Lick Brook Falls (part 1)

This is a story that will be told out of order because if at all possible, it needs to be told in person. In the unlikely case that someone who needs to be told in person reads this blog, I waited to post about it. Here is the story, in its full glory, now.

If you’re like most students at Cornell who don’t have a car, you have one other thing in common: you have a TCAT fail story. One of the popular ones is taking the bus to Ithaca College instead of Cornell. Another is running up to the bus stop, making eye contact with the bus driver, and watching the bus pull away from the curb before your very eyes. Due to some stellar schedule reading, one of my friends got himself and a friend stuck at the mall one night. They had to call another friend to pick them up. A couple of my other friends ended up at the airport instead of the mall. They checked the schedule, figured out which bus they needed to take to get back en route, and waited. And waited, and waited. Finally, a bus pulled up. Wrong route number. The bus driver stopped and asked if they’d like to get on. They assured her that they’re waiting for another bus. The bus pulled away, and promptly changed its route number to the bus they’d been waiting for. They decided to walk (on the highway) to the mall. I contend that my (newest) story stands above the rest.

It starts on a Friday night in the apartment.

I’m in my room on the internet; from my desk I can see my roommate on her computer at the kitchen table. We’ve both been checking weather reports to decide what our adventure of the weekend is going to be. It’s going to rain all of Saturday, so we opt to go to the Museum of the Earth. Then my roommate mentions that the rain will clear up by Sunday. Lick Brook Falls is said to be best visited right after rain. Why don’t we go to Lick Brook on Sunday afternoon? Sure, I think. I’ve never been there before, and more waterfalls = more fun.

On Sunday, since we’ve spent Saturday at the Museum of the Earth and still need to get groceries for the upcoming week, we devise a bus schedule that will allow us to take the bus to Treman State Park, walk to and hike Lick Brook, catch the bus at Treman back to the Commons, walk from the Commons to Wegmans, and take the last bus from Wegmans back to Collegetown. A bit complicated, but doable.

No diving? . . . Aw . . .

The first part of the schedule goes according to plan and we take the 22 to Treman. We check out the falls by the swimming area, and water is thundering through. The swimming area is, understandably, closed. We sprint across the highway to walk over to the Lick Brook parking area and start the hike. The first part of the hike crosses a recently-flooded field and we follow a very muddy track. There’s one part where we cross a railway bridge, which is pretty cool.

How far to Terminus?

After the mud pits, we reach a wooded area and locate blazes going up a very steep hill. A couple of other hikers who look like they know what they’re doing are going in a different direction, but we decide to try the very steep hill. At the top, we can’t find any more blazes. Now we have to get down the very steep hill. Instead of falling hiking down the same way we came up, we bushwhack for awhile and make it back to the bottom, where we’re met by a stream. To be continued . . .