Fair Warning: This short report series covers our road trip to a great motorcycling destination: the New York Finger Lakes region. It was intended as a motorcycle/work trip, but we ended up on four wheels so this report does NOT include any actual motorcycle riding. 🙂 Feel free to skip it if that bothers you. For riding in this area, we would have followed some of the routes listed on New England Riders website Finger Lakes Trip page. The amazing scenery and attractions in this area we visited are worth sharing even though we ended up in the cage getting from place to place.
Southeast MA – Ithaca NY
Tue Apr 27, 2025
(~335Â miles)
Charlotte informed me of a work conference she had coming up at the end of April at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in the heart of that state’s Finger Lakes region. As this is a beautiful area with plenty of rural scenic riding available, I immediately began thinking of riding out there together on the bike to make a mini work-cation out of it. I could work remotely from the hotel room and maybe we’d be able to get out and about the area to see some of the local sights in the evenings. We’d work for a couple days, and then take a couple days to ride some of the great motorcycling routes from the New England Riders website. I’d ridden through there a few times during rallies, but haven’t yet had the opportunity to stay and explore.
Plans were formed and we intended to take the motorcycle right up until the hour before we left on Tuesday. The forecast was calling for rain in central NY just about every day we’d planned to ride. We both needed to bring laptops and hiking boots and she needed work-suitable clothing as well. With the limited space on the bike and the poor weather outlook, we decided that it would just make more sense to take the car for this particular journey. Rather than riding in the rain for three days, we’d do more hiking and visit a museum or two. Next time through we could then focus on the wonderful roads.
So we pivoted, changed into comfortable clothes for the car ride and piled our stuff into our old but trusty little Honda Fit. We managed to sign off work midday on Tuesday to get on the road in the early afternoon. Our trip out to New York on the slab was uneventful. We stopped in at The Depot restaurant in Oneonta, which I’d picked randomly online. Cool former train depot building turned local hangout, hidden in the middle of a residential neighborhood close to I-88. Food was OK, but nothing to write home about.
We arrived at the Statler Hotel on the campus of Cornell University around 21:00. This hotel is owned by the university I believe and mostly staffed by student in their School of Hospitality program. Pretty cool idea and very convenient for visitors.
Wed Apr 30, 2025
We were up early to prepare for our respective workdays. After Char left to join her conference colleagues, I ordered takeout breakfast online from Collegetown Bagels on the edge of campus. I enjoyed getting to see a bit of the beautiful campus in the daylight on the short 10 minute walk.
I didn’t really know much about Cornell before this trip and am amazed at the topography and geology around and throughout this hilltop campus, with limited views of nearby Cayuga Lake. The property straddles a couple beautiful gorges, the deeper and more dramatic being Fall Creek Gorge (shown later). I got a nice look at the smaller Cascadilla Gorge during my morning errand.
Returning to the hotel room with my sack of vittles, I ate a tasty bagel sandwich while getting online and put in a few hours of work. Lunch was a yogurt parfait I’d added to my breakfast order, though I realized too late that I’d forgotten to grab a spoon. So I improvised one by tearing up my coffee cup. It was nice working with a change of scenery out my window today, and the campus was quite peaceful during their spring break.
Improvised spoon
When Char and I were both done for the day, we headed out for a long evening stroll to explore the northern section of campus, along Fall Creek Gorge. We checked out the azalea garden, though none were blooming at this time. Beebe Lake and Triphammer Falls below the dam was a particularly stunning sight, and I couldn’t imagine what it must be like for the students to walk by these wonders every week on their way to classes.
Triphammer Falls
Beebe Dam
Char went out to dinner with colleagues while I ordered some calzone takeout from the nearby DP Dough restaurant. Enjoyed the beautiful distant views of Cayuga Lake from our room window (if you stand on tiptoe) while munching dinner and settling in for the evening.
Hotel view to Cayuga Lake
Ithaca NY – Watkins Glen NY
Thu May 1, 2025
Thursday morning I settled for room coffee and headed out for another hour’s walk to explore more of Cornell while Char headed back to her final half-day of conference activities. Though weather clouds were slowly gathering, no rain had started falling yet.
I enjoyed seeing more of the wonderful campus building architecture, as well as a couple more waterfalls. Cornell’s own historic hydro-power plant is nestled down in the gorge just below Rocky Falls. A super-cool pedestrian suspension bridge spans Fall Creek and offers a great view of them both, plus a looks straight down at aptly named Horseshoe Falls.
Rocky Falls and the hydro plant with outflow pipe.
Back to work for the next several hours until Char returned to the room around 11:00 for checkout. I still had to work another hour or two, so we camped out in one of the lobby-level cafes for a while longer until I could wrap up my tasks by around 13:00. Time to play!
After packing up the car, we picked our way just west of campus to Ithaca Falls City Park, for a short hike up along the rocky riverbank and in the shadow of a tall rock wall, to take in the view of Fall Creek taking its final tumble from higher ledge rock before flowing another quarter mile or so into the lake. Ithaca Falls is definitely worth stopping for a looksee and photo op. We had the short trail and view pretty much all to ourselves and the flow was tremendous.
Ithaca Falls
When we were done messing about in the old power plant outflow pipes and reading interpretive signs, we hit the road, dipping south through downtown and west on NY route 79. Even on four wheels the countryside was beautiful to pass through and we got our first sprinkles of rain along the way to our next few nights’ destination in the town of Watkins Glen.
I love the Finger Lakes region. Back in the 1980’s and 1990’s, I was riding bicycles competitively and much more than I rode motorcycles. We did several vacations out there on the bicycles. It was a great area for riding back then with quiet roads and a mixture of moderate and hilly terrain. At that time, real estate out there was really cheap compared to here in New England. I seriously thought about quitting my job and selling everything, and buying some old farm out there to convert to a bicycle training center for the east similar to what the USCF had out west in Colorado. I still regret sometimes I did not follow through.
Really fun times riding out there. I remember one time riding from Watkins Glen to Ithica (~25 miles). It was a huge downhill into Ithica from that direction. On the course of the ride, my front brake caliper broke, and I also broke a rear spoke, so I had essentially no braking ability going down that hill. It’s a bicycle so no engine braking either. One of the most exiting rides of my life on 2 wheels.
Yikes! I have enjoyed some cycling myself in years past and there is nothing like the thrill of a good downhill…with brakes! 😀 That area would be idea for pedaling around.
sounds like a good trip.
It was and gets better! It all worked out, as we got to spend more guilt-free time doing the off-the-bike stuff than we would have if we’d ridden out. Next time, we can focus on the roads.
2008 Minuteman had a big combo bonus: all of the Ivy League colleges! My last stop was at Cornell, and the campus entrance where I arrived was closed with multiple orange construction signs. Winding around the outskirts I found another entry point. Between heavy fog coming up I-88, and a MA state trooper doing the speed limit on I-90, I was a DNF by about 90 seconds. 😟 Glad that you had a better visit (in non-rally mode!).
Oooch! Sounds like a typically frightful and painful rally tale Jim! Do you remember what the bonus photo was? Very cool campus, but I’m sure winding around on all the hills and cross streets wasn’t fun at the end of a 24h stretch on the bike! I highly recommend going back to check it out in the daylight and especially with no students around if possible. 😀