Lebanon Valley Rail Trail - Day Trip

 Saturday, July 8, 2023

Although the forecast for the day was for a hot and humid afternoon and evening, we decided to take a chance and leave early for a bike ride on the Lebanon Valley Rail Trail in Lebanon County.

The trail follows the former railbeds of two railroads; the Cornwall & Lebanon Railroad and the Cornwall Railroad. The railroads were built to transport iron-ore and other by-products to iron furnaces and mills.

The 18-mile trail starts in Lebanon where there are several road crossings before heading out of town where the trail passes some farm fields and along a tree-shaded corridor. The trail continues to follow the rail-bed to Cornwall, which was home to the Cornwall Iron Furnace. The old furnace building now operates as a museum. To visit the site riders need to travel from the Cornwall trailhead about a ½ mile on the streets to get to the site of the furnace. Riders can also enjoy a stop at a barrel-shaped snack stand at the Cornwall trailhead.

Barrel snack stand at Cornwall Trail head Along the trail

Along the trail Along the Trail

After Cornwall the trail goes uphill into Mount Gretna, site of a historic vacation resort. We took the side trail into town where we hitched our bikes to a post and walked around the town a bit before heading back to the trail and our return to Lebanon.

Welcome to Mt. Gretna

Mt. Gretna Public Library

However, the trail continues downhill from Mount Gretna through the villages of Colebrook and Lawn, and passing under the PA Turnpike before ending at the start of the Conewago RecreationTrail in Lancaster County. We rode this section of the trail back in May 2022, starting in Elizabethtown and stopping in Mount Gretna. We’ve included a couple of photos from that day here.

Conewago Creek

Lebanon Valley Rail Trail

The Conewago Recreation Trail continues on from the Lancaster/Lebanon County line southwest for about 5 miles to the outskirts of Elizabethtown. The Conewago portion of the trail follows the Conewago Creek for its entire length. The trail has a hard-packed crushed-limestone surface. It is wooded for a short distance, then passes through some farm fields before heading back into the woods. The trail does cross some busy intersections on its way, but for the most part it’s an easy ride.

We had a great ride both times, and our decision to leave early for our ride from Lebanon was a good one. Most of the trail was tree-shaded and the ride uphill into Mount Gretna wasn’t as bad as strenuous as we were expecting. In our opinion, the ride from the other end in 2022 was much more strenuous!

After completing our 18.08-mile ride back in Lebanon, we loaded up the bikes, ate an early lunch, then headed back to Mount Gretna for our reward: ice cream at the Jigger Shop – a must if you’re in the area. We got there just as the doors were opening at noon. After enjoying our cones on a bench in the park-like setting, we drove to Cornwall to take a look at the historic furnace building there. Although the museum was open, we decided to just walk around the grounds and save the museum for another day.

Cornwall Iron Furnace

If you are ever in the area of Elizabethtown or Lebanon, Pennsylvania, we both recommend riding or walking this trail. If you plan to ride the length of both trails in one round trip, we suggest starting in Elizabethtown and doing the steepest part of the trail into Mount Gretna first. It’s pretty much all downhill from there into Lebanon, and the return to Mount Gretna from this side is a slow, steady, climb compared to the other end. Then you can enjoy a nice downhill ride on both sides of Mount Gretna.

* All Photos and videos are the property of the authors except where otherwise noted. *

Finger Lakes, New York Camping Trip - Day 7

 Friday, June 30, 2023

We planned our last day in the Finger Lakes to be a more leisurely one before the long drive home. In the morning we headed back to Stewart Park in Ithaca with our kayaks where we planned to explore the Cayuga Lake Blueway Trail, a water trail. Our son-in-law and oldest granddaughter joined us as we paddled up Fall Creek and back, then out into Cayuga Lake to get up close to one of the lighthouses while our daughter and middle granddaughter did some geocaching in the park.

Cayuga Lake Blueway Trail

Heading south on Fall Creek

Paddling into Stewart Park Cayuga Inlet Lighthouse

Water lily Cayuga Inlet Breakwater Lighthouse

Afterward we all had a picnic lunch in the park, then went our separate ways. We went for another bicycle ride on the Cayuga Waterfront Trail while the rest of the family went into town to do check out the shops. Our ride this time continued over the inlet and north through Cass Park and into Allan H. Treman State Park where we looped around the nature trail and then headed back past the Children’s Garden and the trail head for the Black Diamond Trail until we returned to our start. The entire ride was just under 9 miles on mostly level asphalt paths with a gravel stretch here and there.

After loading up our bicycles we headed into town to find Sweet Melissa’s Ice Cream Shop, which claims to be America’s best ice cream shop. The shop is tiny and we wouldn’t have found it if we hadn’t used Google Maps because there wasn’t a sign outside to grab our attention. The shop is attached to one end of Shortstop Deli. We only spotted it because Jeff saw someone step away from a window with an ice cream cone. We both ordered their Two Berry Twist with their Black Raspberry Frozen Yogurt and Red Raspberry Sherbet. We had to admit, it was really tasty! We highly recommend a stop here if you’re in the area. As an added note, contrary to what their website and Google states, the shop opens at 1 p.m., not 3 p.m.

That pretty much ends our adventures in the Finger Lakes. After finishing our ice cream, we returned to the campground to start packing up for the return home. We had a wonderful time exploring the area and seeing all the waterfalls and gorges. We hope to return one day so we can explore some more.

* All Photos and videos are the property of the authors except where otherwise noted. *

Finger Lakes, New York Camping Trip - Day 6

 Thursday, June 29, 2023

We all rose a little earlier on Thursday so we could drive a half hour southwest to Watkins Glen State Park and the falls. This was something we were all looking forward to and we hoped the smoke from the Canadian fires that had moved in day before wouldn’t ruin the views.

Watkins Glen is famous for its beautiful waterfalls and gorges. The nearly two-mile-long gorge trail includes over 800 stone steps that lead through tunnels and over bridges to view 19 waterfalls. Fortunately, the smoke from Canada didn’t find its way into the gorge and we had beautiful views that were rich with greenery and left us feeling as if we were in a foreign country. It was absolutely beautiful. Photos cannot do it justice.

We absolutely recommend getting as early a start as you can in the morning to beat the crowds. We left one truck at the main entrance at the bottom of the falls, and then all rode up to the top of the falls to start from there. Going in this direction you approach the falls from the top and have to turn around to get good views of them, but it worked for us. You can also get a shuttle bus to take you to either end of the falls for a fee, but we decided not to use that since there were so many of us. The truck system worked fine. Two of us drove back up to the top to retrieve the other truck while the others visited the gift shop at the Welcome Center, then we had lunch before heading off in separate directions. Our daughter, her husband and the girls went to see the Watkins Glen International Race Course, then returning back to the campground for a while. They planned to return to Watkins Glen so we could all go to dinner together and hopefully get some good views of Lake Seneca.

Jeff and I decided to stay in Watkins Glen and ride our bicycle on the Catharine Valley Trail. The trail currently stretches from Watkins Glen south to Pine Valley, with plans to extend the trail to the town of Horseheads. The trail follows the old Chemung Barge Canal towpath and sections of the abandoned Northern Central rail line. Most of the trail is through deep forest, but we did have to ride a short distance on the streets through Montour Falls. It was a level, easy ride and we completed 17.22 miles in about 2 hours, with stops to take photos along the way.

Catharine Valley Trail Along the trail Church in Montour Falls

Along the trail Catharine Valley Trail Along the trail

After returning on our bikes to Watkins Glen, we decided to go back into the gorge in the state park for a bit to kill time while we waited for the rest of our family to return. This time we started at the bottom and planned to work our way back up part way, but we quickly changed our minds. The gorge trail was absolutely full of busloads of foreign tourists. You could barely walk and people were literally waiting in line for chances to take photos. So, we backtracked a bit and climbed some very steep stairs up to the rim of the gorge, then took that trail to the suspension bridge we had seen from below earlier when we walked the gorge. Then we hiked back down the opposite side along the rim before descending back down to the Welcome Center. We didn’t get to see as many waterfalls, but there were far fewer people on the rim trails. So, again, we highly recommend getting to Watkins Glen State Park for the gorge trail as early in the morning as you can. You won’t regret it!

Watkins Glen

Watkins Glen

By the time we finished our family was back in town, so we joined them for dinner at Nickel’s Pit BBQ. We didn’t have to wait for a table, the food was great and so was the atmosphere. We highly recommend checking it out if you’re in Watkins Glen.

After dinner we walked up the street to the iconic Seneca Lake Pier. Seneca lake is the second longest of the Finger Lakes, but it is the biggest by volume of water. Whenever you see advertisements about the Finger Lakes of New York, you see images of this pier. Unfortunately for us, the smoke from Canada was heavy and although we were able to take photos of the pier, we weren’t able to capture the usual beautiful blue skies and the lake stretching far into the distance. It wasn’t ideal, but we snapped our photos anyway, then headed back to our campground for the night so we could make our plans for the last day of our visit to the Finger Lakes.

* All Photos and videos are the property of the authors except where otherwise noted. *

Finger Lakes, New York Camping Trip - Day 5

 Wednesday, June 28, 2023

As predicted, the next morning was cloudy with threats of rain. In addition, smoke from Canadian fires had started moving into the area causing a decrease in air quality. Fortunately, we were prepared with an indoor adventure and drove 45 minutes southwest to Corning, New York where we planned to visit the Corning Museum of Glass.

According to their website, “The Corning Museum of Glass is a not-for-profit museum dedicated to exploring a single material: glass. Annually welcoming just under half a million visitors from around the world, the Museum's campus is home to the world’s most comprehensive collection of glass, the world’s foremost library on glass, and one of the top glassworking schools in the world.” The museum was established in 1951 by Corning Glass Works on its 100^th birthday.

When you think of Corning glassware, you generally don’t think a museum about glass would be a good choice for kids. But they actually enjoyed it. There was actually very little about the typical Corning glassware we remember from our childhood, and a lot of really interesting displays. Children 17 & under get in for free, which is a bonus, so we didn’t mind paying extra for an activity where they could make a glass piece to take home. We spent more than 3 hours there enjoying the galleries and displays of all kinds of glass, watching a glass blowing demonstration, and watching two members of our family create some sandblasted glassware. We also ate lunch in their cafeteria where the food was reasonably priced and a step above fast food, then explored more galleries in this vast museum before calling it a day and heading back to our campground so the kids could do more fishing.

Forest made with drinking glasses

Glass blowing demonstration

Maritime beacons

Jewish VS Catholic Chess Set

Tiffany glass window

We seem to find lighthouses everywhere we go!

Our granddaughter's glass project

* All Photos and videos are the property of the authors except where otherwise noted. *

Finger Lakes, New York Camping Trip - Day 4

 Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Our plans for this day included driving into Ithaca to the sprawling campus of Cornell University where we would be stopping to visit the Cornell Botanic Gardens. The gardens stretch all along Fall Creek and include the Fall Creek Natural Area, the Park Park Natural Area, the F.R. Newman Arboretum, the Mundy Wildflower Garden, the Nevin Welcome Center, and Beebe Lake. Because the grounds were huge, we decided to focus our visit to the area surrounding the Welcome Center, which featured herbs, rhododendrons, and ornamental perennials.

Sculpture at entrance to garden Hydrangea

Digitalis Poppy

From there we continued on the path around Beebe Lake to the opposite end where we could see Triphammer Falls. Triphammer Falls is formed by a dam at the end of Beebe Lake. The falls consist of 55 feet of multiple cascades and are a centerpiece of Cornell University’s campus. After viewing the falls we retraced our steps back around the lake and up a short path to view a waterfall in Hemlock Gorge before returning to the visitor center where we ate our lunch before heading to our next destination.

Sackett Bridge

Water lily on Beebe Lake

Triphammer Falls

Waterfall in Hemlock Gorge

Next we drove to Ithaca Falls, which is located close to downtown Ithaca where Falls Creek plunges 150 feet before making its way into Lake Cayuga. We had some heavy rain during the night and the falls were absolutely thundering. We had to carefully make our way along the path from the parking area because the creek level was high and covered the trail in some areas. After a week and a half of seeing waterfalls that weren’t at their fullest, this one caught us by surprise with the force of its power. It made us think of going back to some of the others to see if they, too, were running more fully.

Ithaca Falls

After viewing the falls we headed back to our truck, stopping for one last view from the nearby street where we saw another snake, this one perched on the top of a bush at the edge of a bridge crossing the creek. 

Snake!

Then our group split up with our daughter and her family heading back to the campground while we drove to Allan H. Treman State Marine Park to walk one of its trails. The previous day while we were riding our bicycles on the opposite side of the Cayuga Inlet, much to our surprise we caught sight of two lighthouses in the distance. We checked into it and found that the Marine Park would provide us with closeup views of both of them. We have visited well over 300 lighthouses over the years, so we couldn’t resist the urge to get some closer views of these two lights.

The white Cayuga Inlet lighthouse was built in 1917 and moved to its present location in 1927. The red Cayuga Inlet Breakwater Lighthouse was built in 1927. Both lights are used to mark the channel to the Cayuga Inlet and although both have the typical shape of a lighthouse, neither has ever had a cupola on top.

Cayuga Inlet Lighthouses

Cayuga Inlet Lightouse

Cayuga Inlet Breakwater Lighthouse

We enjoyed our walk along a nature path out to the lights and were also treated to a view of an active osprey nest where we watched the occupants for a while before heading back to our truck and the campground.

Osprey on their nest

When we returned to the campground the girls and our son-in-law were contentedly fishing in the pond again, so our daughter joined us to hunt for some more wineries to do a couple more tastings. This time we drove over to Seneca Lake and were totally amazed at the vast number of wineries we found. We stopped at Bagley Vineyards and Silver Spring Vineyards and ended up purchasing 3 more bottles of wine to take home.

Afterward, we returned back to the campground for dinner and a relaxing evening. The weather for the next day didn’t look too promising, so we made plans for a mostly indoor activity and turned in for the night.

* All Photos and videos are the property of the authors except where otherwise noted. *