Six Mile Creek, Juniper Drive to the upper reservoir
Meet-up: Dead end of Juniper Drive, off Coddington Road, just south of the Ithaca city limits.
Click here to see the Google Maps page showing the meet-up area.
This walk takes us through a little-used area along the south side of Six Mile Creek. It’s extremely picturesque and lots of fun. In one of the high points, we walk down a rocky stream bed to an overlook high above Six Mile Creek below. If the water in the stream bed is high, it can be a little challenging making our way. We then have to climb up a quite steep slope to a ridge top – if the ground is muddy or there are lots of dried leaves, the climb can be a bit slippery and you may feel like you’re going to fall over backwards. Up on the ridge there are very large old growth trees, and some wonderful views. At one point we drop down to visit the large dam at the base of the upper reservoir. This is a loop trail; we make our way back to the cars mostly on the South Hill Rec Way, with one detour into a small beautiful pine woods. There are some strenuous and challenging spots.