Walk Ithaca through the gorges
Ithaca sits at the south end of Cayuga Lake, with gorges and waterfalls cutting right through town. FOG starts the map dark and clears only what you walk, and the gorge trails make some of the most striking lines a small town can draw.
Downtown and the climb
The Ithaca Commons is a pedestrian mall in the flat downtown, near the lake. From there, the city climbs steeply east to Cornell University on the hill, and the best way up is the Cascadilla Gorge Trail, a stone path and stairway beside a string of waterfalls that comes out near the edge of campus.
Collegetown, the student neighbourhood, sits at the top. The Cornell campus spreads north across the Arts Quad with McGraw Tower and its chimes, to the suspension bridge over Fall Creek Gorge.
Falls and the lake
Fall Creek Gorge, on the north side of campus, has Ithaca Falls at its bottom, a wide waterfall reached by a short path from the street. Beebe Lake, above the gorge, has a loop trail.
Ithaca College sits on South Hill across the valley. Down by the lake, Cass Park and Stewart Park give flat paths along the water and the Cayuga Waterfront Trail links them.
Hills and winters
The climb from downtown to campus is steep, around 400 feet. Winters are long and snowy, and the gorge trails close from late autumn into spring, so plan the waterfall walks for the warm months.
Ithaca is small enough that a season of walking clears most of it. The state parks just outside town, Buttermilk Falls and Robert H. Treman, extend the map with more gorges.
Bring the walks you already did
An empty map is a slow start in a city you already know. FOG Unlimited imports Google Timeline exports and GPX files, so years of past walks in Ithaca clear straight onto the map, and you open the app to a real picture with obvious dark gaps in it. It is one purchase, never a subscription.
From then on FOG records by itself, with the app closed, and the trail never leaves the phone. No account, no ads, no tracking. The logbook writes a page for every month and year you were out, with the new ground and the new places you set foot in.
Questions people actually ask
Can you walk up a gorge to Cornell?
Yes. The Cascadilla Gorge Trail climbs from downtown to the edge of campus past several waterfalls, when it is open in the warm months.
Are the gorge trails open in winter?
No. They close in late autumn and reopen in spring.
Does FOG work for running and cycling too?
Yes. It clears fog for walking, running and riding, anywhere on Earth, in the same way.
Start with a dark map.
FOG is free to explore. No account, no subscription, and your map never leaves your phone.
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