Good evening! Mostly clear and 76 degrees at the Finger Lakes National Forest. 🌌There is a north breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 60 degrees.

It was a nice day hiking the Catherine Valley Rail Trail 🚂. Not the most exciting trail ever but a nice walk through some well managed and scenic woods. A lot of it was timber country that is leased to a local hunting club. 🦌🦃🦆 Some road noise from NY 14 but it ran pretty high above the valley on dirt viaducts cut into the mountainside.

In the afternoon I went for a swim at Watkins Glen State Park. 🏊🏻‍♂️ I thought the pool was too crowded for social distancing at four o’clock so I hopped out and by five it had thinned out so then I hopped in the pool. One thing nice about the Finger Lakes is the swimming areas are all open until 7 pm. ☺

I thought about swimming at Enfield Gorge or at the Cayuga Lake beach 🏖 at Taughannock State Park but I feel like those bathrooms 🚿 are more cramped and less clean, and the natural water is not chlorinated so I’m hesitant. Plus the beach areas are smaller and cramped making social distancing more difficult.

I got ice cream one more time at Glen Dairy Bar 🍧this time an apple sundae. 🍏I think this will be the last one for this trip, I’m kind of tired 😴 of eating so much ice cream. It’s been fun while it lasted during this trip. I told myself ice cream 🍦nearly there would be my special little treat.

Watched the sunset 🌇 from off Ball Diamond Road in the National Forest pasture again tonight. Another nice sunset, always pretty watching the sun set over the hills of the Finger Lakes and Seneca Lake.

Walked down to Foster Pond and watched the stars ✨ for a while. Saw four shooting stars 🌠including one that was really bright and lit up the sky. Ended up falling asleep and was awoken by a bunch of drunk kids rafting in plastic blow up rafts on Foster Pond. 🛥️ One of them offered me a partially drink can of white claw, during the pandemic. 🍻 I declined and walked back to camp.

Running low on drinking water 💦 and wanting something sweet I packed apple 🍏 juice for hiking today. That was fine until I cross threaded the canteen and it leaked over my backpack. Fortunately I decided to leave the binoculars and camera 📸 in the truck. A bee was attracted to the backpack got stung in the arm. 🐝 That hurt. The backpack was washed in the shower 🚿 and is drying now. Drank too much apple juice today and now I have the runs a bit. 💩 Hello bucket shitter! Getting full, going to emptied and buried ⚰ tomorrow when I break camp.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 63 degrees at 5am. Three degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 62 at 9pm. North wind around 6 mph becoming calm after midnight. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 62 degrees. The record low of 48 occurred back in 1964.

Tonight will have a Waining Crescent 🌘 Moon with 19% illuminated. The darkest hour is at 1:13 am, followed by dawn at 5:44 am, and sun starting to rise at 6:14 am in the east-northeast (70°) and last for 3 minutes and 4 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 4 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 6:53 am with sun in the east-northeast (76°). Tonight will have 10 hours and 5 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 31 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 81 degrees at 2pm. Typical for Tomorrow. Maximum dew point of 63 at 7am. South wind 3 to 7 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 83 degrees. The record high of 96 was set in 1959. One thing to watch is clouds may push in fairly early tomorrow afternoon. ☁️

I am going to take a wait and see approach tomorrow. ⛅ I am afraid it might be quite choppy on Seneca Lake by afternoon to paddle. 🛶 If it’s kind of gray and dark out I might stay at camp. Although there are some additional marsh trails in Watkins Glen that I was reading 📖 about I’m thinking 💭 about exploring.

In four weeks on September 11 the sun will be setting in the west (276°) at 7:23 pm,🌄 which is 46 minutes and 6 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had hot and humid weather that was partly sunny and temperatures between 87 and 66 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 74 and 54 degrees. The record high of 98 degrees was set back in 1931.

Looking ahead, Labor Day Weekend Begins 👨‍🏭 in 3 weeks, September 11th 🇸 is in 4 weeks, 7 PM Sunset 🌆 is in 5 weeks, Average High is 65 🍂 is in 7 weeks, Average Night Below Freezing 🌌 is in 13 weeks, Buy Nothing Day 🛍️ is in 15 weeks, Average High is 40 🌨 is in 16 weeks, Bake Cookies Day 🍪 is in 18 weeks, Christmas 🎅 is in 19 weeks, New Years Day 2020 🎉 is in 20 weeks, Bubble Bath Day 🧼 is in 21 weeks, Coldest Week of the Year 🌬 is in 5 months, my 38th Birthday 🎉 is in 24 weeks and Valentines Day ❤️ is in 6 months.