Six Mile Creek, south side, rim trail
Meet-up: Crescent Place a few hundred feet east of South Hill Elementary School, Hudson Street, in the city. We meet where the road makes a big bend and there’s access to the South Hill Recreation Way.
Click here to see the Google Maps page for the meet-up. It’s just a few minutes’ drive from The Commons.
An Ithaca Trails trail description and associated map for this area can be found here:
Ithaca Trails – Six Mile Creek Natural Area
This is a great trail system along a wild and beautiful gorge – it’s amazing that such a walk could exist so close to downtown. It runs parallel to the popular and busy South Hill Rec Way, a former railroad right of way, but when you’re on the rim trail you’re in a different world. The narrow footpath runs along the side of a steep slope; there are lively terrain changes, pine trees and wonderful views down into the creek and reservoirs below.
The trail system here is broken into two sections; an upper trail system immediately below the South Hill Rec Way that’s safer for us to hike year-round, and a lower section of trails that leads to Six Mike Creek. Caution should be exercised even on the upper trails, which are not always clearly marked, and can be hazardous in winter months due to snow and ice accumulation, particularly around the several water crossings. There are side trails that can be extremely challenging; we’ve learned to avoid many of these, but it’s easy to blunder onto one.
In summer months when overall trail conditions are relatively safer we can take some of the lower blazed trails that bring us out onto Six Mile Creek directly opposite the Mulholland Wildflower Preserve.
An interesting write-up of the side trails along with some maps can be found here:
Goating Off Road on the Hidden Trails of South Hill Recreation Way – packgoats (wordpress.com)
That author got a little more adventurous in his explorations than our group does on our hikes.
Last edit 07/2022 JFR