I don’t post full trip reports here very often, but I had a rare opportunity for a short solo road trip earlier this week and decided to take the chance to clinch some roads in western Monroe, Genesee, and — you guessed it — Orleans County!
I added mileage on 11 NY state routes and clinched NY 262, NY 272, NY 279 and NY 387 (plus an attempted clinch of NY 237 - more on that later).
I started from Webster in the late morning and took NY 104 to Lake Ave to the Lake Ontario State Pkwy (LOSP) to the NY 98 exit. The parkway was a spectacular drive as always — sunny skies, light traffic, and little enforcement, so I had the cruise at 74 mph and sped up to 80 or so as I felt comfortable doing so. Google said 32.5 miles/32 minutes from Lake Rd to NY 98 and I clocked it at just over 26 minutes.
Then the clinching fun began, as I took NY 98 south to NY 18 (had planned to take CR 55, but the bridge over Oak Orchard Creek appears to no longer exist!?). From NY 18, I took the mostly-unsigned NY 279 south to NY 98. The "
five points" junction of NY 279 and NY 98 is rather odd — NY 279 SB doesn’t have to stop despite approaching at an angle, but NY 98 SB
does have to stop.
My initial impression of Albion: bigger and busier than I was expecting (roast me if you must)! Stopped at Dunkin just past noon and then continued south on NY 98 to Elba. NY 98 between Albion and Elba quickly rocketed to “favorite” status for me — busy, with plenty of truck traffic, but also straight with great sight lines and ample passing opportunities. Picked up the tiny segment of NY 262 that I was missing in Elba, then headed west to Oakfield to complete a clinch of NY 262.
From there, the trip into Batavia on NY 63 was quite slow as I was following a whole string of traffic. Traffic didn’t get any better from there — the NY 5/63 overlap is a Pennsylvania-esque slog with tons of traffic, trucks, and poorly timed signals. I followed NY 5 west from Batavia which was slow on the NY 33 overlap but opens up quickly after that. I was impressed by the long four-lane stretch — rare for NY — which extends all the way to Prole Rd.
I then headed north on NY 237 with the intention of clinching the whole thing in one shot. It’s not a bad road, but seemed much slower than NY 98, with a number of curves, hamlets, and speed zones. It was also starting to cloud over and I needed to use the restroom, so that may have affected my enjoyment of the route.
After a restroom stop in Clarendon, I reached the junction with NY 31 in Holley where my plan to clinch NY 237 derailed due to a the bridge over the Erie Canal being closed. So I took the one-lane East Ave bridge instead, then Hurd Rd and Telegraph Rd back to NY 237. I didn’t go right up to the closure on either end, nor did I follow the signed detour (at least right then — I actually used most of it later), so I’ll have to come back and clinch that segment when the bridge reopens.
Back on track, I found that the northern section of NY 237 was also slow, especially through Kendall, and seemed like most of it had a 45 mph limit. Then just when it started to open up, the LOSP entrance appeared
seemingly out of nowhere. I took the LOSP east for 2 miles to NY 272 (County Line Rd) and headed south for a clinch of NY 272. There’s a very strange one-lane segment
here — never seen anything quite like it and couldn’t find any information online. Based on Street View it seems to have appeared since 2015. It looks permanent given the signage, but perhaps it’s “temporary” until a proper bridge can be built.
Upon reaching NY 104, I turned left and headed east to Redman Rd, then south to SUNY Brockport and used campus roads to loop around to NY 31, then headed north/west following NY 31 into Holley. I got a better impression of Holley entering from this direction — it’s a good thing NY 31A exists, because NY 31 is very slow and has a series of turns that aren’t well suited to truck traffic. Continuing west from Holley, this stretch of NY 31 was part of the NY 237 detour and was very slow as I was second in line behind a dump truck with no good passing opportunities.
I had originally planned to take NY 31 to Albion, then NY 98 north to NY 18, but I was running low on time so I bailed via NY 387, picking up a clinch of that route. Then I took CR 32 up to NY 18 and followed NY 18 back to Hamlin. That exhausted my clinching opportunities, so I just took Google’s fastest route back from there (Curtis Rd to NY 261 to the LOSP). Finally when I got closer to home I took the opportunity to stop at Arby’s on NY 104 for a late lunch since there aren’t any Arby’s near me anymore.
All told, I picked up about 96 miles of new highway mileage and clinched four state routes in just under four hours. It was a blast! Hopefully I have the chance for more clinching trips in the near future and if I do, I’ll post about them here.
