Biking the Black Diamond Trail in Ithaca, New York

​A wealth management advisor in Ithaca, New York, Keefe Gorman serves as a managing director of investments with Merrill Lynch. When he isn’t working, Keefe Gorman is an avid outdoor sports enthusiast who considers mountain biking to be one of his favorite activities.

The top mountain biking path in the Ithaca area, according to the independent authority Trailforks, is the Black Diamond Trail. Beginning within Ithaca city limits, this trail stretches nearly 8.5 miles along the shore of Cayuga Lake to reach Taughannock Falls, a 215-foot waterfall in Ulysses, New York.

Composed of stone-dust gravel, the Black Diamond Trail is relatively easy to bike for people of all skill levels. As they ride, bikers travel through a forest environment full of maple, oak, hickory, and hemlock trees in dozens of adjacent ravines.

A “rails to trails” project, the Black Diamond Trail is built over a section of passenger train track formerly operated by the Lehigh Valley Railroad. In fact, the track transported the Black Diamond Express, Lehigh Valley’s flagship luxury passenger line that ran from Buffalo to New York City.

Keefe Gorman Merrill Lynch

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