An old postcard shows the beginning of the upper gorge in the upper section of Robert H. Treman State Park.
“The Treman Show.” Produced by the Friends of Robert H. Treman State Park, this award-winning* half-hour episode of Walk in the Park TV (#44) explores the trails, history, archeology, geology, and plants and wildlife of this scenic and historic park near Ithaca in New York’s Finger Lakes region. It will show on Ithaca, NY’s public access channel 13 this Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 a.m., and again on Tuesday, April 2, at 8:00 p.m. Or, you can watch it right here!
*This video, originally entitled, “Exploring Robert H. Treman State Park,” and part of the Nature Nearby series produced by Tony Ingraham for PEGASYS public access in Ithaca, NY, won first place as the best public access show in Ithaca in 2008.
In this week’s episode of Walk in the Park (#43, recorded 3/20/13), we celebrate the arrival of the spring equinox and then take a trip last summer on the Blue Ridge Parkway, from its northern end near Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, to the Peaks of Otter in George Washington National Forest. Then we look at the hazards of entering our Finger Lakes gorges too early in the season, including a dramatic video of high water at Buttermilk Falls. Stay tuned for a future episode of Walk in the Park TV where we continue on the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Black Mountains of North Carolina and the highest mountain in the eastern U.S.!
You can watch this episode on Ithaca’s public access cable TV channel 13 on Sunday, March 24 at 10:30 a.m. and once more at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 26. Or, you can watch it online right here!
Climbing through a tunnel by the view once known as The Vista in a section of Watkins Glen once called Glen Obscura.
This short tunnel, the third in a sequence of four in all, is in a quiet, shady section of Watkins Glen once called Glen Obscura, and the view was called The Vista in the 1800s. It is just upstream from the “Suspension Bridge.” Back then, the trail did not traverse this section of Watkins Glen, but instead bypassed it on the gorge rim above.
In the 1800s, one had to climb this staircase out of Watkins Glen to the Swiss Cottage, rather than continue under the bridge into what was then called Glen Obscura, as one does today. Back then another path led back into the glen past Glen Obscura. The bridge, then known as the Iron Bridge and now called the Suspension Bridge, remains today, although without the awning. The Swiss Cottage is long gone, as is the building on the left side of this drawing, the Glen Mountain House hotel. Image courtesy of Bill Hecht
In those old days, your detour of Glen Obscura was rewarded by the chance to sit down and order refreshments at the Swiss Cottage (also known as the Swiss Chalet). Today, you have to climb all the way out of the gorge and up to the swimming pool on the South Rim to find Watkins Glen State Park‘s snack bar. But many will agree that the glen is more beautiful without buildings hugging its cliff tops.
“If I can do it, anybody can do it,” remarks Tammy Lovell in my newest episode of my Walk in the Park TV series on Ithaca, NY public access channel 13. She’s speaking of hiking across the Grand Canyon, a 25 mile trek from the North Rim to the South Rim in this famous national park in northern Arizona. “But you do have to know what you are doing; you have to be careful,” she cautions.
Jim & Tammy emerge from the inner gorge of the Grand Canyon on the Bright Angel Trail on their way to Indian Gardens and the South Rim. Photo provided by Jim Rundle
Tammy and her husband Jim Rundle joined up with two others to spend five days on their “trip of a lifetime” last November. In their story here, they tell us about their trek, how they prepared, the equipment they chose, and they share dozens of gorgeous photographs from the trail.
You can see their story online here, or watch it on Ithaca’s public access channel 13 over the next few days, including 10:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday both, and finally next Tuesday, February 5, at 8:00 p.m. (and at other times they station manager may select).
But if you can’t get it on TV, see it right here! Jim and Tammy share valuable tips for planning your own trip of lifetime.
Jim Rundle and Tammy Lovell joined two others to walk across the Grand Canyon last November in a trek that dazzled their senses with awe. They tell their story on this week’s episode of Walk in the Park TV series on Ithaca’s public access channel 13. It is showing now: next scheduled showings are this Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and next Tuesday, February 5, at 8:00 p.m. And at other times as the station chooses. I will post the show online very soon!
The Bright Angel Trail ascends toward the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Photo by Jim Rundle
Highlights from this week’s upcoming Walk in the Park TV public access TV show on Ithaca, NY cable channel 13. See brief video below for times. First showing Thursday, 1/24 at 9:00 p.m. I will also post it online on this blog as soon as possible!
Hikers walk through a red pine plantation on the Finger Lakes Trail in Danby State Forest. Photo by S. Hesse.
Late afternoon sun reflects off ponds in Newman Arboretum in the Cornell Plantations, Ithaca, NY.
A "buck rub" in the East Ithaca Nature Preserve
Lucifer Falls in Robert H. Treman State Park as viewed from the Rim Trail
See the schedule for Ithaca public access TV channel 13 showings:
This episode will appear on this blog online soon!
East Ithaca Recreation Way on the slope of Snyder Hill by the Eastern Heights neighborhood. Click on the picture for a map of Town of Ithaca parks and trails.
The Town of Ithaca, NY has created suburban trails, including the East Ithaca Recreation Way. This section is served by a bus stop on Pine Tree Road and a parking lot on Snyder Hill Road.
Pedestrians can cross Pine Tree Road from Honness Lane along the East Ithaca Recreation Way, or they can get off the TCAT bus right here.
This section of the path passes by the Town’s East Ithaca Nature Preserve. Check out my 76 second video about the trail:
Three people sit near the ruins of the former mill at Buttermilk Falls sometime in the 1800s.
Three people sit near the old mill by the base of Buttermilk Falls, in this old photo provided by photographer and local historian Bill Hecht. As with many of the gorges and mills around Ithaca and the Finger Lakes, mills gave way to those seeking the balm of scenery. This photograph suggests that transition. In the 1866 book, The Scenery of Ithaca and the Headwaters of Cayuga Lake, edited by Spence Spencer, we find that it was a sawmill in his description of this very scene for prospective tourists.
A page about Buttermilk Falls in Spence Spencer's 1866 book, The Scenery of Ithaca and the Headwaters of Cayuga Lake.
This week’s new Walk in the Park TV episode, is here online and on Ithaca, NY’s cable public access channel 13. Watch it tonight (Thursday, 1/17) at 9:00 p.m. or at one of the other times indicated below, or watch it below right here.
The snows of late December yielded to the thaw of early January around Ithaca, NY and the Finger Lakes region. Nowhere has it been more dramatically demonstrated than at roaring Ithaca Falls. We take a short video trip around the cataract from several perspectives to marvel at its power and beauty. Then we go for a walk on the Cayuga Waterfront Trail at Allan H. Treman State Marine Park in Ithaca along Cayuga Inlet and the ice-free shore of Cayuga Lake. And with the snow gone, we look into the gorge at Buttermilk Falls State Park.
But one has to be careful in the woods around Ithaca this January with the DEC’s experimental Deer Management Focus Area in central Tompkins County, where hunting of “antlerless” deer is permitted (with a permit) through the rest of the month. Special guest commentator, the backwoods curmudgeon philosopher Ichabod, sounds off about “Too Many Deer!” (The views and opinions expressed by this character are not necessarily those of this program, Channel 13, or Time Warner Cable!)
