Anything but devilish
A full sweep of Lucifer Falls on an autumn evening, the sun hidden behind the gorge walls. Here the Gorge Trail emerges from the shelter of the gorge, emerging into a dizzying view.
Look Around
Standing on the trail alongside Lucifer Falls, crane your neck, up and up to the cliff top. Look closely to see the protective rock wall of the overlook.
The Rim Trail includes this overlook of Lucifer Falls with, upstream, the Devil’s Kitchen waterfall, the path of the Gorge Trail in between.
The full sweep of Lucifer Falls on an autumn evening, the sun hidden behind the gorge walls. Here the Gorge Trail emerges from the shelter of the gorge, emerging into a dizzying view.
On the way to “Devil’s Kitchen”
This trail, built into the slate/sandstone gorge wall, follows the descent of Lucifer Falls. Here we view the brink and the path alongside. Follow this trail to Devil’s Kitchen, up and around the corner.
and a shifting of crops to (human) wheat from (cow) corn
Wednesday, June 15th, we were on a turn to heat and humidity with this day of light breeze, temperature in the 70s making hiking around Tremen Park a joy.
These snapshots, taken on the fly with an IPhone 7, are the high points.
The first is a dandelion look alike with yellow flowers, petals shaped like teeth, though on a long hard stem and multiple flowers on a stalk. Known as meadow hawkweed, yellow hawkweed, field hawkweed, king devil, yellow paintbrush, devil’s paintbrush, yellow devil, yellow fox-and-cubs, and yellow king-devil with two scientific names: Pilosella caespitosa and Hieracium caespitosum.
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Welcome Distraction
This Finger Lakes Trail / Treman Park / Cayuga Trails Loop concludes with these incredible trees and flowers
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The diversity of Fleabane throughout North America is simply enormous.
We end at the beginning. Here is more information about these flowers, in the captions.
Welcome Distraction
The Red Trail makes a turn up a slope of 10,000 year old glacial till. Here a side trail leads to a woodland waterfall.
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There and Back Again
Still photography does not do justice to the Phlox meadow of yesterday’s posting. Here is another presentation including the sights and sounds. Smello-vision does not yet exist.
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A Cayuga Trails Presentation
Cayuga, the name of the Iroquois tribe of this area, the name of our Finger Lake, an average of 1.7 miles wide, the longest at 40 miles. Fans of the “Twilight Zone” remember Rod Sterling’s Cayuga Productions named for a family lake house, from his maternal grandmother, on the west side of the lake.
Here we continue this Sunday loop hike, taking this stairway hidden next to the Old Mill. Thanks to the Cayuga Trails club the trail is marked and maintained.
A meadow next to Fish Kills is filled with Phlox.
A path through heaven.
There and Back Again
Looping from the hinterland of Treman Park, I turned left on the Rim Trail, following the a one-way track in this time of coronavirus.
“Ithaca is Gorges” is a popular bumper sticker with locals and in this portion of the walk we glimpse the truth of the marketing. No sooner than I turn onto the Rim trail, a foursome approaches, two young couples, a baby in a front mounted carrier on a presumed father, the women talking continuously. I ducked into a handy viewing platform to maintain distance and wait 5 minutes or so until the breezes clear the air. The mask is in my pocket.
All these photographs and video are from an IPhone 7, sent to my laptop via ICloud.
I am not the fastest walker and this portion of the trail, a steep incline with many large rocks, roots and tilting bridges over rills, demanded care. Still, no other hikers passed me.
Walking the parking lot I understood why, there were few cars and people. Still, I needed to head off the path into the parking lot to maintain distance. Why is it always I how move? Time for experimentation, but I don’t want to put on the mask.
Find this mysterious pathway to beyond next to the Old Mill. To be continued……
A difficult clamber.
Hiking nowadays I seek out unfrequented spots, such as the Red Pine Trail. In yesterday’s post we started on a path that opened and changed with the building of a new footbridge over Fish Kill. Here we are on the other side.
I meet no other hikers, though at the foot of the hill, where the path turns to climb, I pass a tent on a spot overlooking Fish Kill. This portion of the Finger Lakes Trail traverses the forested southern rim of Enfield Gorge (Treman Park) close to private lands, occasionally emerging for short distances on roads. It is the little known, and true, Rim Trail. The park’s named Rim Trail runs below on the side of the gorge.
Here is where the service road intersects with the Rim Trail, beyond the fence is a cliff dropping to Enfield Creek on an approach to the dramatic Lucifer Falls through the Devil’s Kitchen. With COVID-19 the park trails are one-way to reduce hiker interactions. The Rim Trail is one-way, up the gorge. I turn left.
Michael Stephen Wills Photography 