Definitely a rather wet and gloomy morning today. Reminds me of that November day midweek when I was camping but a fair bit warmer. But rain is important in April before things fully green up to reduce the fire risk. Mercury is at 59 degrees now on our way to 64. Less rain, more sun later.

I was actually surprised how much it rained when I was awoken around 4 AM. Not really a thunderstorm but it poured for a while. It was pouring well into the eight o’clock hour but has subsequently lightened up and I wouldn’t be shocked if the rain is done in the next hour. The park didn’t feel like a swamp with the soft ground but things are still pretty damp locally. Lots of sun and warmth for the Easter Weekend, so things should continue to dry out then.

With the rain and because the skies were so dark I didn’t get up right away, I ended up taking the yokel local bus to work. So be it. I get in a bit later to work and I miss my morning walk but it wouldn’t have been that nice at any rate. I might take the express in on Friday, although Thursday it will be the local for me after the dentist.

The sun will set at 7:34 pm with dusk around 8:03 pm, which is one minute and 9 seconds later than yesterday. Today will have 13 hours and 17 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 48 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low of 41 degrees at 5am. Four degrees above normal. Northwest wind 11 to 16 mph. In 2016, it got down to 31 degrees under partly clear skies. The record low of 19 occurred back in 1874.

As previously noted, next Wednesday the Average High is 60 when the sun will be setting at 7:42 pm with dusk at 8:12 pm. On that day in 2016, we had rain and temperatures between 65 and 44 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 60 degrees. We hit a record high of 92 back in 1976.

I went down to the park for a while but didn’t do much there besides watch some YouTube videos. I did some more reading about truck cap camping and studying maps for next week’s trip. I’m increasingly worried about the forecast but as I noted yesterday I could scale back the trip or maybe go somewhere different. Ironically as the long range forecast suggests, this weekend weather looks better while the long range looks worse. I could do an overnight this weekend but I’d rather spend my time preparing for camping next week.

Sat out back again last night and watched the tape recorded PBS Newshour on my laptop on the tailgate of my truck. Felt colder and somewhat damper but the breeze was gone by dusk. I’ll be glad when I’m sitting up in the woods by the campfire. I’m hoping I’ll have nice weather next week. But it’s still mid April.

Tomorrow at this time I’ll be done with my dentist and I’ll find out how much damage I’ve done to my teeth by avoiding him or her for so many years. I guess you can’t go back and revise your history of negligence. Only move forward. They don’t look that bad.

Going to be a remarkably nice weekend. It’s probably a mistake to not going camping but at this point we are so close to nicer weather and I can finish up the truck cap wiring and measuring and marking for the solar panel. I’m hoping I will have equally nice weather for my road trip but we will see. I can always just hang out at home and do day trips as an alternative.

I do think fishing the Deer River would be a lot of fun, as I think it will be stocked by the time I get there. It is on the DEC’s stocking list. I haven’t been to the North Country since 2015, so I would like to see it again.