US hosts a variety of state parks which engulfs within itself the natural scenic beauty of the country. One such beautiful state park is the Robert Tremann State Park located in the Tompkins County, in the finger lake region of New York and covers the town of Ithaca, Enfield and NewField.
Googling in the internet, I came across the history of this state park.
Before the arrival of the European settlers, this area was inhabited by Cayuga tribes of North Americans. During the revolutionary war, the Cayugas (allies of the British) were partially driven from the area by the continental army. Settlers from Europe migrated into the area in the 1970s and started farming. In 1839, a hydroelectric gristmill was built in the park which served the purpose of grinding corn and wheat mill till 1917. This old mill has been fully restored and open to visitors. In 1920, Robert and Laura Treman donated 387 acres in Enfield Glenn to the state, which established the Enfield Glenn reservation. In 1924, the reservation came under the newly formed Finger Lakes State Parks Commission. Robert Treman was the first chairman of the Commission. After his death in 1938, the park was renamed in his memory. The park’s area has increased to 1074 acres as of now.
Water and glaciers has transformed the natural landscape and terrain of the park over the past million years. The most recent glacier (10,000 yrs ago), moved through the Finger lake region, carving out deep troughs in its paths. Water filled these steep troughs creating the 11 Finger lakes including the Cayuga lake in this area. The serene Enfield creek flowing through the glacially steepened hill side of the park, cutting away parts of the soft sedimentary rock to create the magnificient gorge and sparkling waterfalls.
After reading the history of the park, and going through the splendid photographs posted in internet, I was compelled to pay a visit to the place in one of my so called relaxing weekend. June 23 2017 Friday, Melissa ( a recently joined graduate student in my lab) and me were so excited to hear the cancellation of experiments the coming weekend. We were planning to do some hiking together, since last couple of weeks. We immediately planned for a trip to Robert Treman state park. June 25 2017, Saturday, around 10:30 I started from my room to catch bus 70 at Risley hall near Cornell Univ. The trip started with a confusing note as on the way I got a call from Melissa, that she had got into bus which was travelling towards Ithaca Mall. So, I reached Seneca Commons, and waited for her arrival. Around 11:30 am, we took bus 67 and reached Robert Treman Park at 11:45 am.
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| Entrance to Robert H. Treman State Park |
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| Signpost at Rim trail |
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| View from the foot bridge |
We followed the sign post to reach the entrance of the park, where there was a tourist office. Grabbing a route map from the office we headed our journey. Moving ahead of the parking lot, we came across a foot bridge, below which a stream of water was flowing. The view of the flowing water standing on the bridge felt like the warm welcome of the creek. Just a few steps walk, and we landed into a bifurcated road where there was a way to the lower falls on left and rim trails straight ahead. We decided to visit the lower falls on our return journey and followed the path to rim trail. Rim trail is a 2.25 mile (3.6 km) hike path.The trail passed through the forest with vast stretches of tall evergreen trees competing with each other to catch a glimpse of the sun. Walking through the path I was reminded of the famous poem by Rudyard Kipling “”The Way through the Woods”. Being on a first personal trip with Melissa, we got to know each other by discussing about our parents, family and hometown. Cultural and social exchanges with each other, made us educative and informative about various regions of US and India.
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| Pathways along the rim trail |
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| Sky soaring trees |
Trekking through a series of uphill and downhill, a small stream off the path caught our attention. We took the path to land into a calm and serene brook and a tiny waterfall. We were excited to cross the stream, so removed our shoes and went to the other side of the stream. There were a group of people involved in fishing, don’t know if they could catch any… By the way, I came to know that Melissa loves fishing and she even has a fishing rod. So a new venture got added to our bucket list.
We strolled beside the stream enjoying the pristine cold water of the stream and the tranquil atmosphere. We took a shortcut and got back to the rim trail and continuing trekking beside the Enfield creek, which looked giant at places, and a tiny brook in some parts of the park.
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| Divergence lead to a small brook |
Clicking a lot of pictures all along the way, to capture our memories we continued further. All the praise to the creator, for the unique pictersque of the place could hardly be captured in our mobile camera, nor could be appreciated in a photo. The originality was far more breathtaking and splendid.
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| Enfield creek |
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| Enfield creek |
Suddenly, we encountered a giant cliff of rock, so huge to be captured. At one time, I was wondering about the two extremeties on one side the mighty rocky cliff, symbolising strength and on the other the soothing flowing water, symbolising love and care, both united to provide a magnificient view. Nature so much reflects us….
Moving further, encountering a series of steps up and down we did not realise that we we had left the rim trail and were on the way to the gorge trail. It was due to the short cut we had attempted near the small brook. We walked through the silent woods, to reach the end of gorge trail. We turned back along the lower gorge trail. By this time we were a bit tired, partly due to the insufficiency of water. We did not realise the duration of the trek, and had carried just 500 ml of water. Being a sunny day, it made us feel exhausted. At that point of time, I remembered that I had carried snickers. The bite of snickers instilled rejuvenated as a bit and we were now excited to explore the upper gorge.
On the way to parking lot, there was a shallow stream of water, with a foot bridge. In the return journey, we crossed the way through the stream and carrying our shoes in hand, finally reached the lower falls. Lower falls was a perfect picnic spot fro friends and families with a small garden and swimming area. We sat beside the swimming area with our feet submerged in water since we could not do swimming for not carrying swim suits. The lower falls had a small waterfall and finally we managed to get a picture clicked with both of us in the same frame.
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| Happy "WE" |
The beautiful gigantic trail of the gorge finally came to an end and we walked back towards our bus stop. At the bus stop, we stopped by the Eddydale farm market to buy some local fruits and vegetables.
With a satiated heart and handful of exciting memories, we declared the end of the journey as both of us parted from the bus stop. I was glad, for my dream of going for a proper rugged hiking in Ithaca was accomplished, though it was an easy one. Besides, this was one of the most unprepared hiking trips of mine till date
As I was writing the blog, I came across the colourful pictures of the Treman Park during the falls. Shall revisit the park again in October to appreciate the beauty of the falls in Ithaca.
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