The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Flowing water, wine & scenery
Finger Lakes region in a (long) weekend
The Finger Lakes region in New York is bursting with waterfalls and wineries. And since those are two things we enjoy, we stretched our driving limit for a long weekend and headed out Friday of the Memorial Day weekend.
We had never been to the Finger Lakes, which stretch out north to south on amap like the slashes of a bear’s claws running down a tree’s bark. Or fingers, whatever you see. We were always intimidated by the driving time (4.5 to 5 hours) and the fact that we would only be able to see one or two of the lakes in a modest visit.
But we ended up with more sights and sips than we imagined — even if I didn’t get a chance to ride a boat or float a kayak during the threeplus days. (We did stay in a yurt; more on that in a moment.)
First stop was Binghamton, which is on the way since you’ll probably take scenic Route 17 through the Catskills and continue up I86 to the hometown ofmy hero Rod Serling; it’s also a place where my daughter played travel softball a couple of times. (We remember afternoon deluges of rain and crews that could bring the fields back to playable in short order.)
The next morning we headed for Ithaca, at the southeastern edge of the region below Cayuga Lake, and home to Cornell University. A stop at the Cornell Botanic Garden provided a good morning stroll— a deer walked across our path at one point— and I sampled herbs from the herb garden. (In a garden tour many years ago, I was told that herbs should be pinched and tasted by visitors, so I’m sticking with that advice.)
A short drive away, to the southwest, are Buttermilk Falls and Robert Treman state parks, both of which are must sees for their rushing water over rocks.
Trails are walkable for most folks. At Treman, after walking to and gawking at the falls and a small swimming area on the east side of the park, you can drive a short distance to the west (referred to as the park’s upper entrance) for even greater sights. (One car admission covers multiple state parks.)
After that we headed 55 minutes to the western middle of Seneca Lake to stay at lakeside PlumPoint Lodge in Himrod, where we arranged to stay in one of a handful of yurts at the rear of the property. Yurts are round tents used as a dwelling by several nomadic groups in the steppes of Central Asia; these are woodframed and canvascovered. I spentmuch ofmy time rhyming things with “yurt” as we arrived. “I’ll bet the office manager is Gert. She’ll probably tell us to be alert; we could get hurt. Where does one hang your shirt in a yurt? I hope the floor’s not dirt...”
This is as close as we get to camping these days and, in truth, it was nothing like that dewy, smoky bug fest (although I did have to dispatch an ant in the bathroom that looked like he was left over from “The ZantiMisfits” episode of old TV series “The Outer Limits”). There’s a full bathroom with a small shower (concrete floor) and door for privacy. There’s a queen bed like any hotel, a ceiling and wall fan, a couple of rugs, paintings on the walls, a TV, futon and a small refrigerator. It wasn’t cheap at about $180 a night, but it did make it through a Saturday evening downpour without leaking. (There’s no airconditioning but it did have fans and it cools off nicely at night near the lake.)
The lodge also has a large, rectangular deck jutting out into the lake with Adirondack chairs and a nearby lawn gazebo on the lodge’s 300 feet of lakefront. There’s no swimming in the lake, but there is a swimming pool behind the main building that was set to open in June.
The food in the lodge (under new management after many years as the Rainbow Cove Resort) was better at dinner than breakfast but the small staff was friendly.
Seneca Lake, by the way, is the deepest of the Finger Lakes with an estimated volume of 4.2 trillion gallons. That’s about half of the water in all of the Finger Lakes, and it’s one factor in the area’ s macro climate that adds to the beneficial “viticulture” for area wineries, which number more than 100 in the region.
There are afternoon tasting opportunities at Castel Grisch, Lakewood Vineyards, Magnus Ridge, Hermann Wiemer and others along Route 14 on the west side of the lake (limited hours; most close at 5), and the east side has a bunch more. A surprising treat we found were the prices. Where other small wineries in wine regions routinely charge $12 or $15 for a tasting of five to seven wines and $20$ 50 a bottle, these nicely appointed places were offering solid tastings for $4 to $8 and bottles from $14.
And while they are known for tasty whites (the riesling, for example, perfect for spring and summer), the region’s wine quality is generally very good to excellent.
But back to the rushing water, and holy water. If you’re a churchgoer, there’s a Catholic church down the road at the south end of the lake in Watkins Glen where you can leave your car after Mass on Sunday and head over to Watkins Glen State Park, a stunningly good hike on both sides of a massive gorge. After a rainy spring, the water was rushing and roaring so fast at one waterfall that it was like standing three feet from a mini Niagara Falls. You would not be cheapening the word “awesome” to describe that sight as such.
We’re not NASCAR fans, but if you are, you can join another roar of speed at another tourist favorite, Watkins Glen International. There will be stock car action known as Go Bowling at The Glen on Aug. 4 that will be shown on NBC Sports network, for example.
After three days, we figured out that “FLX” means Finger Lakes, as in roadside eatery FLX Wienery, a clever take on the local theme by winery owners Christopher Bates and Isabel Bogadtke, who opened the Route 14 place in May 2014 between Watkins Glen and Geneva. The Wienery offers local sourced, housemade dogs and brats, burgers and fries, a veggie burger, milkshakes (spiked, if you want) and, of course, area wine. Superfriendly staff, too.
Other sites in the area: Corning Glass (southwest), Keuka Lake, Taughannock Falls State Park, Belhurst Castle and Winery, Canandaigua Lake, Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, Roseland Waterpark and Sciencenter, not to mention the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
A couple of those sites are in Geneva, where we stopped at the top of Seneca Lake before leaving the region. There’s a newish Finger Lakes Welcome Center there that is a sight to see itself. And it’s on a walking trail that goes through Seneca Lake State Park. Like a bear grabbing a map, you only scratch the surface of the Finger Lakes in a weekend, but we’re left hungry for another slice (and sip).