Good evening! Back home, Happy Summer. 🏖

Actually, I guess summer started at 5:17 AM this morning, though I was fast asleep in the back of my pickup, after staying up late last night looking at the stars at Powley Place. Been unusually cold weekend, but it was nice to get away for five days, and not have any social media or emails to look at in the mean time.

Rain and 67 degrees in Delmar. ☁ There is a southeast breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 54 degrees. 0.22 inches of rain is expected before it ends around 9 pm.

I decided not to leave for the Adirondacks until Friday morning. 🌅 I left before 7:30 and took the Thruway to Schenectady, got gas there and supplies and groceries at the Walmart in Gloversville.

Explored Willie Marsh around 9:30 am, only some geese 🦆 and swallow tail butterflies 🦋 there. First time there, I wasn’t that impressed didn’t stay long. Nice bridges and handicap access but it’s a pretty generic marsh.

Got to camp around 11. ⛺ Got the campsite I like at the trailhead to House Pond across from the swimming hole and a relatively short hike to the Potholers.

Swam and did a floating on the tube ⭕ and drinking 🍻 beer and eating Giraldi sausage patties with mozzarella. 🍔 They’re so good even with inflation raising their prices.

Had a real big fire, 🔥 with six or seven foot flames for a while. Looked like a bonfire although maybe it was more like a bonfire with eight weeks of burnables going up in smoke and a strong breeze to feed the fire and blow what was probably somewhat black smoke after dark into the wilderness.

Saturday was incredibly cold 🌧️ with drizzle and rain a good portion of the day. I hiked down to another waterfall and swimming 🏊 hole I had heard rumored about but never explored before. l also hiked back to the Potholers. Didn’t swim, for a while I was so chilled through I found myself sitting by the propane heater ♨ to stay warm.

Sunday also was cold with a gusty breeze most of the day and temperatures in 50s and low 60s. 🌬️ Enough sun ☀ I did some floating on the the tube but it was cold enough that out of the water 💦 and put my hoodie back on and sat by the heater. ♨ Hiked again to the Potholers.

Read 📖 four books. Making up for lost time on my summer reading program. The first one was a book on Statistics for Dummies. Second one was Nate Silver’s Signal and the Noise. Third was Algorithms in a nutshell, fourth was Triggers : creating behavior that lasts–becoming the person you want to be and then finally I got a good way through Steven Rinella’s Meat eater : adventures from the life of an American hunter.

Monday I took down my campsite at House Pond Trailhead and spent the balance of the morning at the Potholers 🏊‍♂️ spending a lot of the morning in the sun ☀ reading 📖 and floating in the tube. ⭕ I went in the Potholers a bit but it was cold. Set up camp ⛺ at Powley Place 10, had another sausage paddy and hiked back to Goldmine Stream Falls.

Got back to camp around six, had some dinner and beer 🍻 🍔 then went tubing on the East Canada Creek until around 8:15. Paddled between the navigable section beaver dam 🐻 to the first beaver dam downstream of the bridge. Probably a mile or two. While the tube isn’t as fast as the kayak 🛶 it certainly can be used for leisurely navigation and is much lighter and easier to pack then the kayak.

I wasn’t going to have a fire 🔥 until I decided to have a small one, and stayed up to around eleven to look at the stars ✨. Some haze and clouds in the evening but still very starry and pretty walking along that sandy road in the remote country surrounded by the tall old growth Spruce trees.

This morning I managed to break some eggs 🥚 in the cooler accidentally and then with the remaining eggs made breakfast. 🍳 I’m trying to use up whatever is left as after five days in the wilderness the ice is all but done. I have a few hot dogs left 🌭 and breakfast sausage but I’m hoping for enough cool for them to survive. More drizzle and cool this morning, incentivized me to take camp ⛺ down early lest things get wet.

Hiked back to Big Alderbed this morning. 🐠 I’m watching the fish jump in the lake to grab flies. The East Canada Creek was low enough flowing from Big Alderbed I could cross without having to do the alternative Bushwhack along the south shore. Upper part of the trail past the stream cross is unmarked – that’s despite the big sign at the trail head and many markers on the obvious part of the trail. It’s like the DEC ran out of markers and just gave up. 🔵 Drizzle continued this morning.

I was disappointed to see a bunch of litter 🚮 at the Powley Bridge campsite. I picked up some of it although I didn’t have a bag or gloves 🧤 with me so I didn’t get it all. I don’t leave a mess or a even trace if I can avoid it. Maybe some stirred up dirt 💩 but that’s part of walking on the land and the grass will regrow.

Truth be told, I was in no rush to head home 🏡, I’ve enjoyed being disconnected from the world 🗺 and email 📧. No social media and I mostly didn’t listen to the radio 📻 news. There’s just been so much going on lately and I wanted to be away from it all. It may be a while until I get to go another weekend like this.