Good evening! Clear and 72 degrees at the Finger Lakes National Forest. 🌃 There is a north-northeast breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 58 degrees.

It was a nice day 👍 to explore part of the Finger Lakes I had never been to before. The Kueka Outlet Trail is pretty darn neat winding through a gorge past numerous ruins of old mills. 🏤 One thing that surprised me that there was enough water power to run all those mills – when I was there the water was flowing but hardly a torrent. It might be different in the spring or after a heavy rain storm ☔ – it’s been a pretty dry summer in the Finger Lakes although nothing like 2015.

Hiked 🚶🏽 from Penn Yan to Dresden a total of 13 miles round trip. While this is not a strenuous hike by any means – it’s a 200 feet ascent heading west over 6 1/2 miles it was still an all afternoon hike and I was tired 😴 with the heat. I did do a short walk around downtown Penn Yan 🏙 which still has a fairly intact main street then visited the village park overlooking the lake. Ironically, when you are at one of the tips or Keuka Lake you really don’t get that scenic of a vista as all you see is the tine of the fork 🍴and big hill in the center.

Came back and got ice at Dandy Mart. Forgot to buy coffee ☕ again for the morning. Spent a little time down at Clute Park but I was tired 💤 and didn’t want to drive to camp in the dark so I left before sunset 🌇. Came back and had hot dogs and beer 🌭🍺, I’m definitely ready for bed now.

I thought about hiking to Foster Pond but after a few beers 🍻 and all the walking 🚶🏽 I did today, I decided it’s not advisable. I’m just super tired. I find it hard to get as good of night sleep in the woods as I do at home, especially if I stay up late and then wake up when the sun ☀ is pouring in my window. ⬜

I have a bunch of pictures to upload 🗺️ but I’ll wait until tomorrow when I head into town. I wanted to process them a bit more on my phone before uploading. I also have some pictures I want to get off my dash cam to upload.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 64 degrees at 5am. Four degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 60 at 1am. Northeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 66 degrees. The record low of 44 occurred back in 1941.

Tonight will have a Waining Crescent 🌘 Moon with 28% illuminated. The darkest hour is at 1:13 am, followed by dawn at 5:43 am, and sun starting to rise at 6:14 am in the east-northeast (69°) and last for 3 minutes and 4 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 4 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 6:53 am with sun in the east-northeast (76°). Tonight will have 10 hours and 3 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 29 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 87 degrees at 3pm. Six degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 63 at 9am. Calm wind becoming northeast 5 to 8 mph in the afternoon. A year ago, we had light rain in the morning, which became thunderstorm by afternoon. It was sticky. The high last year was 84 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1988.

Going to be another hot and sunny day tomorrow. 🏊🏻‍♂️ I think it would be a good day to spend one more day at the Watkins Glen State Park pool on a relatively quiet weekday. and maybe hike more of the Catharine Valley Rail Trail, maybe south of Montour Falls this time. 🚂 And maybe one last ice cream cone at Glen Dairy Bar. 🍦Saturday I will probably stay in the National Forest for social distancing purposes but I’m thinking of doing some fishing 🎣 and swimming of Caywood Point and maybe if it seems like the water is calm, paddling from Watkins Glen to Hector Point. Sunday I probably will hang out at camp for a while then maybe go for a hike around the rim of Taughannock and then head home around 1 pm, probably via NY 23.🛣️

It seems odd that this trip I haven’t visited the Taughannock Gorge so far 🕋 or Enfield Glen. While I like those places a lot they tend to be crowded and I have little interest in visiting any crowded places during the pandemic. I am trying to keep this trip simple and relaxing plus visiting new places in the Finger Lakes that I’ve not spent a lot of time in the past. Gorges are great but I am really truly hard to maintain social distancing. 👨‍👨‍👦‍👦While COVID-19 doesn’t have me hiding all the time in my home, I really try to avoid places where maintaining social distancing is impossible.🗣️

Before hiking today I sprayed heavily my hammock with another coat of Martin’s Permethrin. 🐜 Bugs haven’t been bad camping but I figured it’s a nice low humidity, non windy day so it should soak in good as some time in the future might be buggy again. Permethrin has a bit of a funny smell at first but it dissappears after airing out. 👃

In four weeks on September 10 the sun will be setting in the west (277°) at 7:25 pm,🌄 which is 45 minutes and 37 seconds earlier then today. In 2019 on that day, we had mostly sunny and temperatures between 77 and 52 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 75 and 54 degrees. The record high of 96 degrees was set back in 1931.

Looking ahead, 6:30 Sunrise 🌇 is in 4 weeks, Constitution Day 📜 is in 5 weeks, October 🛥 and Harvest Moon 🌕 is in 7 weeks, Average High is 60 🍂 is in 9 weeks, Average Night Below Freezing 🌌 is in 3 months, Thanksgiving 🦃 is in 15 weeks, 7:15 AM Sunrise ⌛️ is in 17 weeks, Christmas Eve 🎅 is in 19 weeks, New Years Eve 🎆 is in 20 weeks, Make Your Dream Come True Day 🏡 is in 5 months, Coldest Week of the Year 🌬 is in 22 weeks, Wolf Moon 🌕 is in 24 weeks, Don’t Cry over Spilled Milk Day 🥛 is in 26 weeks and National Drink Wine Day 🍷 is in 27 weeks.