Paddle in Campsite 27
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Floating Into a Rock
As I paddle around the Cedar River Flow, with my feet on the deck of the kayak.
Taken on Friday September 3, 2010 at Moose River Plains.Day 2 of summer vacation waiting for the front to come through ⛈️
Just taking it slow and easy, it’s summer vacation and it’s a hang out in the National Forest kind of day with rain and thunderstorms almost certain come midday.
Good morning! No rain yet but a fair amount of clouds, muggy. I’d call it times of clouds and sun about 75 degrees at the Finger Lakes National Forest. ⛅ More sun would be nice to charge the solar. 🔋 There is a west breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 69 degrees. Muggy but relief coming with the front this afternoon. The skies will clear around 9 pm.
Been having fun, so far a great vacation, very relaxing. 😁 Got the campsite I wanted, I have so many good healthy foods to eat. 🍏 went for a ride over to Teeter Pond 🚲 and the Horton Pasture hoping to catch a nice sunset 🌇 though it turned out to be grayer than I had hoped with a lot of clouds but listening to the bull frogs 🐸 and cows mooing as dusk approached was nice. Rode back to camp, laid in the hammock for a bit. The brighter light from my headlamp I mounted on my bike works decent, better than the bike light I have. Then around 9:30 decided to ride over to Foster Pond though it was buggy and cloudy when I got there so I didn’t stay long except to watch the froggers 🐸 out in the edge of the pond looking for some frog legs to cook up for dinner. Headlights on that dark road though from oncoming vehicles were quite blinding I must admit!
Today will have showers and thunderstorms before 4pm, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm between 4pm and 5pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 5pm. 🌦 High of 74 degrees at 11am. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 11th. Maximum dew point of 71 at 1pm. 🏖️ Northwest wind 7 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. An improvement over yesterday’s forecast but will be wet. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 89 degrees. The reI aglsotvycord high of 97 was set in 1894.
I plan to get firewood under the tarp before the rain 🌧️. It’s only a matter of time before the rain comes. I actually was expecting a wetter morning then turned out to be, as I put away the hammock last night and anything that I didn’t want to get wet as I’m so used to Albany where a threat of rain always turns out to be a certainty for rain but maybe not so much in the Finger Lakes. Only time will tell. Midday hopefully before the rain, want to ride over to Foster Pond and then up to the top of Hector Backbone 🚵 for the views and to get podcasts to listen to this evening back at camp. 📻 Then probably read in the afternoon, cook up onions and more salmon for dinner. 🐠 Thinking beans with maple 🍁 syrup for a light lunch.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:14 pm with sun having an altitude of 66.2° from the due south horizon (-4.5° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.6 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:52 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (290°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (297°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:32 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 14 seconds with dusk around 9:03 pm, which is one minute and 4 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Full 🌝 Moon in the south-southeast (159°) at an altitude of 16° from the horizon, 230,641 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:45 pm. At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and temperatures around 65.
Hoping it will clear out this evening for a nice Finger Lakes sunset 🌇 and it will be starry ✨ and clear to sit down at Foster Pond watching shooting stars. Probably though will be cold and damp though I expect the humidity to drop after the front comes through.
Tonight will have a chance of showers before 8pm. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 58 degrees at 5am. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around August 30th. Maximum dew point of 64 at 6pm. Northwest wind 7 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. In 2022, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 64 degrees. The record low of 44 occurred back in 1968.
Tomorrow and the next four days should be beautiful ☀ and I plan to make the most of them. Tomorrow get a fairly early start, bike most of the Cayuta Valley Rail Trail. 🚲 Then swim at the Watkins Glen Pool, get ice cream at Glen Dairy Bar 🍦, ride along Rock Cabin Road, watch the sunset 🌇 on Seneca Lake. Monday I’m thinking of exploring the gorge at Cornell University and Ithaca bicycle trails and maybe swim 🏊♂️ at Taughannock before heading back to camp. ⛺ Tuesday either paddle Seneca Lake and float in the tube there or maybe head up to Penn Yann – Dresden for the Keuka Valley Trail and ice cream at the Spotted Duck 🦆. Then take it from there.
Looking ahead, next Saturday is Work Like a Dog Day 🐩 when the sun will be setting at 8:24 pm with dusk at 8:54 pm. On that day in 2022, we had hot, humid, partly sunny, patches of fog and temperatures between 93 and 71 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 83 degrees. I guess if swimming and bicycling is working like a dog I’ll be doing that on my final evening of vacation. We hit a record high of 99 back in 1955.
Cheney Pond
This is a beautiful aerial photo super-imposed on the LiDAR hillshade to show the area with detail as you might see it from an airplane in late winter.
You can drive down to Cheney Pond via an unmarked road along Boreas Road, on top of a hill with a pull-off. The road is somewhat rutted but there is a drive-in campsite at the bottom of the road. From there, you can paddle across Cheney Pond and follow a narrow but navigable stream down to Lester Flow, which is little more then a still water in the Boreas River. At one time, Lester Flow was a all flooded but the dam is long gone, just leaving the still water.
Paddlers At Wakely Dam
No Lillies Yet On Lilly Lake
I got to get back to Lilly Lake come later in the summer when more lilies and flowers are in bloom. It's always a beautiful paddle and a nice afternoon heading up there from Stewart Landing.
Taken on Saturday June 10, 2017 at Canada Lake.33 Nights I Camped in 2022
This was a tough year for getting out of town. My truck was getting creaking and old, rusted and always in risk of breaking down, though the only failure I had on vacation and that was a stupid loose lug-nut. But with high gas prices, inflation, and my desire to invest more in the markets, kept me home more then most other recent years. I also focused on destinations where I could camp for multiple nights, after parking my truck and leaving the engine off to save fuel. Many of the prime weekends of the year were raining.
Ultimately I camped 33 nights, which is about normal for me, though the trips were longer and closer to home.
My first camping trip of the year started out in February during President’s Day Weekend, February 20-22 at Rensselaerville State Forest. Winter camping and skiing, took a walk down to the explore the new OSI Parcel that will eventually be added to the state forest.
Second trip of the year was up to the East Branch Sacandaga River, April 22-24, which is always my big April trip complete with a big bonfire, hiking along the East Branch and back to the Gorge Falls.
Third trip of the year was to Piseco-Powley Road’s House Pond Campsite, three nights, June 17-19, including exploring this previously unknown to me swimming hole. Had another big fire, spent a lot of time at the swimming hole across the way. Also visited the potholers a couple of times in the evening.
Then from June 19-21, I moved up the road to Powley Place Campsite 9 for two nights. Hiked back to Goldmine Stream Falls and then on Tuesday hiked back to Big Alderbed.
The forth trip of the year was July 16-19th which I camped up Campsite 5 on Piseco-Powley Road, about a mile north of the Potholers. I don’t love this campsite, as much as House Pond but it was still within walking distance from the Potholers, and is remote enough that I can listen to music as loud as I want, have big fires and shoot guns.
Fifth trip of the year was the Finger Lakes National Forest, camping off old Chicken Co-Op Road from July 30 to August 8, as my GPS likes to call it. Stayed at the same campsite all week, alternating between trips away from camp and staying in camp, mostly to save fuel and reduce costs. Brought my kayak, paddled Cayuta Lake. Spent a lot of time at Watkins Glen State Park. Had that loose lug nut on my truck.
Sixth trip of the year was to the Adirondacks, Labor Day Weekend and the Friday before, September 2-5th, namely that campsite in Perkins Clearing on Hardwood Hill up above Spectulator where I have excellent cell reception and can work remote. It was kind of a lazy trip with lots of clams, sweet corn and beer, though that Friday I worked remote and was busy with work, and then did day hikes from camp, specifically exploring Mud Lake Road, where I ran into a family of bears. It poured on Labor Day when I took down camp.
Seventh trip was a mid September remote-working trip up to Rensselearville State Forest, one of a series of three autumn trips up to the state forest only about 40 minutes from home. I chose to go there as I knew I could get home quickly if necessary with work being so busy, plus knowing I could get home if there was something I couldn’t do with my data plan on my cellphone. I think the dates were that Friday when I remote worked — September 16-19th.
My eight trip was Columbus Day Weekend, Friday October 7 to Monday the 10th. I had originally planned to head up to the Adirondacks, but on my way up north, around Glenville I noticed my truck was swaying more then I would like around the corners, despite just recently being checked out at the shop. Plus heading up to the Adirondacks meant I would have dead spots, which was bad when I was supposed to be remote working, supervising three major political campaigns across the state. So I turned around and headed up to the Heldebergs. Ended up going to Rensselaerville State Forest again, for a colorful trip, especially when I hiked along Cheese Hill Road to the new OSI Parcel overlooking the Catskill Mountains and rural lands of Schoharie County and Potter Hollow. I probably should have brought my gun and got my hunting license, but I was constantly on the phone dealing with one crisis or another for work. Also spent Columbus Day hiking around Huyck Preserve for the bulk of the day before heading home, showering and going out to visit the folks.
My ninth trip of the year was back to Rensselaerville State Forest. This trip was planned to be there, the last week of Friday to Sunday, October 28-30th, while working heavily remote as the political campaigns I was managing was in their last stretch. It was kind of a chilly weekend and busy with work. But I had my heater, and I did find time to get out and walk, as the colors faded away. It was a nice weekend but it reminded me that autumn was certainly on the way.
The tenth trip of the year was back to the East Branch Sacandaga River. Hike back along the Stewart Creek Trail and camped for two fairly cold nights from Thursday December 8 – Saturday December 10th. Came back a day early as I wanted to check to see if I had jury duty. It wasn’t a bad weekend but everything was first cold from the previous day rain, and then everything was icy once things froze up. But I stayed warm by the campsite.
The eleventh and final trip of the year was to Rensselaerville State Forest, right where I started the year close to home. The snow was deep this time, some 2 feet deep with an even deeper snow bank to dig through. But I hot tented there for two nights, from Tuesday December 20-Thursday December 22. This was the only trip of the year when I didn’t camp in my truck.
Conclusions
I wouldn’t rank this as my greatest year ever, with the most adventures. But I made the best of the situation with inflation increasing the price of camping supplies and fuel for my big jacked up truck, which became more unreliable. Work was super busy with all those campaigns. The weather was often bad for the prime weekends of the year. But I made the best of the year.