Aug. 1 - Black Diamond Bike Trail

Allan H. Treman State Marine Park

“Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you would have preferred to talk.” —Doug Larson

We thought we'd get out and get a little exercise yesterday...and oh boy did we get some exercise. We rode our bikes up the Black Diamond Trail to Taughannock Falls. This Rail Trail follows the Lehigh Valley Railroad route who’s Black Diamond Express once ran from Jersey City to Buffalo and Niagara Falls between 1896 and 1959. The luxury passenger line was named for the most profitable commodity on the railroad: coal...black diamonds.

The trail passes a range of natural landscapes from towering trees, pastureland and dozens of ravines with the sounds of cascading water, heading for Cayuga Lake. We passed 20 creeks that had water in them and at least a dozen more that were dry. It's a beautiful area and the trail has an easy incline so even though it was a 17 mile round trip, it was a very enjoyable ride.

Once we were at the top of Taughannock Falls State Park we hiked the South Rim Trail to an overlook where we had lunch, with an amazing view of the gorge. After lunch we hiked the North Rim Trail to the Taughannock Falls Overlook. The overlook is a great place to see how different the falls can look from one day to another. Two weeks ago the falls were almost dry, one week ago water was rushing through the gorge...today it was somewhere in the middle. In total we hiked about two miles before heading back to the marina. I'd say we had a pretty good workout.

Our view for lunch - Looking west on Taughannock Creek

More falls along the creek before Taughannock Falls

Looking east towards Taughannock Falls

Taughannock Falls yesterday while we were hiking

The next two pictures are from one of Taughannock Falls' website...this picture shows what the falls looked like on July 11, 2018.

This picture is from July 25, 2018. Even with all the rain last week, the water levels in the creek are much lower than last summer.

Click on picture to enlarge and see details.