Hiking at Robert H Treman State Park

We made our biweekly trip back down to Ithaca to hike to see Lucifer Falls, a 115-foot waterfall at Treman State Park.  This park encompasses the now defunct town of Enfield Glen, of which only a few relics remain.  This park encompasses a total of 12 cascades or waterfalls and is an easy 6 miles of walking on very well-maintained, albeit busy trails.  We began at the lower end of the park and walked up the Gorge Trail first.  Along the way we saw many small cascades and a bigger waterfall, all along trails edge.  When we reached the 2 mile mark we were at the base of Lucifer Falls.  From here, the Gorge Trail had washed out and we were rerouted onto the Rim Trail (are you guys noticing a pattern here, all the trails in Ithaca are named Gorge Trail and Rim Trail!) and up multiple flights of beautifully built stone stairs, which in my mind belonged in some kind of medieval castle!  At the top, it was a short walk to the view of Lucifer Falls.  

After viewing the falls, we continued uphill to meet up with the Gorge Trail once again, which you could follow for about 0.3 miles to an overlook with a bridge near the top of the falls.  We wandered back to the upper parking area and through an old flour mill, which has been restored and turned into a museum honoring both the former town of Enfield Glen and the CCC who built the trails and the parks during the Depression.  

After lunching and wandering through the museum, we took the CCC Memorial Trail to the Finger Lakes Trail to get a break from all the crowds and hike on real trail again.  There was an old woods road to walk on through the site of the former CCC camp and a bridge crossing Fishkill Creek which was out of service.  We crossed the bridge anyway only to realize why it was closed - the end on the other side had absolutely nothing supporting it!  YIKES!  After walking a short mile on the Finger Lakes Trail in solitude, we joined back up with the Rim Trail to hike back down to the car.  These two miles weren’t quite as busy as the Gorge Trail, but still very well-traveled.  When we reached the bottom, we reached Enfield Falls and the public “beach” at the bottom.

The photos above are: a swimmer on the diving board at Enfield Falls, the small falls on the Gorge Trail, NoKey’s face in a unique limestone formation,  NoKey walking up seemingly endless steps, me on the bridge over Lucifer Falls, and me jumping for joy while out in nature.  

Hiking the North Country Trail/Finger Lakes Trail on the Onondaga Trail section. 

NoKey came home from work Friday morning and announced he’d like to go backpacking over the weekend.  We have started keeping all our backpacking gear in two tubs in the attic so it would be easy to grab and go - seriously, we can have our bags sorted, assembled, and packed in less than half an hour.  We looked on our new favorite website, CNYhiking.com, for a close and pretty trip and quickly decided on the Onondaga Trail.  This trail makes up a small part of the 590-mile Finger Lakes Trail, which runs concurrent with the North Country Trail here in Central New York.  Our hike would only be 24 miles round trip, but it could have been a 30-mile loop using three separate state parks and natural areas in four counties.  

We started our hike at NY-13 at a DEC parking area and began with a road walk (OUR FAVORITE!)  Today we walked past an active dairy farm, up the side of the farm, and into the woods in Morgan State Forest.  We walked mostly on a mix of state forest and private lands, sort of skirting and weaving into and out of the two.  At one point, we even walked on an ATV trail, which is the handicapped hunting access to some private lands.  After approximately 8 miles, we came to Tinker Falls, which is a huge falls with a teeny amount of water.  This was pretty much the only place on the trail we saw any other hikers.  We continued 3 miles past the falls to Spruce Pond to camp for the night. 

I had read online that Spruce Pond is a popular weekend spot and therefore was the only place on this loop that required reservations.  Of course, in true New York style, they don’t tell you how to get reservations.  We took the chance and guess what? We were the only people at the campsite.  This probably was due to the cruddy weather - high of 55, low in the 40s, and threat of rain/mud all day Saturday.  We enjoyed having a quiet night and sadly couldn’t get a fire going not only due to the lack of wood at the popular site, but also due to the fact that it had rained every single day the past five days and everything we did find was soaked.  

The next morning we headed back out the way we came and saw a few more hikers, all of whom were in love with Gracie the Adventure Dog and her doggie backpack.  

The Onondaga Trail is a great hike with several strenuous climbs and good scenery - so many beautiful water features.  It was tough enough to make our dog tired the next day and that’s all we can ask for!

The photos above: Ferns on a sunny Sunday, some pretty (and probably deadly!) mushrooms, a scene from the road walk back to our car, Tinker Falls from above (looking much smaller than it is!), a hang gliding meadow just before Labrador Unique Area, and a small waterfall where we ate our lunch on day 1.