Good evening! Today was a dreary day, kind of a cold, wet miserable day to be traveling, taking down  and setting up camp. Rain showers and 47 degrees in Chautauqua Gorge State Forest. There is a west breeze at 14 mph. The skies will clear tomorrow around noontime.

Camping tonight at Chautauqua Gorge, which is much less scenic and impressive then you might think but I wanted to visit Chautauqua County as its been years since I’ve been out here. The shelters and especially campsite eight is quite nice. It should be quite pretty tomorrow. 

Checked out Cattaraugus State Forest, including one of the designated campsites, which really isn’t that impressive. But it chewed up some time as the cold rain came down. Then drove part of the Cattaraugus Amish Trail down to Cherry Creek. It was kind of interesting to see all the Amish farms, although they really are all over rural New York. Then Waze took me on a rather lengthy and crazy route to Chautauqua Gorge, running me up to Fredonia. Rain and fog didn’t give me much of a view as I traversed the vast countryside of Northern Chautauqua County. 

I misplaced my card reader, so I am unable to upload most of my photos. I  think I’d rather upload higher resolution photos then the Instagram ones. I usually like to take them on my stand alone camera then transfer them to the phone or upload them to the blog directly. 

So the next few days will likely be very text heavy with few new photo or map posts… 

I bought a second MicroSD card for the dashboard camera, as I was low on space and the first part of vacation drive was starting get overwritten on the card. While I won’t keep all the hours of dash cam video, I want to keep and share on YouTube the most scenic parts of the trip. It would be fun to look back at my drive and the memories of the trip. Often it’s hard to get photos  of the most scenic and interesting parts of the trip but I still want to revisit the trip later on. 

Tonight will have patchy fog after 1am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy with occasional showers, then gradually becoming partly cloudy, with a low of 39 degrees at 5am. The stars are starting to come out. Eight degrees above normal. A bit breezy with a west  wind 8 to 13 mph becoming light northwest after midnight. One year ago, mostly clear with a low around 26. The record low of 7 occurred back in 1972.

Waning Gibbous Moon tonight with 80% illuminated. The moon will rise around 6:22 pm. The Last Quarter Moon is on Sunday night with chance of snow showers expected. The Full “Cold” Moon is in 4 weeks. I’m sure it will be cold. 

Tomorrow will have patchy fog before 10am. Otherwise, sunny, with a high of 56 degrees at 1pm. Nine degrees above normal. Should be a nice day. Calm wind becoming south 5 to 8 mph in the morning. Last year, mostly sunny with a high around 48. The record high of 73 was set in 1928. There was 2.8 inches of snow back in 1992.

Tomorrow I think I will explore a few places in Chautauqua County, maybe Chautauqua Lake, some of the state forests, maybe go up to Lake Erie. I was originally going to spend two nights camping here, but being that I want to be fairly far east come Saturday morning so I can avoid accumulating snow 

Friday might reach 70 degrees under sunny skies. I will probably be in Pennsylvania on Friday. I’m thinking about but aren’t certain about going down to the Elk Country in Pennsylvania to see the elk. They are probably out grazing with the coming bad weather. I could camp at the Austin Dam Campground. Or maybe I could camp at the campground in Wellsboro. Both are $10 and get me halfway across the state. I wouldn’t mind a good walk along the Pine Creek rail trail. That would be less driving. I could overnight in New York State but I’d rather not be in the woods the night before Big Game season. 

Then the weather goes down hill for the weekend. Saturday, showers likely, mainly after 10am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 53. Windy. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. I will probably head home on Saturday, leaving early in the morning. Probably will truck cap camp rather than setting up a hot tent so I can get an early start. 

Sunday, snow showers or possibly snow. Some models show 6-8 inches of snow. I certainly don’t want to deal with that in the back country. High near 35. Windy. Chance of precipitation is 80%. I think that weather is best spent at home. Plus I have a lot of dirty gear to clean and put away. 

Typical average high for the weekend is 47 degrees.

Then Monday it’s back to work at my old job in Albany. I will enjoy taking the bus downtown in the morning and the time it gives me to think and blog. I have a great view of the Capitol and downtown from my office. I do need to shave. I haven’t shaved since I left last week and I have a pretty good beard at this point. Right now it looks pretty outlaw like with thick stubble on my face. 

In four weeks on December 14 the sun will be setting at 4:47 pm, which is 8 minutes earlier then tonight. The average high is 36 degrees, and the record for that date is 63 degrees was set back in 1901.