I love being outside and taking a step away from main campus to take a deep breath and relax. I also love hiking, but I had never been in Cascadilla Gorge. It was really interesting to learn the history behind the gorge and to see the changes that have been made by both nature and man since the original plan was made – it was designed to be a path from students to walk to campus back when Cornell was young. Even before a trail was blazed in the gorge, it was an integral part of the University, until finally the gorge was gifted to Cornell as a natural area.

The most interesting part was learning about and experiencing the juxtaposition of having a natural area in a populated and developed city – while taking a quiet hike we could clearly hear the music drifting down from the Lambda Chi house. We also saw storm pathways that had to be added to the gorge for when city water is drained down into the gorge during storms. We also learned about how when work is done on the gorge the work is implemented to look as though the changes have always been there – even though they haven’t.

Many changes have been made to the gorge since its creation, though just walking along the trail you would think it has always been like that. The gorge has seen trail changes, dam installments and removals, patch jobs, course adjustment, and many other changes – the path used to travel from where Collegetown is now up to Stewart Ave, and another path continued up past the waterfall. While at Cornell it is easy to see what’s new – for example, PSB and, obviously, Klarman Hall, have not always been here. Less obvious is all the work that has gone into campus and its natural areas to keep it looking old and established.