Finger Lakes Part 2, Buttermilk Falls

I spent a weekend in the Finger lakes with my family for hiking and wine tasting. I will break the trip up by park, this is part two.

A few years ago I read an article in Backpacker Magazine that was just my style "Top 3 Trailhead Pub Hikes." Number three on the list is Buttermilk Falls State Park. Since we arrive in Ithaca a little early to check in we attacked the park.

For this park we started at the bottom. The first of the 11 falls is a large sliding falls with a large pool at the bottom. In the warmer months they add a damn to make the pool bigger for swimming. We followed Backpacking Magazines suggestions and headed up the valley trail. This trail made you earn it, steep in parts and slippery as it makes its way up the stream bed.

 Looking up at the falls from the trail head

 Looking down into the pool and life guard stand

About half way up the trail the streams gorge gets narrower and you walk along the top of it. In this section it looks similar to Walkins Glen.

 Layered Slate wall along the trail

After the few falls in the narrow gorge it opens up again and you pass this tower. If it wasn't made of loose slate, I doubt I could have resisted climbing it. Since climbing it would have torn it apart I just admired it form the bottom.

At the top we crossed the bridge skipped the upper part of the park and headed down along the rim trail. For reasons unknown, my GPS stopped tracking on the way down. The view from the rim trail wasn't as good. There were only a few places that overlooked the creek.

Sadly we didn't take the advice of Backpacker and hit up Ithaca Beer Company, since it was time to check in to the hotel. We made up for it by hitting Bandwagon Brew Pub downtown for dinner.

-James

Lele Kawa

ATVing through Ellicottville, NY

One of my favorite things to do in high school was go ATV riding through the woods of Ellicottville, where my family has some property. The balance of control and maneuverability of an ATV just makes it so much fun. Even the many times I over estimated my control and threw myself off the ATV, it was all part of the fun. With the smaller ATVs you can body them around a bit, which is something impossible to do with anything bigger like a side by side or a jeep.

For most of those years my family only had one ATV so it was a lot of going out alone. This was the first time that my family had two working ATVs. Another thing that made this day more fun is we know the neighbors better and had permission to ride on their property as well as our own.

Blasting through the desert is fun, but I think the trees and more diverse terrain makes the forest more fun. The only down side was some resent storms had downed a lot of trees, so there were more stops than normal.

-James

Lele Kawa