Good evening! Currently mostly clear and 42 degrees with a 10 mph north wind. The wind chill value is currently 36. Honestly, it’s not too bad of an evening. Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low around 25. South wind 3 to 6 mph. That’s about 3 degrees above normal. The record low of -6 degrees was set back in 1950. It could be a lot colder.

Decent sunset to close out the weekend. Now we have 12 hours and 26 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 54 seconds over last night. If you get up early, you will be able to see the Waning Crescent Moon with 15% illuminated. It will rise at 4:30 am. The New Moon is on Wednesday. One week from now, it’s day light savings time, and it now will be around sunset, aka 7 PM. That’s pretty nice. Now if that weather is nice, I’ll be able to go to the park after work.

Monday will be partly sunny, with a high near 54. South wind 7 to 11 mph becoming west in the afternoon. That’s about 13 degrees above normal. I guess this means the spring thaw is upon us. But it’s far below the record high of 62 degrees, set back in 1974.

While Sunday March 20th is the first day of spring, Thursday March 17th will have close to equal darkness and daylight, as sun is refracted against the atmosphere, making the days appear slightly longer then what the calendar would suggest. The first day of spring actually has 12 hours and 10 minutes of daylight, and a sunset at 7:09 PM.

Today I went grocery shopping and bought some needed supplies. Checked the oil and other levels in the car, all were fine, topped off the windshield washer fluid. Truck started up easily after 7 days parked, with the warm weather and the new, quality battery. Cleaned up the kitchen.

I also went up to Cole Hill State Forest in Berne, hiking around there for a bit with my GPS, trying to find good places to tent camp. I came up with 5 potential locations for making backcountry campsites, with the goal of being within a short walk from parking, but also in a quiet, isolated location more then 150 feet (or 0.03 miles) from road or trail. I found one campsite with an existing fire pit I really liked, but I want to let the ground dry up and grass turn green before I spend a night out there. I saw another strong possibility, and the other three where were just so-so. Took some pictures, will post them on the blog later.

This summer I’m thinking of doing more tent camping, and staying local, now that I have good working lanterns and figured out who do to the candle thing in a nice way. My phone and bluetooth speaker plays music in the woods without any electricity. Those long drives to the Adirondacks tend to get long, and there are many delightful little places to go locally. Most of the campsites I studied were just a short walk from parking, so I could bring the big table back and even the 20-lb propane tank if I wanted plenty of energy for light and cooking.

Don’t be sad the weekend is coming to a conclusion. A new one is just five days away!