As we head into the 8 o’clock hour, we are at 39 degrees on top of Cotton Hill. Partly clear skies but clouds are to be seen to the west. The lean-to is illuminated by the soft light of the propane lantern and seven candles in white paper bags. There is a gentle east breeze mostly blocked by the lean-to. It feels much warmer and pleasant then last night which was just frigid. I fixed the fire place so now it’s about a foot closer to the lean-to with a solid three foot wall off mud and stone, reflecting the heat of the fire back where you want it. The fire pit is a lot more shallow then before, which means you can sit a lot closer. I will post pictures next week.

Waiting for nautical twilight to see the stars in the west. Nautical twilight in Middleburgh is at 8:17 pm, so it won’t be long. Should be a pretty night. Warning Crescent Moon with 80% illuminated will rise in the east around 10 pm.

Listening to some Jason Aldean next to the campfire on my Bluetooth speaker which has pretty good bass sitting in the lean-to. Technology is amazing. As I noted earlier on Facebook earlier, You know we are living in the future when your $40 1 oz handheld Smartphone not only works in the wilderness to quickly access the Internet, but has 20 days worth of non-repeated music on it, 16 days worth of automatically downloaded talk radio programs aka podcasts on it, can tune in FM Radio better than any transistor radio and can show you your location within 10 feet on a map. And it plays wirelessly music on a $30 high fidelity speaker the size of a tea cup within 40 feet that is battery powered for over 12 hours without being plugged into a booster battery or wall outlet.

I wish it was about 30 degrees warmer this evening, but it’s still a pretty amazing evening for the end of March. In nine weeks it will be Memorial Day Weekend and it will be like that. The Big Buddy is keeping my butt toasty on low tonight. Memorial Day Weekend is typical, we will have temperatures at this hour in the mid 60s.

Tonight will get down to 25 degrees or so on the mountain, especially under those partly clear skies . Tomorrow aka Easter will warm up to the low fifties and be mostly sunny on the mountain. Cold start to the day but it will get progressively nicer as the day goes on. Warmer in the city. Rain when you go back to work on Monday.

But the heck with that, I’m enjoying tonight in the wilderness.