Regrets 🛎️

I could have been heading home from Michigan today, heading through Ohio, overnighting somewhere there and then back to Chautaqua County tomorrow night. And I could have gone to Geneva and Sampson State Park today and watched the sun set over Seneca Lake from the cliffs of Willard WMA. But I didn’t, the sky and radar looked so bad and why drive all that way north only to turn around in the rain and violent thunderstorms. And the forecast seemed so negative.

I took a toke, cracked open a beer and knew I couldn’t drive for at least a few hours to be safe. But as lunch wrapped up it was apparent weather there would be no improvement despite a better sounding forecast. By mid afternoon it turned to heavy rain, I ended up climbing into the bed of the truck. The new cap is quite water proof even in severe weather. That said, I think the old cap on Big Red started to leak after the crash I got in during the summer of 2014.

It’s fine. The gas I saved staying in camp today more than made up for tacking Geneva onto a trip to Sampson State Park tomorrow. I’ll leave early, go up to Geneva and park at the Seneca State Park. Ride maybe the Seneca – Cayuga Canal Trail, been a few years since I did that, maybe poke around Geneva a bit on the mountain bike. Then Sampson State Park. I’ll bring my kayak for a paddle on Seneca Lake, they have a small but decent little beach there. Then maybe ride some of the old roads of the airforce base, lots of wildlife and random old junk to be found along the many abandoned but mostly paved roads. The lake shore trail is nice, and the sunset from Willard Cliffs is a nice way to end out vacation.

Sunday take down camp. I want to be home by 8 pm so leaving Ithaca by 4 pm works. I have clothes set out at home for Monday and enough food and supplies to make it through the first day back at work. There is at least one gorge I’m thinking about visiting in Ithaca, and time allowing, a good leg strecher at Robert Ridell State Park outside of Ithaca might be a good warranted break.

I can look back and say I did a lot on summer vacation but it always seems less than years before but then again this year was two nights less than last year. But it was terribly humid many days, thunderstorms and rain meant two days stuck at camp. And I’ve been doing the same base camp in the Finger Lakes National Forest for a decade and a half now, so I can’t aggregate all past adventures into a single week. And there is still future years and trips ahead. The SuperDuty is young even if I’m increasingly not young. But I don’t have livestock or a homestead to attend to immediately so I’m still free to travel for now.