September 29, 2017 Night

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Good evening! Rain and 55 degrees in Delmar. There is a north-northwest breeze at 6 mph. I thought it was pollen I smelled when the rain first started, now it’s the smell of the smoke from the neighbor’s campfire.

Tonight will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 2am. Cloudy, with a low of 47 degrees at 5am. Four degrees above normal. Northeast wind 3 to 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. In 2016, we had mostly cloudy skies. It got down to 51 degrees. The record low of 28 occurred back in 1991.

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous Moon with 78% illuminated. The moon will set tonight at 2:14 am. The Full Moon is on Thursday night with partly cloudy skies. The sun will rise at 6:51 am with the first light at 6:23 am, which is one minute and 6 seconds later than yesterday. Tonight will have 12 hours and 13 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 52 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 8am, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms between 8am and 9am, then a chance of showers after 9am. Mostly cloudy, with a high of 57 degrees at 2pm. Eight degrees below normal. North wind 7 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 64 degrees. The record high of 88 was set in 1905.

Looking ahead to Sunday, sunny, with a high near 67. Calm wind becoming northwest around 5 mph in the afternoon. Maximum dew point of 45 at 5pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 66 degrees. It should be a really great autumn day on Sunday.

In four weeks on October 27 the sun will be setting at 5:53 pm, which is 45 minutes and 9 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had rain, snow, sleet, patches of fog, mist, cloudy skies and temperatures between 36 and 30 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 56 and 36 degrees. The record high of 79 degrees was set back in 1963.

If you hadn’t noticed, I just put a lengthy blog post together on what my thoughts are on my October trip.  I think God-willing, it will be a great trip to the Mountain State, the one that John Denver called Almost Heaven.

It looks like my camera has dried out and it’s working well except for a little water in the LED screen distorting things a bit. But I think it will continue to dry out over the next few days. I will make sure to put it in a waterproof case the next time I cross a beaver dam in my kayak.

As much as I hate rain on the weekends, it sounds like we are getting a good soaking rain in Delmar and that’s needed as it’s been so dry lately. It’s the first good rain in in over two weeks. Once the leaves fall, the fire risk could go up, but the rain should help. 

Looking ahead, Beaver Moon is in 5 weeks and 35th Birthday is in 3 months.

Columbus Day Road Trip Ideas

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Over the past couple of days I’ve been thinking about what I want do for my Columbus Day Week Road Trip. While it feels like I just got back from my five-day August eclipse trip, that is really a fading memory, and I’m ready for another big trip.

One option, mostly discounted would be a Vermont Northern New York trip. This would be good if I don’t think I could spend the full nine days on the road due to bad weather, some issue with the truck (unlikely), having to do work (also unlikely), or family needs.

That trip if I do it would consist of overnight in in Southern Green Mountain National Forest, then heading up to Mid-State outside of Middlebury then head north and drive through Smugglers Notch. I’ve never driven through Smuggler Notch and that would be interesting. From there head east to the Northern Adirondacks or maybe outside of Malone to the Deer River State Forest then to some of the state forests I’ve long wanted to explore in Saint Lawrence County, like Wolf Lake State Forest and Frank Jadwin State Forest. Then come down through the Tug Hill Plateau. That might be an interesting trip, but that’s not the one I really want to take.

The October trip I really want to do is the multi-state trip that I did to years ago to West Virginia and Virigina. But with some different destinations then two years ago. I think I want to actually see the Blackwater Falls in West Virigina, visit Ohiopyle State Park in Pennsylvania, drive through more of the farm country in the Shenandoah Valley and do more of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virigina. This year, I’m much less interested in Shenandoah National Park and Skyline Drive, as I feel like I’ve done that before, and I’m not interested in the constrained forms of recreation that parks provide. I’d rather spend more time seeing the Blue Ridge Parkway, where the speed limit is 45 MPH and the curves in general are much less sharp and hills are smoother. The Blue Ridge Parkway is such a nice drive compared to so many other roads these days, especially the steep hills of West Virginia.

The one thing about this trip option is it will have me staying more in developed campgrounds then I would like. Yes, most of the $10 or even $20 fees are nuisance fees in the grand scheme of things, but I like having my space while camping. It’s just not the same to camp when you have somebody else 20 feet away and you have to keep the noise down. That said, showers are nice.

The places I would camp in West Virigina in the Mongehella National Forest, along with the George Washington National Forest are dispersed camping areas and are remote enough I probably wouldn’t see many people around except for a passing pickup. I like West VIrigina, but those roads sure are steep, twisty, and narrow. I don’t want to overheat my brakes again or worry about that.

One thing that Northern West Virginia has going for it this year with my new phone is that the AT&T GSM network has much better coverage up there, especially outside of the hollows. On the long autumn nights, I like to be connected to the Internet, surf the web, update my blog, and no I can summon emergency services should I run into mechanical problems. I’ll take a long gun and extra food but I don’t like having zero service for multiple days on end. I just hate being totally off grid, especially in such remote country. The lack of cell service with my Verizon network CDMA phone more then anything else bugged me a lot about camping in West Virigina.

This year though, if I go down, I probably won’t first visit the Alleghany National Forest but will instead stay at Asaph Run or more likely County Bridge Primitive Campgrounds. They are $10/night but they are worth it as they closer to being on the way, and I can then hop on US 15/US 220/Interstate 99 and head straighter for Cumberland, Maryland then West Virigina and either to Forest Road 13 outside of Thomas, WV or Camp Run in Fort Seybert, WV. I liked the dispersed camping a lot along the high-elevation swamps on Forest Road 13, although I always worry about their being enough campsites up there because it’s somewhat limited along the road. That would bring me close to Blackwater Falls for visiting the net day, and also along Corridor “H” which is a newer expressway to Thomas. It passes by a massive coal fired power plant, which might be interesting to drive by just to see what is like in person. Another option down in the corner of Pennsylvania by West Viriginia is the aforementioned Ohiopyle State Park, which I’ve been interested in a while but are more interested since that hunter last autumn that I ran into on the trail told me what beautiful country it is up there.

Dolly Sods Wilderness is quite scenic but it’s a way up and I’ve been there before so I may skip that. Same thing with Gandy Run Camping Area and Spruce Mountian, the highest elevation in the Mountain State. I’d rather hurry down to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

I would at some point crossover to Viriginia — I’m thinking US 250 — then drive down in the Shenandoah Valley for a bit before heading up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I’ve seen the Shenandoah Valley from Shenandoah Parkway but never spent much time down in it.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is a nice drive. The North Creek Campground in Bucchan, VA is quite nice, for $10/night and even had a bit of CMDA cell service there. No showers though. The next overnight would be the Flat Rock or whatever the developed campground is on the Blue Ridge Parkway is south of Ronoake. I think that one is like $25/night but they they have showers and maybe even electricity at campsites.

At that point, I would almost be to the Tennessee line and I doubt I would go further south. I would probably come back part of the way I came, then more of the Shenandoah Valley, camping over again at North Creek Campground in Buchanan then probably heading up to West Virigina and camping over at Camp Run in Fort Seybert. I might then drive home from there or maybe overnight at County Bridge or Asaph Run in Wellsboro, because I really don’t like driving that much, and it gets dark so early in October.

I don’t have everything planned out and I need to study maps some more. But that’s fine. I’ll work on that tomorrow, and realize there is more to plan. That said, next Saturday, October 7th will be here before you know it.

2012 Ag Census – Tobacco Sales

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This map shows the counties where tobacco is grown in America, including some you might not think of tobacco counties, including parts of Western Massachusetts, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

September 29, 2017 8 AM Update

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At 50 degrees under deep blue skies today is a fairly typical late September day. Indeed October 1st is Sunday is remarkable as that seems and I will be leaving for my Columbus Day trip come next Saturday. I still have some planning to do for that trip though. 67 degrees for a high which is fairly normal for today.

Finally made it to the express bus but it was still running about 10 minutes late. I noticed that yesterday when I got the local that the express was running late. Probably just the traffic now that school is back in session and people aren’t on vacation.

The sun will set at 6:39 pm with dusk around 7:07 pm, which is one minute and 46 seconds earlier than yesterday. At sunset, look for partly clear conditions and 62 degrees. There will be a north breeze at 5 mph. Pretty typical autumn conditions.  Today will have 11 hours and 47 minutes of daytime, an decrease of 2 minutes and 52 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have showers likely, with thunderstorms also possible after 3am. Increasing clouds, with a low of 48 degrees at 5am. Three degrees above normal. Northeast wind 3 to 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. In 2016, we had mostly cloudy skies. It got down to 51 degrees. The record low of 28 occurred back in 1991.

As I noted earlier, it’s sure been difficult to get going in the morning with the dark mornings. I need to get bed earlier, use the red light more in my bedroom and maybe set the alarm clock on the other side of the bedroom. I like taking the express bus but I have to get up early enough to do that. Earlier this week it was quite humid so that’s a partial excuse but not really.

With the cooler weather I finally got around to catching up on the dishes and putting the camping gear and clothes away. To be fair I got back late on Monday and was at the laundromat and grocery store on Tuesday. Wednesday I went down to the library to return books and to the store to buy other things I left off my list.

Looking forward to a quiet weekend. I am going to spend some time studying maps and figuring out what my Columbus Day Week trip should look like. I think it will be Virginia and West Virigina but details are yet to be finalized. This really is the last big trip of the year, except maybe for a four day trip to the North Country in mid to late November.  I really got to get the maps out and study them further.

There are 4 months until 35th Birthday when the sun will be setting at 5:05 pm with dusk at 5:35 pm (Standard Time). The average high temperature is 32 degrees, with a record high of 61 in 1895. Cold in winter. I’ll be an old man then, only 20 more years if I retire at 55, which I probably won’t but who knows.

September 29, 2017 Morning

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Good morning! I tell you it’s difficult getting up and going when the mornings are as dark as they really this time of year. Sun is still hiding low to south. Cool, especially with the windows open. Clear, cool and 48 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a northwest breeze at 5 mph.

Today will be sunny, with a high of 65 degrees at 3pm. October like weather. Two degrees below normal. Northwest wind around 6 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 69 degrees. The record high of 86 was set in 1921.