It’s just over a thousand feet wide and about 230 feet above the river bed. They did design it to accept turbines for hydroelectric power generation, but that use would have backed up the water 17 miles to the lower falls and completely ruined the look of the gorge. Being the dry season, the dam is not holding back any water. In fact, the outlet side of the dam seems to have more water pooled than the inlet side which might confuse some visitors. A small hydroelectric dam in the town of Mount Morris, a few miles downstream, holds back a bit of water causing the pool to appear on the “wrong” side of this dam. 

Display at Dam Visitor Center Showing Last Bucket of Concrete

Floodplain Below Mount Morris Dam

Reasonably Dry Inlet SIde of Dam

Outlet Showing Backed up Water

For the tour, we walk down the steep service road giving us a view of the dam from the top in an up close and personal way. Our guide describes in detail about the design, construction and present day operation of the dam. Before the dam was built, there were floods roughly every 7 years with some of those being quite devastating for Rochester and other surrounding towns. The dam has only come close overrunning the spillway once in 1972 during Hurricane Agnes. In that case the gates of the dam needed to be opened to prevent damage to the dam itself. Our tour then heads inside the building and takes an elevator down into the interior of the dam. Unfortunately no photography is permitted while inside but it is impressive to see some of the inner workings of the dam. We are also at the level of another observation deck on the output side of the dam still well above water level. It is an interesting viewpoint from this far down inside the river gorge. If you ever happen to be in the area, check out the dam tour.

Rainy Day Dam Tour

Sumac Tree Taking Root in Dam

Looking Down River Past Dam

We did get a couple more days of nice weather. We headed to Mendon Ponds Park near where we used to live. It is one of the many nice county parks in the area. There are numerous geocaches here, some that are recent, so we were able to get some geocaching in during our walk in the park. We also checked up on one of my puzzle caches I had placed years ago. It’s a custom made cryptex constructed out of PVC pipe and fittings. It seems to be holding up well to the elements and the numerous cachers that have attempted to get inside of it to sign the log. It’s one of the more favorited caches within the county. 

Math Based Cryptex

Beautiful Day for a Hike at Mendon Ponds Park

We took advantage of the last good weather day we would get by doing one of our favorite hikes in Letchworth - or so we thought. We started the hike on Trail #2 at the Council Grounds parking area. The sign said the trail was closed ahead but we hoped it wouldn’t interfere with our goal. Unfortunately the railroad bridge construction effort had forced them to close the trail we wanted at the tunnel that leads underneath the railroad track. The signs looked serious enough that we decided to not tempt fate. We ended up taking a couple other trails and after 4.5 miles, made it back to the car.  

No Hiking on Trail #2

Old Schoolhouse in Letchworth SP

Civil War Monument

Beautiful CCC Stonework

Mary Jemison Statue at Council Grounds

We got one last good hike in that afternoon doing another trail not far from the campground area. At one point in the hike, we had the choice to hike back up the hill out of the gorge to the car, or up the hill to the campground. We picked the second option and got in another 4 mile hike that day. The plan to bike back to the car was messed up a bit when I realized that my cycling shoes, helmet and gloves were all in the car - doh!

After 9 nights in Letchworth, it was time to move to another state park - Hamlin Beach SP is on the northwest side of Rochester right along the shore of Lake Ontario. We had reserved our site for 11 nights hoping that would be long enough meet with other friends. Being a short drive, we pulled out of our spot and sat in one of the large parking areas in Letchworth before heading out after lunch. There are lots of low bridges to contend with so it is quite nice (necessary?) to have a GPSr that allows our dimensions to be entered so it can route us around the problem areas. It wasn’t able to predict that there was a paving project on the Lake Ontario State Parkway the last couple miles prior to entering the park. With one lane closed and the big construction barrels sitting in the open lane so the paving equipment could work, it was a very tight fit but as far as I could tell, no barrels were knocked over as I drove by.

We have never camped here before but have been to the park numerous times over our years living here. Our first 15 years in the area were on the north side of town in Greece which made for a pleasant bike ride to Hamlin Beach. This spot was more convenient for some of our friends to visit. And we definitely had lots of visitors. Some came to our “house”, for others we went to their house and some larger groups we met at a restaurant. It was really fun to catch up with our friends. We hadn’t seen many of them for two years but for others it had been even longer. It seemed like each visit went way too fast. There wasn’t enough time to get fully caught up but we did the best we could.

Meeting with the Cirullis at Hamlin Beach

Ex-Kodak Friends

Our stay here had some very hot days - in the mid nineties with high humidity. We had run into nearly triple digit heat in Phoenix but that was a dry heat. The heat index was well over 100 and it felt nice to sit inside the air conditioning. We did manage to get some bike rides in usually early in the morning. Some days we walked across the field to the beach area and went into the cold lake water to cool off a bit. Hamlin Beach is quite a nice park. They even had fireworks for us the weekend prior to July 4th. They weren’t even close to what we had seen during our stop in Lake Havasu City earlier this year, but no fireworks will live up to that lofty display. 

Unexpected Lighthouse Find Along Lake Ontario

Lighthouse Now a B&B

Our schedule was so booked with visiting people that we nearly didn’t find time to get out for any sight seeing. Of course, many of the things we would recommend for visitors to the area are places we have done numerous times and didn’t feel obligated to go do them again. That’s not to say we didn’t get out. We made it to Ontario Beach Park one afternoon to get custard at Abbotts - another one of our favorites that we miss being away from the area. We did get to a place we had never been before - actually never even heard of it. A friend of ours placed a new geocache in Wesley Hill Preserve. It was a nice hike in the woods and was mostly shaded making the heat a bit more tolerable. 

Boats Coming in at Charlotte Pier

Coast Guard Station at Mouth of Genesee River

At Overlook in Wesley Hill Preserve

The time at Hamlin Beach seemed to fly by. In fact, it’s hard to believe we were in the area for 20 nights but we need to slowly work our way further north and east as we make our way to Maine. 

Chris Chases the Gulls

Sunset Over Lake Ontario