Good evening! Mostly clear and 42 degrees at the Allegheny National Forest  outside of  Marienville. Calm wind. Really pleasant weather, I think tonight was the latest I’ve stayed out by the campfire this whole November trip. Most nights are fairly chilly and the idea of a toasty warm tent is irresistible compared to a campfire with the wind whipping around. 

While I have one more night planned, tomorrow night is more of a crash then a full night camping at Asaph Run Campground in Wellsboro County after visiting the Elk in Benezette and the Hyer Run Vista. I should make Asaph Run by dusk, so to avoid driving in the dark but limit the trip home to like 4 hours so I should be home by midday before the rain turns to snow on Saturday. Plan to truck cap camp for the final night as I expect rain Saturday morning so I don’t want to deal with a wet tent. 

Tonight will have patchy fog after 2am. Otherwise, mostly clear, with a low of 37 degrees at 5am. Six degrees above normal. Light south wind. One year ago, partly cloudy with a low around 22. The record low of 10 occurred back in 1972.

Waning Gibbous Moon tonight with 73% illuminated. The Last Quarter Moon is on Sunday night with mostly cloudy expected. The Full “Cold” Moon is on Wednesday, December 14th.

Tomorrow will have areas of fog before 11am. Otherwise, sunny, with a high of 67 degrees at 3pm. 20 degrees above normal. South wind 3 to 8 mph. Last year, partly cloudy with a high around 55. The record high of 71 was set in 1928. There was 9 inches of snow back in 1980. The sun will rise at 7:09 am with the first light at 6:39 am, which is 1 minutes and 11 seconds later then yesterday.

Looking ahead, Thanksgiving is in 1 week.

Good morning! Happy Thursday. One week out from Thanksgiving. Mostly sunny and 43 degrees in Chautauqua Gorge. Quickly warming up now that the sun has risen over the horizon. Calm wind. Not a bad morning but everything is covered with a heavy frost from yesterday’s rain. 

Enjoying a nice cup of coffee in the toasty warm tent before I take things down, get washed up and changed. The sun really didn’t reach the horizon over the hill to the east of me until 8 AM. 

Today will be sunny, with a high of 54 degrees at 2pm. Seven degrees above normal. South wind 3 to 7 mph. 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.

Heading off to Mayville to get gas once I take down camp. Then I will stop along the lake and visit some state forests, heading south to Tiodate, PA. There is an overlook there I want to see then I will probably camp in the middle part of the Allegheny National Forest and then figure out if I will visit the Elk or the Pine Creek Gorge on Friday. Saturday it’s straight back to Albany. 

The sun will set at 4:54 pm with dusk around 5:24 pm, which is 47 seconds earlier than yesterday. Today will have 9 hours and 41 minutes of daylight, a decrease of 1 minutes and 59 seconds over yesterday. Loosing less than two minutes of daylight now. 

Tonight will be mostly clear, with a low of 46 degrees at 7pm. Very mild for November, warming up as the night progresses. 15 degrees above normal. South wind around 14 mph. One year ago, partly cloudy with a low around 22. The record low of 10 occurred back in 1972.

As I previously noted, we are one week out  until Thanksgiving when the sun will be setting at 4:49 pm with dusk at 5:20 pm. The average high temperature is 44 degrees, with a record high of 70 in 2014. Not sure if it will be 

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.