Black Diamond Trail, Ithaca

We enjoyed this sculpture at the trailhead, but couldn't find any information it either there or online

Tricia and I continue to explore biking around our new home. This time we tried the Black Diamond Trail in Ithaca. We were slightly amused as we had Black Diamond Mines near our California home, so it seemed serendipitous that we have  Black Diamond variant here as well.

The trail starts in Ithaca and heads toward Taughannock Falls near Trumansburg. It's slightly uphill the entire eight-ish miles, which makes the return easier and more fun than the ride out. The surface is a friendly but dusty crushed stone.

The trail ends at a road that may have taken us down to the falls, but we were short on time and didn't know how big the climb out would be. Maybe next time.

Pine Creek Trail overnighter , Pennsylvania

Living in a new area it's been exciting to learn what's close by that I've never heard of. The Pine Creek Trail is one of those exciting discoveries.

When Tricia and I realized that this gem in Pennsylvania is a mere hour away we started making plans to ride it. It's 60 miles, but we thought we'd dip our toes in with a 30 miles out, overnight, then ride back.

The hardest part was figuring out where to start and where to leave our van. Fortunately there's a Pine Creek Trail Facebook group with lots of helpful folks. Using the advice we got from that group we avoided starting in Wellsboro  and having to ride a busy highway. Instead we parked at the Butler Access area (after alerting the park staff our van would be there overnight,) which is the official northmost trail head. 

We carried our tent and food in on our bikes and rode the stunning 30 miles to the Pettecote Junction campsite. We saw eagles, frogs, deer, groundhog, fly fishing people, kids on bikes and a lot of beautiful country. We didn't see bear, and I'm OK with that.

It went well with a couple of minor issues. I screwed up our Jetboil and only had enough fuel for slightly warm morning coffee. Tricia was not thrilled (though remarkable accepting.) We also discovered the morning's 39 degree temps were colder than we expected and we had not packed quite enough warm clothing. It wasn't tragic, but it wasn't warm either.

Th 30 miles back was slightly (very slightly) downhill and a lot easier. We took it slowly anyway and enjoyed the views.

A few photos!