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Andy Zepp Andy Zepp knows gorges. It comes with the terrain when you manage thousands of acres of public-access land near Ithaca. As executive director of the Finger Lakes Land Trust, hiking boots anchor his business wardrobe—hardly what he imagined growing up in the shadows of Manhattan. But arriving at Cornell his perspective shifted. The gorges got him. Out went a degree in labor relations and in came a masters in resource management—which he put to quick use as V.P. of programs at the Land Trust Alliance in Washington. There was only one downside: his hiking boots fit poorly inside the Beltway. “I was spending a lot of time in airplanes flying to meetings where people talked about programs that managed natural lands,” he said. “I found I was living vicariously. I was too far removed from the work I loved.” Now, with his boots planted firmly in Ithaca, he has the best of all worlds. “Ithaca has wonderful natural landscapes with the kind of cultural resources you’d never expect in a rural city,” he said. “It’s remarkable.” And it’s home to his favorite gorge, Lick Brook, part of the Land Trust’s Sweedler Preserve. “It’s five minutes from downtown but it feels absolutely wild and remote. Very few people know about it.” Not any more: GPS: 42.396, -76.533. photo Sheryl Sinkow