Good morning! Easter Saturday. 🐰

Slower start to my Saturday then predicted due to the wind. If I had to choose I’d prefer the cold to the wind.

Sunny and a cold 28 degrees at the Rensselaerville State Forest. 🌞 There is a north-northwest breeze at 11 mph. 🍃. The sun is great and making a lot of solar power but the wind sucks.

It’s just cold this morning, 🌬️ though certainly not as bad as mid afternoon last week, when the winds were whipping around at 20-30 mph and howling at times closer to 50 mph.

It’s werid, I hiked 11 1/2 miles today but it felt like a lazy day, hiding out from the wind. 🚶I got an early start which helped a lot, because yesterday morning wasn’t nearly as windy and cold as this morning.

I did see a bald eagle 🦅 up close overhead and a massive buck. And the usual, red headed woodpecker, two mallard on one of the wet areas that wasn’t frozen, tufted titmouse, blue jay, boring old robin.

Still a lot of snow in places, 🌨 at least six inches in protected north slopes, quite muddy but less so by evening with the strong winds and low humidity. Farm boots 👢 vare essential for walking a lot of trails. Campsite was one big soft mud and puddle on Thursday, but it’s dried up a lot today. ⛺

Made some really good meals with asparagus (one of my favorite vegetables), and other yummy things. 🍲 After dark the wind died down and the ground was still quite wet so had a small fire, coals smothered before bed with snow and ice. 🔥

I’m glad I was lucky 🍀 enough to get Good Friday off, as I probably wouldn’t have gotten the drive in campsite I wanted had I come Friday after work as somebody else is camping 🏕 a mile up the road from me. Friday was cold, especially the blustery afternoon but a day in the wilderness beats a day in the city.

I was thinking about hiking over Kenyan Road to Fox Creek Road to the Mount Pisgah Overlook today but it seems rather cold and windy. ❄ I’ll see how much things warm up as the day progreses I guess. Maybe do some more protected hikes in the woods and hollows where it’s less windy.