Tag Archives: Ithaca

Grand Canyon & Finger Lakes Compared

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Huh? What could such different regions have in common? Well, there are some commonalities, and there are great differences. The two regions are parts of much larger river basins, the Colorado and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence respectively. Both are eroded into ancient sedimentary rock layers. One is arid, and often desert, while the other receives abundant rainfall. One has been drastically altered by glaciation, while the other apparently has not. In this week’s episode (#37) of Walk in the Park TV, we return to the Grand Canyon (following last week’s show, “Walk Across the Grand Canyon“) and look at the bigger picture.

South Kaibab Trail, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

The South Kaibab Trail hugs the base of this cliff near the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

After that, in honor of the Super Bowl champions, the Baltimore Ravens, we take a look at real ravens, including ravens at the Grand Canyon. And finally, we briefly discuss uranium mining at the Grand Canyon.

See it here online, or watch it on Ithaca, NY public access TV channel 13, this Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 a.m. each day, or next Tuesday, Feb. 12, at 8:00 p.m., and at other times the station may schedule it until Wednesday, Feb. 13 (check just before the hour and half hour and the day’s cablecast schedule is usually posted briefly).

See all of my Walk in the Park episodes and short videos.

 

Some Winter Walks Near Ithaca

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This episode (#35, recorded January 23, 2013) of Walk in the Park TV features a hike in the red pine forest on the Finger Lakes Trail in Danby State Forest south of Ithaca, NY; a stroll on the paths through the sculpture gardens in the F. R. Newman Arboretum of Cornell Plantations; walking the East Ithaca Recreation Way and the East Ithaca Nature Preserve; and finally a wintry look at Lucifer Falls from the Rim Trail in Robert H. Treman State Park. We also look at some photographs of Buttermilk Falls in the 1800s when a saw mill stood beside the waterfall. See it here below or watch it on Ithaca’s public access TV channel 13; next cablecasts: Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 a.m., Tuesday at 8:00 p.m.

Copyright 2013 Owl Gorge Productions

Paper birch at Cornell Plantations, Ithaca, NY

Paper birch (Betula papyrifera) in the F.R. Newman Arboretum at Cornell Plantations

Watch the whole show here!

You can see all Walk in the Park TV episodes and short videos here.

 

East Ithaca Trail and Preserve

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A hiker walks a portion of the East Ithaca Recreation Way on the side of Snyder Hill, not far from Cornell University.

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.

TCAT bust stop on Pine Tree Road and the East Hill Recreation Way

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:

Click here for a map of the Town of Ithaca’s parks and trails.

From Sawmill to Scenery at Buttermilk Falls

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People by the ruins of a mill at the base of Buttermilk Falls in Ithaca, NY

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.

Page from Spence Spencer's Scenery of Ithaca and the Headwaters of Cayuga Lake

A page about Buttermilk Falls in Spence Spencer's 1866 book, The Scenery of Ithaca and the Headwaters of Cayuga Lake.

 

 

Ithaca Falls Thaw

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A foot or more of late December snow has transformed to runoff in our creeks and gorges, filling the ravines to their banks, to smash and splash but not to mud and flood. The display was impressive yesterday at Ithaca Falls, where Fall Creek makes its final 150-foot dive to the city of Ithaca and the Cayuga Valley. Take a minute and a half to marvel with me at this spectacle from below and above.

Stay tuned for this week’s upcoming Walk in the Park TV show episode on Ithaca’s public access cable channel 13, first showing Thursday at 9:00 p.m., then Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 a.m., and finally next Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. And you can catch the current show tonight (Tuesday) at 8:00 p.m. I will try to get the new show up online here by the weekend. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the little video above!

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Fly Fishing at Ithaca Falls

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Ithaca Falls is one of the largest and most beautiful waterfalls in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, and indeed in the state as a whole. Fall colors add to its beauty each autumn. It’s an easily accessible, remarkable place to immerse oneself in the wonder of Fall Creek Gorge and the power of the large waterfall.

Fly fishing Ithaca Falls Ithaca, NY Fall Creek waterfall salmon trout Cayuga Lake fall colors

A man tries his luck fly fishing from the shore of Fall Creek below Ithaca Falls.

In spring and fall, brown trout, salmon, and rainbow trout work their way upstream from Cayuga Lake on spawning runs, and these in turn attract fly fishing enthusiasts. Watch my short video (2 min. 39 sec.) displaying the beauty of Ithaca Falls and the patience of fly fishermen, below.

Check out my Walk in the Park video channel!

Fall Colors in the Finger Lakes

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Episode 25 of Walk in the Park TV, “Fall Colors in the Finger Lakes,” is now showing on television and online. It begins this evening at 9:00 p.m. on Ithaca’s public access cable TV channel 13 and continues for the next week according to the schedule below. Meanwhile, you can see “Fall Colors in the Finger Lakes” online.

Cornell University Fall Creek Gorge Cascadilla Ithaca NY Fall Colors aerial photograph

Most of the Cornell campus is bounded on the north and south by gorges: Fall Creek Gorge on the north (left) and Cascadilla Glen on the south (right). Photograph by Bill Hecht

Join me, Tony Ingraham, in this visual trip around the Finger Lakes region, from the ground and in the air, marveling at the fall foliage extravaganza nature has put on for us in October. Visit Taughannock Falls and Buttermilk Falls State Parks, Cascadilla Gorge, Ithaca Falls and Fall Creek Gorge, Cornell University campus, Cayuga Lake, Myers Park and Salmon Creek, Seneca County, Seneca Lake, Keuka Lake, Canandaigua Lake, Watkins Glen State Park, Sixmile Creek in Ithaca, and more. Photographer Bill Hecht’s views of Taughannock Gorge from the air are incomparable, as are his views of the Cornell campus situated between Fall Creek Gorge and Cascadilla Glen and other aerial vistas around the region. We also visit Cesar Chavez National Monument in California, Fishlake National Forest and Zion National Park in Utah, and Glacier National Park in Montana.

See the show right here!

Or, you can catch the show on Time Warner Cable public access television channel 13 in the Ithaca area:

Thursday,  9:00 p.m.

Saturday, 10:30 a.m.

Sunday,    10:30 a.m.

Tuesday,    8:00 p.m.

It also is shown at other times as the station manager chooses.

Walk in the Park TV Show, episode 20

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Ithaca Falls, Fall Creek, Cornell, Finger Lakes, Cayuga

Ithaca Falls on Sept. 7, 2012

See it here or on TV! Recorded on September 12, 2012, and cablecast on Ithaca, NY’s cable public access TV channel 13. Host Tony Ingraham acknowledges the anniversary of the floods caused by Tropical Storm Lee a year ago by showing the popular short video he made at the time, called “Ithaca’s Gorges Flood.” We also look at the flood’s effects on Owego and Binghamton, NY. For levity, see Granny’s Pig Race at the Northampton, MA Tri-County Fair. And we visit Ithaca Falls, Buttermilk Glen, Enfield Glen in Robert H. Treman State Park, and take a close look at one of our native wildflowers.

There is one more scheduled showing on Ithaca’s channel 13 this week, on Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012, at 8:00 p.m.

The next episode will be shown first this Thursday, Sept. 20, at 9:00 p.m.

Walk in the Park, the TV show, airs weekly on Ithaca, NY’s public access cable TV channel 13:

Thursday,  9:00 p.m.

Saturday, 10:30 a.m.

Sunday,    10:30 a.m.

Tuesday,    8:00 p.m.

It also is shown at other times as the station manager chooses.

Civil War Encampment

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150 years ago, America was embroiled in a horrible war with itself that cost the lives of at least 700,000 troops on both sides. Though battles never reached New York State, thousands of young men were thrown into the war and the miseries of 19th century military life, and their families were deeply affected as well.

On August 25 and 26, 148th Regiment NYVI (New York Volunteer Infantry) representatives, many Civil War veteran descendants, came to Ithaca, NY to set up a “living history” military camp for the public to visit and learn about this part of our history from the perspective of central New York soldiers and families.

I visited the encampment yesterday, and I found the experience profound, as I was able to learn more about my own Civil War ancestor, Lt. Col. Gilbert A. Draper, from the 159th Regiment from the Hudson Valley, who died in the Battle of Irish Bend near New Orleans in April 1863. My middle name is Draper. My brother has a portrait of him in uniform, while my cousin has his pistol and sword.

Civil War, Battle of Irish Bend, Louisiana, history

Sketch by William Hall of the Battle of Irish Bend, Louisiana on April 14, 1863, that appeared in Harper's Weekly

I have made a short video (3 min. 49 sec.) of the encampment centering on an interview with Caren Cleaveland and showing musket and canon fire, among other things demonstrated at the camp. The encampment continues for the rest of this afternoon (August 26).

Walk in the Park, the TV show, episode 15, August 8, 2012

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woodland sunflowers picnic area upper Buttermilk Falls State Park Ithaca NY

Woodland sunflowers bloom near the Lake Treman picnic area in upper Buttermilk Falls State Park, Ithaca, NY.

With more aerial views of gorges and Ithaca, Yosemite Falls in California, a trip through Enfield Glen and Lucifer Falls at Robert H. Treman State Park, a visit to two peace parks in Japan remembering the atomic attacks at the end of World War 2, music with the Horseflies on the Cornell Arts Quad, a walk looking at wildflowers and listening to frog songs along Lake Treman in Buttermilk Falls State Park, watching waterfalls in Glen Alpha and Cavern Cascade in Watkins Glen State Park, and celebration of National Lighthouse Day at Cayuga Inlet. See it all on this week’s episode of Walk in the Park, the TV show, on Ithaca public access cable channel 13. First showing will be tonight at 9:00 p.m., and lasts 29 minutes. See the full schedule.

Or watch it online here!