Good morning. It’s August 2nd and my vacation is coming to an end. As they say, all good things must come to an end. That said, it’s another beautiful summer day, sunny and 63 degrees here in Smethport in Pennsylvania. Looking for more clouds later, around 80.

I’m already on my way back to Albany. I may stop at some scenic overlooks along US Route 6 before heading back to New York, but inevitably it’s back to the Cesspool of NY.  All good things must come to an end, I keep repeating to me.

Regardless I’ve been blessed with a fairly uneventful week, one with amazingly good weather. How often do you get an 8 day stretch of sunny, mostly warm weather with no thunderstorms. Granted it rained one night at around 10 AM but stopped early in the morning, and on Thursday it poured for about 15 minutes as I took down the campsite. But the rest of the week had more blue skies for longer than I can even remember in my memory.

Saturday was spent making a good breakfast over charcoal grill. Breakfast sausage and eggs are so good on the grill. It takes a while for the charcoal and wood coals to get up to temperature but the results are pretty amazing.  Before I knew it was 10:30-11:00. There was a bicycle race through the National Forest and I got watching it. Apparently this race must have been relatively inexpensive to enter, as there was all kinds of folks participating. Had to been quite the climb up Route 160 past Jakes Rocks.

Then I headed over to Rim Rock for a brief scenic view and to hopefully pick up a cell signal to update my blog. I got up there and it was a beautiful day. One thing I noticed was how polluted the reservoir was from blue-green algae. It was noticeably green from above. I guess Kinzua Beach was open, but I didn’t want to swim in green soup. I’m sure the beach couldn’t be that bad, or it would be closed. But I figured Allegany State Park’s Quaker Lake was free with the Empire Passport. Didn’t have great service there but at least I could post my blog to live and get a driving time estimate to Stony Brook State Park. It said 150 miles and like 3 1/2 hours if I refused to take the expressway. With my late start this morning, and the cool temperatures, I figured Stoney Brook State Park gorge swimming had to fall off my list of plans for the weekend. I decided instead to head over to Quaker Lake in the Allegany State Park.

Heading over to Quaker Lake I decided to stop over at Sugar Run pull off along the Allegheny Reservoir to take some pictures. When I got out of my truck, a little boy runs up to me and asks if I can jump start his dad’s diesel pickup truck, which is in the water as he was loading up his motorboat after a week camping on the shores of the Allegheny Reservoir. I can’t say no as I’ve been there before, not too long ago. I pull into the water, up to the pickup. We hook up the cables, standing in water, and nothing happens when he turns the key. We both had a set of jumper cables and we hook up both batteries together. He gets a weak start but is unable to get his big diesel running. Ultimately, we wait about five minutes and eventually enough charge transfers to his truck and he gets started. I was glad, as I sure as hell wasn’t going to leave him stranded with his family without cell service in the National Forest. I figured I was ultimately going to have to offer him a ride to Bradford were he could call for help and get a tow. Which was fine, because I was sort of heading that way. Fortunately, it didn’t come to that.

I got to Allegany State Park and Quaker Lake. What a beautiful bath house and a lake. The architecture of the bath house is quality 1950s modern, covered with ivy. While the maintenance of the building has been subpar the architecture was great. The lake and beach were incredibly scenic and for an impounded lake, had crystal clear water. The beach was sandy and the lake was nice for swimming – a sandy, rock free bottom. I think below the sand, the bottom of the lake was concrete, to provide a quality swimming environment. I have to say this was probably the finest lake swimming place I’ve ever been to. The beach was sandy and nice. Unfortunately, with the wind and the occasional clouds, the beach was chilly. The water was a nice temperature but the air was cold. When the sun came out, the air wasn’t too bad, but still less than pleasant.

Decided to camp nearer to the NY State boarder tonight, on one of the roads near the Willow Run ATV area. I was a few miles south of the area but apparently this is a pretty popular place to camp. I got a nice gravel drive in site along a creek. Down about a quarter mile was a group of young adults who are hooting and hollering, making noise and shooting guns. Sounded like an AR-15 with a 30 round mag. Cool. I responded back with a little plinking of my own with my shotgun. It was fun, reminded me of that scene in Deliverance with the Banjos. I should have gone down and offered some beer to hang with those riders. Had grill cheese and the remaining hot dog on the charcoal grill this evening. Didn’t buy ice or supplies today, so I figured I’d use up what’s left before it goes bad.

So my bags are packed and I’m on my way home. It was a good 8 days between the Finger Lakes and Western PA.