Back in the 1990s when we first started trailering our 19-footer to campgrounds all over New York State, one of our favorite places was the Cayuga Lake State Park at the northern end of that finger lake. The huge shallow area at the north end has some of the best smallmouth bass fishing we’ve ever experienced, and the deeper sections produce some great Rainbow and Lake Trout.
Cappy’s brothers Scott and Gary first turned us on to the campground, and we went there quite a few times until we sold the 19-footer and started exploring the canal on the 32-footer. It took us five summers to decide to visit Ithaca, which is on the south end of Cayuga.
We spent the night in Seneca Falls and thought we would be heading out into the lake the next morning for the 30-mile north/south run. We had reservations for that night at the Allen H. Treman State Marine Park at the southern tip of the lake. But we got distracted …
We had a hard & fast rule: Any time there’s a flea or farmers market we have to stop what we’re doing and spend some time there. Peoples park is populated on Wednesday mornings with tents and, well, people. A farmers/flea market netted Mia some incredible sweets from an Amish family. We scored a couple of grass-fed beef steaks (Delmonicos), some ridiculously fresh produce, and a good laff over a belly button lint remover. We even got our morning coffee!
We also found some … interesting … offerings. Talking with this vendor was a blast. His sense of humor was every bit as weird as the stuff he was selling. He warned us about his raspberries. He said he tried to get all the mosquitoes and gnats out of them but we may find some meat in the basket. No extra charge for that. He said he especially did not like the gnats because they fly into his ear and then he has to put his finger on his outer ear flap to shut off the air and wait until the gnat suffocates. Other times, he said, he just whacks at his ear and he can hear the bug crunch, being that’s it’s so close to his ear drum and all.
Another vendor told us how he suspected one of his three sons had been stealing money out of the tip jar but he couldn’t figure out which son was the culprit. He said he couldn’t confront any of them until he had proof, so he used a Sharpie to put a black dot over the presidents’ noses on every bill in the jar. Sure enough, he caught one of his kids red-handed. Of course the kid denied it. Two years later, the father got a call from the son, who was away at college: “I did do it, Dad. I had to come clean — my conscience was driving me crazy!” Yep, small town people have been brought up right.
As we passed the Village of Cayuga we realized that we were just about to pass the train bridge that marks the north end of Cayuga Lake. Undiscovered territory on our 32-foot Carver, but we were very familiar with the fishing grounds to the west, which was possibly too shallow for the Carver. We stayed in the channel and in about a half hour the depth plunged to 80 feet and more.
The average trawler will take about 3.5 hours to travel the entire length of Cayuga Lake from Lock CS-1 to the Allen H. Treman State Marine Park in Ithaca. Add another hour or so if, like us, you’re leaving from Seneca Falls. That is, if you don’t slow to idle or stop to see sights or visit a winery like we did.
The Finger Lakes area is internationally known for its wines, and there are several wineries with boat docks along the way. We chose to stop at Sheldrake Point Vineyard.
Sheldrake has a nice little dock that can handle up to about forty-five footers with no issues. My depth sounder reported 6 feet under the hull. A few picnic tables and a shallow river-stone beach make it a wonderful little lunch stop.
We let Crewy go swimming for the first time off his leash and he high-tailed it back toward the boat.
Radar said rain was minutes away, so we battened down and bee-lined for the winery, a hundred years up a small gravel inclined road. Wine tastings at a reasonable price up to five wines, and they will waive that fee if you spend some money. These are some of the best wines NYS has to offer, especially the ice wines. I loved the 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon, and Maria went for the Riesling Ice Wine. We also bought a few others. The bill came to $265. But heck, we’re on vacation. We work hard all year. We deserve to splurge once in awhile. By the time we finished the rain had stopped and the sun was peeking through the clouds.
As we traveled south toward our destination we passed the reason for all of the clouds and rain. This facility, called Milliken Station, was built as a coal-fired power plant back in the 1950s, but it was soon discovered that it could make clouds that partially blocked the sun and made it rain. This helped to turn the area into one of the best places in the world to grow grapes for wine.
(Umm … okay. I made that up. It’s not really a cloud generator. And they shut down the plant in 2019.)
Next up: If you get a chance and can anchor out and dinghy in to Tauqhannock Falls State Park on a picture-perfect calm day, it’s something to see. Mainly because all I have is this scan of a photo (shot with a 35mm SLR film camera in 1998). There’s a nice hike to get to the waterfall that takes you right up the creek without a paddle.
We arrived at the Treman State Marine Park around 3 p.m., which was perfect because that’s the park’s check-in time. We had already signed-in and paid online, so all we had to do was let the office know what slip we were in and get some paperwork.
On the way to the office I happened upon this typical-looking thing. But on closer inspection it didn’t have a lock. However, the pipe mounted to it did have one, because that’s where the money from the “Honor System” would be deposited. We stayed at that park three times in five years, and as far as I know it’s still there and still collecting money on the honor system. Yay, boating community!
This is the view of the transient slips from the breakwall that separates the south end of Cayuga Lake from the entrance of the park. At 32 feet, No Losses III looks tiny next to the 45-foot trawler to the left.