Did You Guess Diane?

I would suspect that you had prior information if you guessed Diane because she hasn't been part of my regular circuit until recently although we knew each other as children. We have so many interests in common that we became instant adult friends.

We packed the day just about as full as possible. It began with a puppy fix for me. The white puppy is Nola and the black lab is Tula.

Their owner is a man I also haven't seen since childhood. His name is Gary. He is younger than I am, but I was quite good friends with his older sister. We are no longer children as you can probably tell. (I think the last time I saw him, I was taller than he was.) He treated us to coffee and homemade lemon cookies. Yum!

Next up was a little hike. Diane has been able to up her mileage quite a lot since last summer. She gave me local choices and we walked to a place I've featured on the blog quite often, but I think the last time I did this particular hike was around 1970.

We walked up the Taughannock gorge. It's hard to get a sense of the perspective, but those rock walls are about 500 feet high.

This trail takes you to the base of Taughannock Falls. This is 215-foot free fall drop, considered the highest free drop east of the Rockies.

The walk in to the falls and back was 1.9 miles.

All the pictures I've shown on the blog before today were taken from an overlook that is along one of the edges of the bluff. I took another of those today, but I won't post it. The one I will share is that if you walk a short way along a different trail from that upper overlook you can get much closer to the falls. I think this shot gives you a better sense of the power of the water. It was really noisy from this vantage point. All the sound of the falling water and ice was rising right up the rock walls!

Then we went up to the museum. Diane is Village Historian. I gave them the quilt made by Frances Leary.

And she wanted to show me this. It's an accordion that was donated. I've never seen one like it at all, so I wasn't very helpful. But it was fun. A few of the buttons still play notes.

The day was not done, but I didn't take more pictures except the selfie. We listened to a web seminar about trails, we got chicken wings for dinner from the local Sportsman's Club (honey mustard), and then we looked at some more of my family's genealogy. She has discovered a few more things that I didn't know. She's amazing!

There is no clue for tomorrow, because it's so obvious it needs no clue except maybe this- who is my best friend in the universe? I'll head out first thing in the morning.

Miles walked in 2026: 51

Taughannock Falls SP, New York, gorge trail and part of north rim trail, 2.3 miles.

See Did You Guess Elaine?

Lehigh Valley Black Diamond Trail

 This morning, Diane and her granddaughter Dani, Marie (yes!), and I headed for a piece of the Black Diamond Trail for a little hike.

And why does it have that name, you ask? It's on the bed of the former Lehigh Valley railroad, in fact, the very piece that ran in back of my farm if they ever manage to extend the trail that far.

So far, they only have about 8 miles of trail. When the Lehigh Valley shut down in 1976, most of the ROW reverted to the owners whose land was crossed. So getting the linear "pathway" back is presenting challenges.

The Black Diamond was the name of the signature passenger train of the LVRR. Here's a picture from about the 1960s, I would guess

The four of us walked two miles out and then turned around. Very level (rail trails are) and easy walking. It was plenty hot, but we were walking at 8:30, so we certainly got out there before it got really hot.

This end of this piece of trail is located at Upper Taughannock Falls, where Elaine and I hiked 12 years ago (wow- how can it be that long ago?). It's hard to believe. This is a "cauldron" of rock where the water spirals down. It's difficult to get a good picture, and the light certainly wasn't right at that time of day.

Here are Marie, Dani, and Diane.

I spent a fair amount of time working on the final edits for the book, and we visited with Dick and Darla. Tomorrow Marie and I head out for our yearly hike.

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 271.1

See Lehigh Valley

Fun with Elaine

  Marie and I spent all day today with my friend Elaine. We did a lot of the sort of chasing of memories that I did a few days ago. First stop was our old waterfall friend, Taughannock. Highest free fall waterfall east of the Rockies at 215 feet. We did some more driving around town. This is the library where I got my first library card at age 4. I had to prove to them that I could read before they would issue it. Challenge met. I got my card. Then we went to see an osprey nest. Mom was on the nest. She did some flying around while we were there. And dad was about a quarter mile away. Then we drove past a house Elaine used to live in and some other places near there, including this hill. Butcher Hill. It's about a mile long. The pastor at our church when we were in junior high was great with youth. This hill is not plowed in winter, and he took the whole youth group out there and put lanterns along the edges of the hill. We would sled, toboggan, etc down the entire mile and then walk back up. You could manage 4 or 5 rides in an evening if you were quick. There was a bonfire at the top with hot chocolate and marshmallows. Great times. Finally we ended with a short walk on the same trail Marie and I hiked yesterday. Here I am with Elaine. Then we went for ice cream! It was a long, social day. I'm hitting the sack.

See Interloken and Interlaken

Fast Waterfall Tour

 
I'll give you the blazing fast rest of our waterfall tour in New York, because there are other things I want to share as well, and the days continue here, adding new fun too.

I've shown you all of these falls before. They are all places very much a part of my geographic DNA, so I love seeing them in any phase of wetness. Here is Taughannock, the highest at 215 feet. It had very little water, but hey, I've seen it with none at all occasionally.



The upper falls on the same creek is interesting because we couldn't see it when I was a kid. The vantage point was an active rail line at that time. Actually, less water on this one means that you can see the shape of the rocks that make it a spiraled chute.



Buttermilk Falls couldn't even display the reason for it's name, it was so dry. Just one thin stream of water trickled down the face and continued in a twisted reflection in the pool. Compare this to a more normal flow at Buttermilk Falls in 2010



And by an odd fluke of weather, the watershed upstream from Ithaca Falls, east of Ithaca along Fall Creek, received rain the night before. That falls was near normal flow, and it was beautiful.



See other views of Taughannock Falls and Ithaca Falls.

You could visit these places every single day and see different things.

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Taughannock Falls

 
I'm going to "cheat" and just share pictures of a favorite place taken almost a year ago. This is Taughannock Falls in New York, near where I grew up. You've seen it before, but not these pictures. It's 215 feet high!





I'm just chillin'. Work was done early today. Mind is blank. Enjoy the pretty pictures!

	See The Great Falls in the Big Woods
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Old Friends

 
(no jokes about the ages of the friends, ok?)

Elaine and I have just had a great day together. We visited several waterfalls and a couple other places. I plan to share those with you over time, but long blog posts from the road are difficult. After a day of exploring, we met with Janet and Marie for dinner. Left to right are Elaine, me, Janet and Marie.



Elaine and I were friends from school and church. Janet, Marie and I were friends through Girl Scouts. Marie and Elaine had met a few times, but Elaine and Janet never had before. We made a lot of noise in a small restaurant, but the waitress was understanding. We told her she should consider it a good omen that people can still have friends when they are old.

I really hope to come back to this adventure another day, because there is lots more to show you, but I just can't do it tonight.

I will show you two of the waterfalls that define the Finger Lakes area. You've seen the first one before. It's Taughannock (taw-GANN-uck) Falls. It used to be billed as the highest falls east of the Rocky Mountains. I guess now they are calling it the highest sheer drop falls in that range. At any rate, it's 215 feet high. Of course, in these long shots, it doesn't look all that big, but it's just the scale. It's about a half-mile away from where the picture is taken.



The last falls on our itinerary for the day was Ithaca Falls. This one is pretty impressive in its own right, and you can walk right up to the base of the falls. Today, however, I'm just giving you the long shot.



OK... I'm officially tired. Tomorrow morning, Marie and I head for the trail. I've got posts scheduled for while we are hiking. Hiking pics will show up after we get off the trail.

	See Buttermilk Falls See The Bobsey Twins and the Great Falls in the Big Woods
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The Bobsey Twins and The Great Falls in the Big Woods

 



I received a phone call today from my twin. Well... I'm sort of pulling your leg. Elaine and I almost share a birthday. Elaine is 364 days different in age from me. She is 6 feet tall, and I'm 5 foot 2 inches. We've known each other since ???. Our families went to the same church, but I don't recall being aware of her before junior high. We were both socially awkward and much preferred to be in the woods. And we played field hockey. She was right inner and I was right halfback, and we could move that ball! The coach nicknamed us "The Bobsey Twins," and here we are too many years later still pretending we are twins.

So we chatted for over an hour. She has some physical problems that keep her from getting outside as much as I can. And she emailed me the above picture she recently took of one of our old friends. That is Taughannock Falls (say Tuh-GAN-uck), near Ithaca, New York. The name translates from the Delaware language as "The Great Falls in the Big Woods." We both grew up just a little farther north, and it was always a favorite place to trek and explore. It is a straight 215 feet drop, and used to be billed as the highest falls east of the Rocky Mountains. The last time I was back there I noticed that they have changed the sign to say "One of the highest falls east of the Rocky Mountains." Sigh... I liked it being the winner.

So to continue the twin motif I'm adding another picture of the falls that I took in 1973 from approximately the same place.

Hike Planning Report

Started creating a custom guide for us with all the information that I've been able to gather from contacting people. Filled the dehydrator with eggplant, cucumber, and citrus slices. Walked 1 mile with 28 pounds.

	See Thinking About This Year's Big Hike
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