About Our Trails
About the Finger Lakes Trail
The Finger Lakes Trail System includes the main Finger Lakes Trail (FLT), from the Pennsylvania-New York border in Allegany State Park to the Long Path in the Catskill Forest Preserve, and its numerous branch and loop trails. The main FLT is 586 miles long. The branch and loop trails currently add an additional 400+ miles. The trail system was built and is being maintained by organizations (such as the Cayuga Trails Club) and individual and family trail sponsors. All of these groups and individuals are volunteers, except for personnel of the U.S. Forest Service who work with volunteer Trail Sponsors to maintain the 12-mile-long Interloken Trail, one of the FLT System’s branch trails. The Finger Lakes Trail Conference (FLTC) was organized in 1962 to promote and coordinate the building, maintenance, and protection of the FLT System.
Several sections of the main FLT have been certified by the National Park Service as official components of the North Country National Scenic Trail. When completed, the North Country Trail (NCT) will extend 4,600 miles across seven states from eastern New York to central North Dakota.
— Reproduced with permission from Adventure Calling You! and A Brief History of the Finger Lakes Trail, published by the Finger Lakes Trail Conference.
The Cayuga Trails Club is responsible for maintenance of about 90 miles of the Finger Lakes Trail System, which includes 23 miles of the North Country Trail. Many of the club’s hikes are on sections of the FLT/NCT System.
About the Cayuga Trail
The Cayuga Trail, 10 miles long, follows the beautiful Fall Creek gorge from the Cornell University campus east into the Town of Dryden. The route travels through parts of the Cornell campus and the Cornell Botanic Gardens’ Mundy Wildflower Garden, F. R. Arboretum, and several On-Campus Natural Areas and Off-Campus Natural Areas.
The Cayuga Trails Club started building the Cayuga Trail in 1964; it has been expanded several times in its history. The trail takes hikers along the high banks and water’s edge of Fall Creek, through hardwood forests, pine plantations, and interesting areas of lush ferns and hawthorns. This hike features early spring wildflowers, birds, magnificent vistas, interesting geological features, and the beauty of very wild sections of Fall Creek and Cornell’s natural areas. The Cayuga Trail is considered one of the most beautiful foot trails in the Ithaca region.
If you are on the Cayuga Trail and see a problem (downed tree, etc), please send an email to trails@cayugatrailsclub.org.
About other trails
There are numerous other opportunities in the Cayuga Trails Club region for hiking and quiet recreation in natural areas. Explore the following links for further information.
IthacaTrails.org provides an interactive map and information on all 250+ miles of trails in Tompkins County.
GoFingerLakes.org is the best resource for finding places to hike, snowshoe, cross-country ski and kayak throughout the Finger Lakes Region.- Finger Lakes Land Trust Nature Preserves
- Finger Lakes National Forest
- The Arnot Teaching and Research Forest
- Cornell Botanic Gardens
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology Sapsucker Woods
- Nature Conservancy O. D. von Engeln Preserve
- Cayuga Nature Center
- Lime Hollow Nature Center
- Finger Lakes State Parks
- Finger Lakes State Forests
- Multiuse trails