Coketon – Railroad Grade

A largely undeveloped gravel bike trail outside of Thomas and Hedricks.

Most of the descend occurs in the 5 1/2 miles from Douglas, roughly 900 feet drop which works out to be an over 3% average grade, with a maximum grade of 3.75%.

It's much steeper then locomotives are engineered to safely climb, which is 2% or less, preferably less then 1.5%. It took at least two locomotives paired together climb, and heavy riding of the brakes down it and at least once in 1910s an out of control train crashed into the gorge below.

While not steep compared to many mountain roads, it's still a fun ride down and a good climb back up. Probably best done on a mountain bike, as the railroad gravel is fairly course on it

Taken on Thursday October 26, 2023 at Monongahela National Forest.

Towards Greenland Gap

To the east from the Mount Storm Scenic Overlook, you can see Greenland Gap of New Creek Mountain and Knobly Mountain.

Greenland Gap gets name from as there is band of rich agricultural land below those ridges, and it is very green with farm fields once you drop out of the mountains.

Taken on Saturday October 28, 2023 at Mount Storm.

Made it to November ๐Ÿฆƒ

That said, I didn’t really make it into the turkey farming part of West Virginia but that’s a popular activity down in parts of the Sweedlin Valley along the Potomac River with its fertile grounds for growing corn and other grains that turkeys like to eat.

Good morning! Happy November! ๐Ÿฆƒ Best month of the year unless your a turkey aka incumbent politician about to get voted out of office, lol. Probably not a great time to be a deer or turkey either. ๐ŸฆŒ Cloudy and 40 degrees in Delmar, NY. โ˜๏ธ Calm wind. Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 11 pm. โ˜ƒ๏ธ

It’s been tough getting back into the routine all week after vacation. ๐Ÿข Worse my stomach has been rumbling all week, I’ve tried to be careful what I eat ๐Ÿฝ and limiting that pea soup with balsamic vinegar and homemade wholewheat bread but it’s so good. It’s been gray and wet out โ˜๏ธ which hasn’t improved my mood ๐Ÿ˜–, the politicians whining excessively on the radio ๐Ÿ“ป about everything, my fingers cold ๐Ÿงค riding to and from work, dark mornings etc. I wish I was still in West Virginia though my stomach wasn’t much better there either. But forward. ๐Ÿคฎ

Riding to work again this morning. ๐Ÿšฒ Another cold start to the day, but this time I’m planning on wearing gloves ๐Ÿงค which should help with the fingers. I might get bananas later on in the day at the supermarket on the ride home. ๐ŸŒ† Still enough daylight at the end of day to ride home, but this is the last week with the time change. โฒ

Eggs ๐Ÿฅš for breakfast again with all the usual things ๐Ÿง… starting with fried onions, spices, mushrooms ๐Ÿ„ and broccoli ๐Ÿฅฆ and lots of turmeric and Chipotle and some MSG. Then topped with a bunch of parmesan and nutritional yeast, the later which adds so much flavor and flakiness plus gives you all the water soluble vitamins you could need for the day. Skipped the cottage cheese today as I didn’t want to open another package of it. I was thinking pancakes, ๐Ÿฅž but I am bit tired of them for now — maybe tomorrow. I do like all the all-day protein that eggs have in them.

That said, I’m more excited about tomorrow when I bake up more homemade bread ๐Ÿž this time with oats and lots of shredded carrots ๐Ÿฅ• along with 15 bean soup. ๐Ÿฅฃ If I decide to head out of town for the weekend, I’ll make two loafs ๐Ÿž ๐Ÿž so I have plenty to eat. I might also do more rice and lentils too on the stove, and I have that butternut squash that I might want to cook, though I have still honey dew and an acorn squashed cooked and ready to eat home. ๐Ÿ 

Today will have a chance of rain showers before 9am, then a chance of rain and snow showers between 9am and 10am, then a chance of rain showers after 10am. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny ๐ŸŒฆ, with a high of 43 degrees at 2pm. 12 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 30th. Calm wind becoming northwest 5 to 9 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. The high last year was 69 degrees. The record high of 78 was set in 1950. 3.9 inches of snow fell back in 1951.โ„

Lately I’ve been having a lot of issues with an upset stomach and excessive gas. ๐Ÿ˜ซ I think it might be from all the fiber and spices I’ve had in my diet lately. ๐Ÿซš I am trying to eat healthy but at times it can be hard to find that right balance. Pea soup with lots of balsamic vinger and whole wheat bread is particularly tough on my stomach, ๐Ÿฒ but I do like it a lot. I am trying to drink more water with it to see if it helps, along with taking Gas-X. But it can be rough at times. And if I drink too much water, then I have to piss all the time. The good news though is that I’m continuing to loose weight and be healthier. ๐Ÿญ So far I’ve resisted all of the Halloween “free candy” that’s been popping up around the office.

Solar noon ๐ŸŒž is at 12:40 pm with sun having an altitude of 33° from the due south horizon (-37.8° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 9.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour ๐Ÿ… starts at 5:10 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (244°). ๐Ÿ“ธ The sunset is in the west-southwest (251°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:50 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 4 seconds with dusk around 6:18 pm, which is one minute and 18 seconds earlier than yesterday. ๐ŸŒ‡ The best time to look at the stars is after 6:53 pm. At sunset, look for rain ๐ŸŒง and temperatures around 42 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 10 mph. Tomorrow will have 10 hours and 20 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 33 seconds over today.

Tomorrow evening I get my flu and COVID-19 vaccine. ๐Ÿ’‰ After I made my appointment I found out that pharmacists โš• at CVS are on strike ๐Ÿคœ but at this point I’m not going to cancel my appointment tomorrow because I want the vaccines to be full strength ๐Ÿ’ช by the Thanksgiving holiday when all the sick people start coming back in the office after traveling to visit family, ๐Ÿ‘ช spreading the COVID-19 and flu around. I don’t wear my mask ๐Ÿ˜ท all the time yet but anytime I go into a crowded place I do. And I’m still taking the stairs ๐Ÿง—‍โ™‚๏ธ avoiding crowded elevators and burning extra calories.

Tonight will be partly cloudy ๐ŸŒƒ , with a low of 28 degrees at 6am. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around November 26th. Northwest wind 5 to 9 mph becoming light west after midnight. In 2022, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 41 degrees. The record low of 19 occurred back in 2002.

I haven’t done an evening walk ๐Ÿšถ I a while but I should try to get back in the habit especially with the time change next week and only being able to ride to work but not home due to the darkness. ๐Ÿšฒ It’s fine it will also make mornings brighter ๐Ÿ”† at least for a while. I’ll still be up before sunlight baking ๐Ÿž and cooking ๐Ÿณ but it won’t be quite as dark.

Cloudy โ›… but fairly mild this weekend for the first weekend of November. Saturday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 55. Sunday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 56. Typical average high for the weekend is 54 degrees. ๐Ÿฎ The weekend doesn’t look that wet but I’m still watching the forecast to decide if I should take off Monday and do a long weekend in Madison County including Election Day. โ›บ Camping seems like a good thing to do that day.

Looking ahead, next Wednesday is Day After Election Day ๐Ÿ›€ when the sun will be setting at 4:41 pm with dusk at 5:10 pm (Standard Time). Then you won’t have to look at all those silly lawn signs from the giant penis measuring contest. On that day in 2022, we had sunny and temperatures between 53 and 34 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 52 degrees. We hit a record high of 75 back in 1975.

Barely A Trickle