Time for some landscape, I suppose.... :) A nice sunny weekend, a look on the map.... hey! there are some waterfalls really close to Ithaca! Buttemilk Falls State Park. Just down Elmira Road, survive the traffic, manage to cross a six-lane street with the bike and you're there! I get my map of the trails and head upstream on the Rim trail. The roar of waterfalls and fences, fences, fences..... The Tutelo Indians used to live in that area, where glaciers and streams carved the soft sedimentary rock adding more beauty to the landscape. Until the 18th century..... Walking through the quiet light wood, I imagine how was it like before the white man came to colonize and live as a parasite in an untouched land....

Rim Trail

I cross the Buttermilk Creek at the Pinnacle Rock and exit the gorges on the Gorge Trail. The falls are small, but they make a nice scenery. And the water actually looks milky..... if the exposure is long enough or if you've been drinking funny stuff, which is impossible, because you would be seating in a jail and not hiking around free as a bird.

Pinnacle Rock

Bear Trail. It's frustrating not being quite sure, if it's ok to leave the trail and just sit quietly by the water, or perhaps some keeper would pop out a bush and report you. Because that's what the signs say. Any violator (and you're supposed to stay on the trails) will be persecuted. So I felt like a weasel sneaking off the path and hiding behind the bushes by the Creek. Chewing a tasteless apple and peacefully enjoying the sun. I donated half of my apple to the animals in the wood. I am sure they appreciated it more than I did. Squirrels and chipmunks everywhere, in an increasing collecting frenzy. The dead decaying leaves under the trees are moving as the small creatures store the seeds for the winter. Many of them will be simply forgotten and never recovered, and a store will become a cradle for young plants the next spring. Everything has its purpose in nature....

Chipmunk filled with nuts

Self-portrait

The Bear Trail ended by the Lake Treman, with a calm green pic-nic place, some small falls and a bridge. Few steps lead to the view of a beautiful small lake with lots of aquatic plants and vegetation on the border. I wished I was a birdwatcher. Instead I just enjoyed the walk around it on the Lake Treman Trail with the bird songs for background. I was happy to meet a small aquatic snake exposing her tiny body to the warm sun. It was quite hot, actually, probably because of the high air moisture around the lake.

Treman Lake

 

It was time to leave the calm and jump back among people. Meanwhile the Gorge Trail got crowded with people. And each and everyone was carrying around a big digital reflex camera and a huge tripod. All in the search of the perfect picture of the falls. And to socialize with other people: there was more talking than photographing..... 

E. Buffalo Street, here I come!