Tag Archives: trail

Black Diamond Trail Celebration

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“Wahoo!” cried Sue Poelvoorde of Finger Lakes State Parks on Oct. 2, 2016 when addressing the crowd gathered at the Cass Park pavilion in Ithaca, NY. She was celebrating decades of work by many partners in finally completing the first eight miles of the Black Diamond Trail from Cass Park to Taughannock Falls State Park on the west shore of Cayuga Lake. The gathering was sponsored by the Finger Lakes Cycling Club (FLCC), a major partner and advocate for the Black Diamond Trail.

This week’s episode of Walk in the Park (#148) covers this event and shows numerous scenes from this valuable community resource, explaining its history and character. You can watch it on Ithaca public access television channel 13 (remaining cablecasts: 10 AM Sunday, 10/23/16; and 8 PM Tuesday, 10/25/16). Or you can watch it right here anytime, anywhere!

Also speaking in this show are Andrejs Ozolins of the FLCC, Armin Heurich, president of the FLCC, Jan Zeserson of the Black Diamond Trail Enthusiasts Network (BDTEN), Fred Bonn, regional director of Finger Lakes State Parks, and Bob Beck of the Town of Dryden, who tells us what’s happening with their rails-to-trails project.

The Black Diamond Trail was once a railroad route running from Pennsylvania through Ithaca, to Trumansburg, and ending in Geneva. It ended service about sixty years ago, and  it’s been a long process since to convert it to a recreational trail.

Walk in the Park is a public access weekly series produced by Tony ingraham, Owl Gorge Productions, Ithaca, NY; at PEGASYS Studio of Time Warner Cable.

Take a look at Tony’s award-winning book, A Walk through Watkins Glen: Water’s Sculpture in Stone.

Rhythms of the Earth: Buttermilk Glen

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I have started producing a new series of very short (15-second) videos that I am calling “Rhythms of the Earth.” Why so short? So that I can post them on Instagram, which permits only 15-second, looping videos. But I will also post them to Facebook and include them in my episodes of Walk in the Park on Ithaca public access TV. Want more? Watch my shows on this website, or better yet, go outside yourself! And come back and tell the world about it, maybe with a photograph. So, here’s my first episode of Rhythms of the Earth.

Produced by Tony Ingraham, Owl Gorge Productions, Ithaca, NY. Take a look at our books about Ithaca, Watkins Glen State Park, and Tux the Cat!

Between the Falls

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Glimpse of Nature #22 (35 seconds)

Between many of the waterfalls along Buttermilk Creek in Buttermilk Falls State Park in Ithaca, NY (in New York’s Finger Lakes region), there are relatively quiet stretches of stream which are quite beautiful in themselves. This is one of them!

See all of our Glimpses!

Owl Gorge Productions, Ithaca, NY. Take a look at our books about Ithaca and about Watkins Glen State Park.

From Forest to Sea

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In this episode (#110) of our weekly community access TV series in the Ithaca, NY area, “Walk in the Park,” our journey begins at a glacial boulder in a brook, pouring over waterfalls and past a log-jam to Cayuga Lake, longest of the eleven Finger Lakes in central New York State. Eventually we reach the Great Lakes and finally the ocean.

Our next story takes us to another of America’s 36 “Grand Canyons,” this time the Quechee Gorge on the Ottauquechee River, the “Grand Canyon  of Vermont,” which in its own turn flows to the Connecticut River and finally the Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean.
We round out our program with looks at things going on from the Rocky Mountains to the Smokies to the canyons of Utah.
You can watch the whole show right here or on Ithaca community access TV at the times and channels listed below.

Update: Remaining 2017 encore cablecasts on Ithaca, NY channel 13

Sunday, August 6,     10 AM and 8:30 PM

Tuesday, August 8,    9 AM and 8 PM

Wednesday, August 9,    1 PM

Owl Gorge Productions. Take a look at our books about the region.

Spring O Spring!

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We begin this episode (105) of Walk in the Park with naturalist and songwriter Becca Harber as she sings her song “Spring O Spring” at Buttermilk Falls State Park in Ithaca, NY, accompanied by musicians Will Fudeman and Richie Holtz. We take a look at last week’s Ithaca Festival, then consider the arduous and dangerous work park employees must do to clean loose rock from cliffs before opening trails in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Then we review our new series, “Glimpses of Nature,” and finally take a look at what’s going on at parks around the country.

Produced by Owl Gorge Productions at PEGASYS Studios, Ithaca, NY’s public access television production facility owned by Time Warner Cable. Walk in the Park is watchable on Ithaca area cable channels 13 and 97.3 at 9 PM Thursdays, 10 AM Saturdays and Sundays, and 8 PM on Tuesdays.

Take a look at our books about Ithaca, NY and Watkins Glen State Park!

Waterfalls Drill the Gorge!

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Our Finger Lakes Park Minute 41 shows how Cavern Cascade has drilled its own section of the gorge at Watkins Glen State Park, in Schuyler County, NY in the Finger Lakes region just south of Seneca Lake.

See all of our Park Minutes on our Youtube channel, or here on our vidblog.

Take a look at our national award winning book, A WALK THROUGH WATKINS GLEN: WATER’S SCULPTURE IN STONE.

Butt Busting Trail Ice

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Our newest Finger Lakes Park Minute (#38) warns us about the dangers of venturing out on icy trails this time of year.

Walking on trails in parks in the Finger Lakes region in early spring can be a tricky matter. With thawing and re-freezing, our footprints in lingering snow can become dangerous, slick ice. Many gorge trails are closed because of very thick, persistent, and extremely slippery ice formations covering the paths and steps. At Buttermilk Falls State Park, Ithaca, NY.

Cascadilla Gorge Trail Re-opens!

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Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick looks on as former Mayor Carolyn Peterson celebrates the long-awaited re-opening of the Cascadilla Gorge Trail between downtown and Collegetown.

Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick looks on as former Mayor Carolyn Peterson celebrates the long-awaited re-opening of the Cascadilla Gorge Trail between downtown and Collegetown.

Walk in the Park episode 88. The Cascadilla Gorge Trail has connected downtown Ithaca, NY with the Cornell University campus via a charming trail by waterfalls, cliffs, and forest along Cascadilla Creek since the early 1930s. For the past six years, the trail has been undergoing repairs from storm damage and years of deterioration. Cornell Plantations, Cornell University, FEMA, the City of Ithaca, and New York State gathered resources, staff, and funding to repair the trail and open it again, officially on Sept. 15, 2014. This show covers the trail re-opening event, with comments from Cornell officials, former Ithaca Mayor Carolyn Peterson, and current Mayor Svante Myrick. There is plenty of footage of the trail route spread throughout the show.

Watch it online here anytime or on Ithaca’s public access cable TV channels 13 and 97.3, beginning tonight (10/16/14) at 9:00, on Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 a.m., or finally next Tuesday (10/21) at 8:00 p.m.

Park Minute: Buttermilk Flows While Ice Holds On

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Ice on Gorge Trail Buttermilk Falls State Park, Ithaca, NY

Even after snow has melted from the woods, ice still covers the trails in the gorge at Buttermilk Falls State Park and other gorges around Ithaca and the Finger Lakes.

Park Minute 17, from March 30, 2014.  As early spring broke up the ice that entombed Buttermilk Falls during this very cold winter (Park Minute 14: Frozen Buttermilk Falls ), hazard remains in the gorge of Buttermilk Glen where thick lingering ice threatens to thrust an early hiker into icy Buttermilk Creek. The Gorge Trail remains closed until the ice is out, winter damage is repaired, and overhanging cliffs are “scaled” of dangerous frost-loosened chunks of rock. See more Park Minutes.

Filmed at Buttermilk Falls State Park, Ithaca, NY. Produced by Owl Gorge Productions, publisher of two local books about Ithaca and Watkins Glen. ITHACA: the CITY, GORGES, and COLLEGES; and A WALK THROUGH WATKINS GLEN: Water’s Sculpture in Stone.