July 4, 2015 update

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74 degrees of oozing haze on Good Ol Rocky Mountain in Inlet. It’s not raining or super hot but the humidity is intense.Thunderstorms may pop up later. I set up my tarp at camp this morning, which usually precludes rain. As the evening progresses expect clearing. July 5th and 6th will be beautiful. Tomorrow planning to finally get my kayak out on Cedar River Flow.

I love the smell of gun powder in the morning. But beyond that it’s been pretty fun and quiet at Moose River Plains. I haven’t seen a car pass my campsite in the past two hours. Then again, campsite 38 is kind of in the boondocks. Over an hour drive to asphalt in Inlet. Heck, I can’t even get weather radio here, and the few broadcast stations. one can get are weak here. I can occasionally hear fireworks in the distance but the campsite is mostly out of earshot and with a backstop of wilderness and hills.

Since I had that sense wire connected on the ground between the batteries, my truck batteries have been charging really well. If the deep cycle battery is discharged the voltage regulator keeps the voltage up, regardless of the outdoors temperatures or charge of the starting battery. I had these computer speakers with subwoofer that work perfectly for playing tunes and podcasts from my Smartphone in the woods with ample sound and decent bass. I’ve not had to use the truck radio since getting there, so things are always really well charged for starting. I was up to 1:30 this morning with a campfire, colorful lights, and music. It was fun.

Fireworks are a lot of fun, even though NY still bans aerial fireworks and firecrackers. Sparklers are fun as are the fountains. Lots of sparks and color. Not really expensive either. They seem to just paper or plastic, so the empty shells burn just fine. In the grand scheme of things, I’m not sure if really that dangerous compared to plenty of other legal things. I’m going to pickup some more in Amsterdam or other places on NY 30 on the way home, as they’re likely to be real cheap as they can’t be sold in NY State after August 3rd and most retailers tents close a few days after Independence Day.

Thursday I set up camp and went for a drive to Moose River and Helldiver Pond. Spent a bunch of time reading and listening to music at camp.

Yesterday hiked up Wakely Mountain. It was a nice hike but it took longer than expected. The black flies were intense on the top but the firetower wasn’t so bad with the winds whipping around. Went for a swim at Cedar River Flow for about an hour.

Today, went to Inlet for some more DEET and to hike Rocky Mountain. Traffic is insane in Inlet. Later heading to Limekiln Lake for a swim, a shower, and maybe some fishing or paddling. Tomorrow, going to hit up Cedar River Flow for a paddle.

Independence Day

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Today is Independence Day or July 4, the day many of us take off to celebrate the day we declared our independence from the British. Most of us know the significance of this day that forever changed our history, but we also at the same time forget how much we have changed since those revolutionary times.

Back in 1776 and for nearly a century there-after we were largely an agrarian and rural society. Most people farmed, their livelihoods were connected to the land. Few people traveled long distances, and most would die only a few miles from where they were born. The connections to community and the land that supported us was strong.

While Americans had some of the resources of industrialising Britain, we were largely dependent on our ourselves. We made most of what we needed, our foot print on the modern world was small. People could act even in foolish ways and have a minimal impact on the world. Today technology with all it’s destructive power simply did not exist.

Daisy

We certainly have farmland and rural areas today. Yet, we now hop in our pickup truck and our able to be transmitted to an urbanised area in minutes. Few people are very free at all to chose their own lives. We are always connected using information technology from the simple telephone to the sophisticated Internet. Yet that’s not community in the old sense.

Even the meaning of declaring war is different today. We could not go to war the way once were able to. Primitive firearms and cannons, while increasingly loud and dangerous in 1776 posed minimal risk to human kind compared to war today. The emotions of yesteryear and the fear of war today is changed by it being almost instantaneous and destructive to all in it’s path.

We will never be able to go back to those times. We have to live in the world of today, and realize that while we are blessed by all this technology it poses problems that simply did not exist years ago. We may celebrate what our founding fathers once did, but we must also be aware that we can never return back to their old world.

Some brief thoughts on this Independence Day ...