Good evening! Partly clear and 56 degrees at Mason Lake. There is a north breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. New campsite, new location to comply with the maximum three night stay at any one location.

I was actually curious if the state camping regulations had location defined. ⛺ Looking through the state code it’s not defined anywhere in law, indeed on the DEC website they use the word place rather than location – which actually is a more vague term. While this campsite is clearly a different location and it’s even a different unit and near a different geographic location it is technically the same road, 5 miles north. It’s kind of a moot point because last week the Forest Ranger was fine with it I was wondering if there was clear statutory guidance. I think moving from one campsite to another across the street wouldn’t count but within reason a few miles away counts as a new location. A lot of people seem interested in the campsite I’ve been staying at previous nights and now its free. 📝

Hiking back to Wilcox Vly was nice. 📷 Lots of big moose prints on the trail and when I got back to the Vly I heard something big crashing through the brush. Maybe it was a black bear 🐻 but it sure sounded like a moose. I tried to spot it with the binoculars but I didn’t get a good view. Based on the wear of the trail it seems like Wilcox Vly isn’t real popular but it’s easy to follow 👣 due to being an actively maintained snowmobile trail and old woods road. Certainly didn’t see a single other person beyond Fawn Lake. Pictures to be posted later in the week. 📷

I did look at the Robert Garrow campsite ❤🔪 but decided against it due to the poor cellular service 📶. It had great sun exposure compared to the site I’m up at Mason Lake but I’ll try to conserve power tomorrow. I could move the truck to a sunny spot or even drive down to Speculator but I’d rather try to work from camp and save the 10 mile trip each way. 🔟 Tuesday I’ll probably take down camp at work in Speculator until five then go home. 🏡 I could stay at this campsite through Wednesday morning but I’m getting tired and think after five nights I’d rather sleep and work at home for a few days. Not sure when my office will be reopening but I wouldn’t be surprised if thst happens next week and that’s the end of remote work. Fun while it lasted.

Called mom up to check and see how she was doing. 📞 I know they’re pretty bummed about Eli the dog dying. 🐶 I think it’s a mistake to get that invested in a dog but he was fun to walk and run downstairs and do the wash. It’s kind of sad how he passed away while I was gone during the pandemic. I told my parents that I might go out and visit them next week while maintaining social distancing. 👪 I’m hoping soon things will get closer to normal.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 42 degrees at 6am. 12 degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 30th. North wind 5 to 7 mph becoming calm after midnight. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 53 degrees. The record low of 38 occurred back in 1951.

I decided against a fire 🔥 (shocking) and hooking up the electric lights or the flags tonight as I’m tired 😴 and want to keep things simple and get to bed early. My energy levels are low after hiking and it’s kind of a chilly night so I want to get to bed early as I’ve been waking up early on these sunny mornings and not getting enough sleep.

Plus this gives me an excuse to run the lantern 🏮 full blast to try to burn out some of the carbon in the unit. I did try banging and brushing off the mantle outlet that wasn’t putting out much light which was modestly successful. Previously taking apart the lantern last December helped a lot but there is still a lot of carbon build up inside. I usually run the lantern on the lowest setting and between that and the inevitable mud and dirt that gets in it, it gets gross inside with black carbon. At least since the last cleaning it’s not burning a sooty yellow with black smoke and is quite bright 🔆 – fine for reading 📖.

Tonight will have a Waining Gibbous 🌖 Moon with 93% illuminated. The moon will rise at 10:48 pm. The darkest hour is at 12:57 am, followed by dawn at 4:42 am, and sun starting to rise at 5:18 am in the east-northeast (57°) and last for 3 minutes and 31 seconds. Sunrise is 16 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 6:01 am with sun in the east-northeast (64°). Tonight will have 8 hours and 39 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 53 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 68 degrees at 3pm. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around May 12th. Northwest wind 5 to 9 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 80 degrees. The record high of 93 was set in 2011.

Should be a nice day for working. 💼 I am right near Mason Lake so I can do some more fishing 🎣 after work. I’m just worried a bit with the shade trees overhead that the laptop may drain the battery bank 🔋 although I do think I’m okay based on the fact that the laptop is 97% charged and it has a good long life estimated – over eight hours and I’ve been saving power on my truck using the gas lamp so that should be close to full come morning. And I’ll use my phone rather than the laptop as much as possible for email and other things to save power.

Tuesday I’ll work down in Speculator 💻 probably using the library Wi-Fi. I’m not worried about power then as it’s expected to be sunny and the solar will more than certainly hold up. Drive home at five. I thought about staying in the Adirondacks through Wednesday 🗻 when the heat wave breaks again but it might be stormy then I’d think I’d rather be home before then.

In four weeks on July 5 the sun will be setting in the west-northwest (303°) at 8:41 pm,🌄 which is 4 minutes and 58 seconds later then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had hot, humid, partly sunny and temperatures between 92 and 69 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 82 and 61 degrees. The record high of 99 degrees was set back in 1919.