Ridden · Finger Lakes, New York
Ithaca to Hector
May 21 to 22, 2026
A gravel trip that started at the front door and ended on the Hector ridge: up the Black Diamond Trail to Trumansburg and on to Smith Park, then a shuttle to the top of the forest and a long descent home the next day.
- 1
- Night
- 2
- Places
- 2
- Rides
- 57.8
- Miles
The ground
Camp, and what we rode from it
The campsite is the square, and every pin is somewhere we actually rode that weekend, with the track drawn under it. Distances are straight line from camp, not road miles.
Pins mark a trailhead or a parking area, never where an individual ride started. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Basecamp
Smith Park
- Operator
- Town of Hector
- In
- Thursday May 21
- Out
- Friday May 22
Above Seneca Lake, 21 miles from the house and the whole point of riding there rather than driving.
The list
What we rode
Every number here is scoped to this trip, not to the place. Finger Lakes National Forest holds three rides across three years and only one of them belongs to that weekend.
The ride out
0.0 mi from camp
- Rides
- 1
- Miles
- 34.4
- Climbing
- 1,633 ft
- Ridden
- May 21 2026
House to camp under our own power. The Black Diamond Trail to Trumansburg, then west and up onto the ridge. The published track starts a mile and a half out: the first stretch is the road home and is trimmed off every time.
- GPX
Afternoon Ride
The ride back
5.1 mi from camp
- Rides
- 1
- Miles
- 23.4
- Climbing
- 433 ft
- Ridden
- May 22 2026
Shuttled to the top of the forest on the Friday morning and pointed downhill. Twenty-three miles and 433 feet of climbing, which tells you which way it went.
- GPX
Downhill Gravel Ride