Hoping it will warm up when I head into Mine Kill pool for a good swim. Long pants and the hoodie last night – and a big fire – with that pallet I got from the DEC warehouse and a month worth of junk mail, milk bottles, yougurt containers and frozen fruit bags. I don’t think the flames were more than five of six feet but don’t tell a liberal. I pulled out the nails and metal scraps this morning for recyclingand left everything cleaner then I when I got there.
Big Red’s 🛻 DIC says it’s sixty degrees this morning. Today is supposed to be warmer then yesterday which I skipped swimming 🏊 because it was so cool. Instead I got to camp fairly early mid-afternoon as I wanted to have a token 🪙 to with a beer 🍻 to enjoy the rich colors of the woods 🌲 and eat all that wonderful produce that I got from Shauls. I didn’t eat all $41 in fresh fruit and vegetables I got but most of those peaches 🍑 and sweet corn 🌽 didn’t survive long because they were in my mouth, along with the onions, 🧅 garlic 🧄, zucchini 🍆 all fried up with the tamaworth hog bacon 🥓.
It was so relaxing in that hammock yesterday. 😴 Both of the Betty Brook sites were taken so I ended up camping in the large field site near them. I’m not sure it’s a designated campsite but it’s regularly used. I don’t love it because it lacks trees 🌳 to tie the hammock and flags 🎌 but I ended up setting up camp in the woods. Didn’t bother running electric lights for one night. I had the lantern 🏮 back in the wooded campsite but I didn’t use it because I was worried about having enough propane. Besides all that good eating, enjoyed some grass 🦗 and beer, listened to David Robert’s Bear Ears about the fight over the proposed wilderness area of the same name and also Ansel Adam’s biography. The later one is definitely not a kids book. 📚
It just feels so good to be back. 🛻 Big Red is working good, the anxiety was all in my head. I swear half of the noises I hear is those dam hub caps but also there are noises that truck has been making for years as the ball joints, steering linkage complain about the angles and weight of the wheels. But there is no evidence that things are getting worse. The body is rotting out from 14 years worth of road salt including some section loss to the frame which is a bit alarming but honestly from what I’ve read there is a fair bit of redundancy but it certainly won’t make things feel tighter with fewer rattles.
Today I am going to walk 🚶 around Mine Kill, observe nature and the wildflowers 🌼and then spend the balance of the day either swimming 🏊 or laying along the side of the pool soaking in the sun. ☀️ Read 📖 and or listen to audio books 🎧 and just relax until around 3 pm and then head out to the folks house. I am just enjoying be able to be back at it, in the wilderness traveling and exploring. Truth is I doubt I’ll be in Schoharie again before summer is done so I might as well enjoy the Mine Kill Pool before it’s closed for the year.
I haven’t decided on next weekends plans but I feel like if it’s nice I should get out of town again. 🏕️ There is just not a lot of summer left. Due to staffing needs I can’t take off any time this week but maybe a week from Monday if I want a longer weekend as I think Nicole is back so we’ll have at least one supervisor who can cover for me. Maybe that’s the weekend for one last weekend up at the Potholers before summer is done though I prefer going up on Friday early so I can get the House Pond Campsite. ⭕
That said I’m almost hesitant to take additional days off before summer vacation 🏊 as I really feel like I’d rather just tack additional days on to my end of summer trip. It sounds weird but I’d rather have several days when I just spend hanging around camp 🏕️ and reading a book 📖 rather rushing from place to place.
