Robert Barker/University Photography

Todd Bittner, Cornell Plantations' director of natural areas, celebrates the reopening of the Cascadilla Gorge Trail Sept. 15. At right is Plantations Director Christopher Dunn.

Robert Barker/University Photography

Ready to hike, community members at Treman Triangle Park await the reopening of the Cascadilla Gorge Trail.

Robert Barker/University Photography

Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick '09, left, receives a commemorative walking stick from Cornell Plantations Director Christopher Dunn.

Closed for six years of storm-related repairs, the Cascadilla Gorge Trail – from College Avenue to Treman Triangle Park in downtown Ithaca – reopened Monday, Sept. 15, with the ceremonial exhortation: “Go take a hike!”

Some $2.75 million in repairs (explained on signs along the trail) aimed to restore the 1930s appearance and function of the steep, water-level trail, including naturalistic stone staircases, more durable railings, reinforced gorge walls, storm water management and elevated trail surfaces.

An eager crowd of hiking-boot-clad community members was on hand for remarks by university and city officials. Many had waited years to traverse the full length of the trail.

Master of ceremonies Christopher Dunn, the E.N. Wilds Director of Cornell Plantations, said it was 2011 when Tropical Storm Lee sent destructive torrents and massive boulders down the gorge, forcing the trail’s prolonged closure to the public. The university’s $2 million commitment to the restoration project, Dunn said, “speaks to the significance Cornell places on this trail” as a connection to the community. Cascadilla, he added, is not just a passageway to the university and to the city, “but a gateway to nature for so many people.”

Beyond the university’s contribution, some $880,000 came from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and state of New York emergency funding. KyuJung Whang, vice president for facilities services, credited former Rep. Maurice Hinchey for helping secure FEMA funds.

Former Ithaca Mayor Carolyn Peterson, who partnered with Cornell in grant applications, said she’s been hiking Cascadilla for 40 years for its “health benefits ... that can enhance creative thinking and problem solving.”

Mayor Svante Myrick ’09 said he was a 17-year-old college-bound youth touring the Cornell campus when he discovered something neither Princeton nor Tufts could boast: scenic gorges where “you can walk out your door and in five minutes be in a 10,000-year-old reminder that the problems you face today are not the end of the world, that there were problems before and that this community has endured.” The mayor thanked “most of all Cornell University for keeping that reminder alive for so many of us.”

Henry Sackett, Class of 1875, funded trails in Fall Creek and Cascadilla gorges, recounted Todd Bittner, Plantations’ director of natural areas. Preliminary repairs (from 2009) weathered the 2011 deluge, proving that “our repair methodology was sound.”

Bittner went on to thank, among numerous others, former Plantations director Donald Rakow for “championing the gorges for 19 years”; Dan McClure, the project manager; Cornell’s landscape architect David Cutter, who “helped us design trail elements with a historic eye, while maintenance manager Jim Gibbs guided us to cost effective approaches”; and stone masons Mike Reynolds, Jim Coskey and Phil Woodhouse – “although ‘Llenrock artists’ is a more appropriate job title.”

By then spectators were edging toward the trail’s award-winning entry gate (crafted by local metal artist Durand Van Doren), but Dunn had one more piece of business. He presented Myrick with a commemorative walking stick to lead the procession up the gorge.

“Now,” Dunn recommended, “go take a hike!” And so they did.