The Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York is a dynamic land of ups and downs as well as lefts and rights. Boisterous waterfalls and deep, pulsing lakes hint of Devonian seas, earth-moving glaciers and wilderness steeped in unfathomable time.
Amidst these very hills, valleys, and deep forests, George Washington initiated a devastating campaign to disempower the indigenous Iroquois people (Haudenosaunee) during the American Revolution. Less than a century later, hundreds of African Americans escaping slavery in the south found safe haven in the homes of Finger Lakes residents on their way to Canada along the Underground Railroad. Women of this same soil fought for and won the constitutional right for women throughout the country to vote. The Dalai Lama chose the Finger Lakes for his North American seat.
This is a land of agriculture and academics as well as both vineyards, wine and a strong wave of the 20th century Temperance Movement. Sinuous gorges and oven-safe Pyrex, silent films and white deer, mass market photography, water cures and granola, lake drums and Ensatinas, maple syrup and the first public airplane flight in America that took off from the surface of a frozen Finger Lake; this is indeed a land of many wonders, stories, questions, and curiosities.
We would love to have you join us for one of our upcoming Place Odyssey and the Art of Walking trips in the Finger Lakes.
Learn more about our trips or sign up for one today by contacting the main trip leader at place.odyssey@gmail.com or (607) 279-7509.
If you're arriving from out of town for a Place Odyssey adventure, we are more than happy to help you figure out the additional logistics.