Gary's Third Pottery Blog

When the going gets tough, dragons gonna get going....

Gary's third pottery blog

WRITE TO ME! garyrith@yahoo.com Come see me! Open studio HERE! November 25-26 (11-4 each day); Aurora Art and Design, daily until 12/24; Cooperstown Art Assoc. daily until 12/24; Ellis Hollow Community Fair, 12/10; December 10, Little Red Wagon at the Space at Greenstar. All material on this blog unless stated otherwise is copyright Gary Edward Rith 2016

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Ithaca's lakefront trail opens....



The wife and I lived in Chicago for many years, a main feature, as you know, is the open lakefront, a system of paths, trails, parks, zoos that make it easy for bikes, runners, walkers to enjoy the city off road. AND soooo:

Cayuga Lake is verrrry pretty and in Ithaca, there are great parks on 2 sides, Stewart park to the east, Cass Park to the west.  In between is what is called the OCTOPUS, a horrible traffic and bridge configuration made necessary by the fact that between railroad tracks (some retired, some active), hills, rivers, gorges and old cow paths, something like 8 roads meet and tangle at the base of Cayuga Lake.  So, getting from one park to another on foot or bike was a mess.

Over the years the city has hacked its way through forming a paved bike and walking path, in between the 2 parks, and built some pedestrian only bridges and DANG! The whole 6 miles opened this week!
A bonus is that right in the middle is the lakefront farmer's market, which is a huge structure holding 80-100 farmers and the rest.....
(Well, one pedestrian bridge still needs the railing, but the whole project is a miracle, and on a gorgeous 74 degree morning we biked it all....)
This is truly one of America's prettiest cities, and dedicated to people, not just cars. There is a further extension, and old rail trail, that is still a bit rough, but continues another ten miles up to a pretty state park....not sure when that path might be improved, but still...


We walked the dog early, I ran a few miles then we biked an hour and a half...after lunch I was TIRED, you know?  Somebody found the camera and.....

4 comments:

smartcat said...

Not quite 'impossible things before breakfast', but pretty impressive all the same!
I see Spike was equally exhausted. The mere proximity of exercise wears the poor, hardworking kitties out!
BTW, I read your blog every morning and even go so far as to wonder if all is well if you don't post!

Barbara Rogers said...

What a lovely place to ride! No wonder you conked out!

Busy Bee Suz said...

You're so fortunate to have this lovely park so close to home. I love the idea of spending the day on my bike; with a stop at the farmers market for some goodies. Love the photos; you are a fabulous couple!!!

Anonymous said...

Oh, I wish we had that level of connectedness with our trails and paths. How VERY cool and forward-thinking of your community to link all of these features together this way.

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I am a full-time studio potter, sculptor, and dog walker, married to superhawt Missus Tastycake.