The rain brought us both bad and good luck over the last few days. It rained out our plans to cook dinner on the campfire Wednesday night and chased us out of that awesome gorge. But if we hadn’t gotten rained out of our swimming on Wednesday, we would probably never have bothered to drive an hour out of the way to Treman State Park outside of Ithaca on Thursday to find a swimming hole that Sandy had read about on – no, seriously – swimmingholes.info.
We drove to Ithaca through yet more rain, with me grumbling the whole time. But when we got to town, the rain started slowing down, and by the time we were done with our delicious lunch at Moosewood Restaurant, the sun was peeking out. We headed out to find the swimming hole.
A small river runs through the gorge at Treman, and we walked along its edge. After a few minutes, a large waterfall pulled into view, with people swimming all around it. And it just got cooler from there. Right next to the waterfall is a diving board. Lifeguards monitored while swimmers leapt off the board into the deep water at the base of the falls. The bravest (like Sandy) could then swim against the current and stand directly under the waterfall.
It was awesome. Unfortunately, the universe seems to have an unspoken rule that our time at really awesome swimming spots needs to be limited by our own poor planning, rain, or the visibility requirements of the NY State Parks, which, just 20 minutes after we arrived, decreed that the diving board and waterfall-area swimming be shut down until the murkiness receded.
No matter. We had to be heading out anyway, finally turning inexorably west for our homeward journey.
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