@Challengers, both @Petorius and @KimJ reported this morning that the Waterfront Trail suffered a lot of downed trees and branches in last night’s storms, and Kim couldn’t get across the second bridge at all. The City of Ithaca will no doubt be out cleaning up soon, but given how much damage there was, it’s conceivable that the bridges may be closed for a day or two. It would be great if someone can report back here when things are open again.
More generally, for anyone running our trail courses, it’s likely that downed trees and branches are blocking the course trail in various spots. I’m sure the trail steward organizations like the Friends of Hammond Hill and the Cayuga Trails Club are on top of it, but be careful when running out there, and please do report back on any major obstructions.
Despite finishing his FLRC 100K Ultra Challenge yesterday, @Petorius got out this morning to survey the storm damage on the Waterfront Trail. Looks like Stewart Park took a beating! (Click the photos under the run title in Strava, or maybe Pete can repost here.)
The city got on this early today. The suspension bridges are cleared and passable, but as of 10 a.m. today the path between the bridges and golf course was like an obstacle course. You can climb through on foot without too much trouble, but watch out for poison ivy. From what I could see, the wood chip path by the bridges is completely buried.
The main entrance off James Gibb Drive (by the Youth Bureau) is closed to traffic, but you can park at the fishing access spot near the fire training facility, and probably at the Youth Bureau and then walk in.
The photo below is the Waterfront Trail between the fishing access parking lot and the bridges, facing north toward the lake.
Yes, probably 7 or 8 big trees down on Frolic - mostly on the main FLT section between Cortwright and Bleck Rds where I had to detour completely off trail for about 50 ft and clamber over and under tree trunks. Fortunately no trees looked unsteady or only halfway fallen down, so hopefully the worst of the damage is done. Stay safe out there everyone!
@Challengers, it seems that the City has closed Stewart Park until further notice, so let’s stay off the Waterfront Trail until it reopens.
Thanks for the report from Frolic, @gplwoo. I don’t know who does trail maintenance in Kennedy State Forest; perhaps @tpdady and @me.runalot have a contact there.
@ruth-sproul passed on some news about the Waterfront Trail
The Waterfront Challenge Course was passable this morning. That is, they cut the trunks of the big downed trees near the second suspension bridge out of the way of the path. But there are still a lot of large branches on either side of the path, and whenever they try and move those out of there, they will have to block the path during their work. So maybe you shouldn’t give the all clear yet.
It’s probably the better part of valor to run elsewhere for another few days.
Danby was still OK as of yesterday evening: a few large trees had fallen from the storm the night before, but nothing too out of the ordinary that couldn’t be overcome with some agility.
I was on The Frolic course today and the section between Cortwright and Bleck is still not runnable. Many big trees are still down though it looks like they’ve taken out maybe a few? They’ve got signs up for a detour on Cortwright and Bleck that I took. The rest of the trails were very runnable with some trees straight across the trail, but low enough you could step or hurdle them. There’s a couple slanted trees outside the Cortwright/Bleck section, but nothing you can’t easily get around
And the latest word from Finger Lakes Trail maintainer Joe Dabes is that the Forest Frolic course is now entirely clear as well, so feel free to get out to Virgil to log some more efforts there!
So … Tortoise & Hare at Buttermilk is still a no-go because the Treman Lake trail is closed. According to a park ranger, “it’s a mess.” They hope to get it cleaned up “after Labor Day” because their focus is on re-opening the Treman swimming area. There’s no sign about the closure at the bottom, but I did ask (politely) that they add one. Run on!
