Moss Island and Citizen Activism

Moss Island was saved from becoming simply a bridge support largely by the activism of Paul Stewart and a few others from the SUNY Albany Save our Environment Group. They fought and asked questions, raised concerns and spoke out against constructing the bridge over Moss Island. Instead the bridge was moved slightly to the south and is virtually as quick to get to Little Falls.

Citizen activism in one’s community can really make a difference. While the national environment may be almost untreactable, citizen activism on the local level can make a real difference. Often the opinions of citizens are dismissed by governments as unworkable only to be implemented after enough activism forces government to reconsider the default options.

Moss Island today is a big draw for rock climbers and tourists alike. It provides a beautiful place to walk, enjoy nature within city limits, to carefully observe the natural wonders known as the potholers. Indeed, what city leaders at one time just viewed as a place to cross is one of the city’s greatest assets

September 22, 2019 Night

Good evening! Partly clear and 75 degrees in Dormansville, NY. There is a south-southwest breeze at 8 mph. πŸƒ. The dew point is 64 degrees. Kind of muggy end to summer. But then again autumn is going to start out pretty hot and muggy. πŸ”₯

With today, I think it’s fair to say summer camping season is done. I doubt I’ll do any more kayaking this summer, put the fishing pole away for my gun. β›Ί I’m still looking forward to my West Virginia trip in twelve days. Money will be tighter then expected but if I have to dip a little bit into savings it’s not the end of the world. I’m mostly backcountry camping so lodging expenses will be low and I cook most of my own food 🍲.

It was a great weekend, got to see see and do a lot but it’s intensely frustrating 😀 that Big Red has developed a noise in the rear right wheel. Not sure if it’s the drum brake or the wheel bearing but things only break when money is tight. I’m always putting more damn money into keeping the brakes working right. Those big wheels, my heavy truck cap the solar panel, batteries and camping equipment put quite a bit of weight on the brakes going down the mountains. If I get another truck eventually it’s going to be a 3/4 ton for sure, without a lift kit. But I may go car-less for a while so I can save more for my future.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌀, with a low of 65 degrees at 5am. 16 degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 64 at 10pm. South wind around 8 mph. In 2018, we had partly cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 45 degrees. The record low of 32 occurred back in 1963.

Tonight will have a Waning Crescent Moon 🌘 with 28% illuminated with the moon rising at 12:16 am. The moon will rise at 1:00 am. The New Moon is on Friday night with mostly clear skies. The Hunter Moon 🌝 is on Saturday, October 12th. The sun will rise at 6:43 am with the first light at 6:15 am, which is one minute and 5 seconds later than yesterday. πŸŒ„ Tonight will have 11 hours and 50 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 51 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 2pm. Partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 85 degrees at 3pm. 16 degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 65 at 10am. Summer like for sure. South wind 8 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 66 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1895.

In four weeks on October 20 the sun will be setting at 6:06 pm,πŸŒ„ which is 47 minutes and 25 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had partly cloudy, rain showers and temperatures between 62 and 46 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 58 and 38 degrees. The record high of 80 degrees was set back in 1965.

Tomorrow I will probably go to Walmart and get more blue jeans πŸ‘–. I wrecked the one pair and I’m running low on pairs that aren’t ripped or falling apart. Maybe I can order them online and save the trip. Tuesday I need to go to State Farm and Slingerlands and present my insurance discount certificate. I might walk there. Wednesday is the Guilderland Planning Board meeting but I’m not sure if I can make it as I want to avoid driving the truck until it’s been looked at next week. Thursday is going over to John Wolcott house. I’ll walk there. Next weekend is staying home, cleaning and planning out my autumn road trip.

Looking ahead, Average High is 60 πŸ‚ is in 3 weeks, Daylight Savings Time Ends πŸ›₯️ is in 6 weeks, Average High is 50 πŸ‚ is in 7 weeks, December πŸŽ„ is in 10 weeks, Bill of Rights Day πŸ“œ is in 12 weeks, Days are Getting Longer β˜€οΈ is in 3 months, National Pie Day 🍰 is in 17 weeks, 5:30 PM Dusk πŸŒ† is in 18 weeks and Election Day 2020 πŸ—³οΈ is in 6 weeks.

Reservoir

Mohawk River Below Little Falls

Once you get south of the Lock 17, the river is quite placid, although there is a fair bit of noise from the Little Falls - Thruway Connector and the rail tracks on the opposite side of the river.

Taken on Saturday September 21, 2019 at Moss Island.

House Cat Bounty

I think the solution to the decline of a birds is
a $100 bounty on every house cat found outdoors.

Cats are the Number 1 Threat to Birds

Predation by domestic cats is the number-one direct, human-caused threat to birds in the United States and Canada.

In the United States alone, outdoor cats kill approximately 2.4 billion birds every year. Although this number may seem unbelievable, it represents the combined impact of tens of millions of outdoor cats. Each outdoor cat plays a part.

The Weekend that Was

Saturday was an action packed day but a good one. I started the day pretty early with the Save the Pine Bush Bird Hike and Neil Reilly did not disappoint. I wish I had some better glass. I got to invest in some binoculars. And a good bird book. 🐦Neil helped me learn a lot of birds but will I remember them all? I really need to learn more about the flora and fauna I’m observing in the wilderness. It would help with hunting too, especially if I eventually get into big game when I own my own land. πŸ”­

I bought a spatula at the Hannaford in Esperance. Forgot mine at home. $10 with tax seemed pricey but I figured hopefully this all metal one will hold up. 🍴 Then I can keep the big camp spatula for my camping supply box and use the other one at home. Unlike some of the spatulas I’ve previously owned this one is a single piece of metal so it’s less likely to break at the weld like some of the other I own. I burn a lot of food so I break a lot of spatulas scraping pans. 🍳 But now I have a camp and a home one and hopefully the home one lasts a long time.

Moss Island was fun but the colors were just changing and it’s the third time I’ve been there so it’s less interesting now. Still a nice hike, as was doing some of the Erie Canal Trail through the deep railroad cut. 🚢 Japanese Knotweed is really taking over part of the gorge though. That invasive species is everywhere these days it seems. 🌾Went out for a short paddle on the Mohawk River from Little Falls past Moss Island to the old Fink Basin Bridge foundation. πŸŒ‰ It’s hard to spot the foundation at this point because the Japanese Knotweed is all over it. Needless to say, I’m very concerned about the Japanese Knotweed taking over everything. When they were pumping out the lock, the water Goya bit choppy but I was far enough away not to be real impacted. That Lock 17 drops 40 feet so it’s a pretty big lock with a lot of water to move downstream.

Leaving the Pine Bush hike I was a bit concerned about the squeak that was coming from the rear wheel of my truck. 🚚 It sounded like a brake noise because it changed when I applied the brakes. But they’re working fine and after a few good hard applies of the brakes they’ve mostly gone away. Think it’s either mud or maybe just glaze that’s built up from last week overheating the brakes heading down through Durham. Should have used a lower gear heading down the hill. Heading towards Stratford I smelled somebody burning their garbage and thought it might be the brakes but the smell went away after driving past their farm. Hillbilly incense getting me all upset. If y’all going to burn your plastic garbage, at least burn it in a hot fire so it don’t stink. πŸ”₯ I checked, rotators aren’t warm and aren’t dragging – and after a few hard braking the noise is mostly gone. But it’s concerning enough I scheduled an appointment to have it looked at. Pretty sure it’s just the drum brake mechanism is acting up.

Driving up to Pisceo-Powley Road from Little Falls I stopped and got some sweet corn 🌽 and tomatoes. πŸ… I then stopped at Green Acres Drive In and got Pumpkin Ice Cream πŸ¦πŸŽƒ which I swear the cream was a bit rancid. It was okay but I don’t think I’d get end of the season ice cream again from them.

I ended up camping at campsite five at Pisceo-Powley Road. β›Ί They cut up the tree that fell during that severe thunderstorm that came through ⚑ that mid August long weekend that I delayed my entry to avoid. I’m glad I missed that storm a lot of branches came down around this campsite but the DEC did a nice job cleaning up around the site. I like that campsite a lot because it’s remote and I can listen to music, 🎢 shoot guns πŸ”« and burn whatever I want without bothering folks. πŸ”₯Just like when I own my own land. No neighbors, no rules. πŸ“ But that doesn’t mean I’ll trash my own land. That said finding burnt out of aluminum cans wasn’t cool. I flattened them and will take home for recycling. It your going to burn stuff in the woods at least pack out what doesn’t burn completely. πŸš―β™» Outhouse seat also seemed like somebody broke it. A shame, the outhouse is only a year old. Still works but the wood in the seat is cracked. πŸ’Ί

The storm in August meant there was quite a bit of dead and down wood around camp. I had plenty for the fire. I always try to get wood a bit farther away from camp to save the close-by wood for other campers who get here late or myself for that matter. 🌲

Setting up camp went well but I discovered that I spilled bleach and water in my truck bed. Ruined another pair of jeans πŸ‘–. Ducks but I needed more jeans to wear on casual days to work. I can wear the bleached pair of jeans at home. Made some sweet sausage 🍣and mashed potatoes for dinner – along with sweet corn 🌽. I wanted to make angel hair pasta πŸ˜‡ with dinner but I forgot to pack butter.

Sun sets early this time of year but I had the mess cleaned up in my truck, dinner cooked and the lights strung by dark which occurred relatively late in the woods on this very clear day. πŸŒ‡ Still it was pitch black before 7:30 which made for a long night but with the two batteries powering the lights it wasn’t a big deal. I got things done that needed to be done by then including getting a fire going. πŸ”₯ Got cold and put the hoodie and long pants on. Even with the warm weather it gets cold at night. With the long night, I was shocked 😲 how quickly I drank the six pack I brought. 🍻 I wasn’t trying to get drunk but I made a lot of beer dissappear quickly. Oh well, I must have been thirsty and I slept it off. Minor hang over this morning.

This morning was quite nice I had eggs 🍳 and sausage along with coffee. β˜• It was a cold start but it warmed up relatively quickly. I ended up hanging out in the warm sun for a while, listening to the radio πŸ“» for a while and then swinging in the hammock while working on some blog posts.

Midday I went for a kayak paddle down the East Canada Creek 🚀 and it was quite colorful and quiet out on the creek. Water levels were pretty low. But I made it over the beaver dam and the leaves were nice. 🍁 Didn’t bother with the fishing pole as I’ve never had much luck fishing there. Spent a little time at the potholers but it was quite cold and the sky had clouded up and it was getting late.

I got home, unpacked and scheduled an appointment for next week to have my truck looked at.πŸ”§ The noise seems to come and go but I think it’s getting worse so I should get it fixed. I’ll probably stay in town next week because I need to save money πŸ’΅ and I also I don’t want something to break while I am out of town.

I’ll post more photos πŸ“· and videos πŸŽ₯ throughout the week.

South Mountain