Burnt-Rossman Hills State Forest, spanning an impressive 10,588 acres, proudly holds the distinction of being Schoharie County’s largest state forest. This natural haven has garnered immense popularity among enthusiasts of outdoor pursuits such as hiking, camping, and various recreational activities.
Traversing a segment of this expansive landscape is the Long Path, a trail adorned with aqua blazes, stretching over 350 miles. Within this forest, the Eminence Lean To stands as a notable point of interest along the Long Path, positioned roughly 0.5 miles to the east of Old Cemetery Road. A crossing of Old Cemetery Road can be spotted just to the south of an ancient burial ground.
Among the captivating features of the forest are the campsites discreetly nestled along Betty Brook Road, as well as the inviting spots found at Duck Pond, situated along Burnt Hill Road.
For those with a penchant for angling and boating, Looking Glass Pond, located along Rossman Hill Road, offers an inviting prospect. This charming pond not only facilitates fishing and boating but also boasts well-maintained fishing platforms courtesy of the Fulton Fish and Game Club.
A person or thing that is mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to understand.
It was so simple. I decided after comparing the Trek Dual Sport 2 to the FX 2 I was so going to go with the more mild mannered FX 2. It certainly would be more efficient for urban commuting and long distance bicycles.
Then I remembered that other bicycle the shop had me look at a Trek Verve. It turns out that’s the next level up towards a mountain bike, which inevitably lead me to researching a Trek Marlin 5. The more I think about it, the more I might want a decent quality beginner mountain bike rather than a commuter bicycle.
The thing is what I really want a bicycle most for is using up at camp, mostly on dirt roads but also the occasional trail. And then just around town, out to Five Rivers or on the Albany County Rail Trail to visit the Black River Swamp. I am worried that FX 2 really wouldn’t handle well with stones and rocks, especially now knowing it runs tubeless.
Now I’m looking at the Trek Marlin 5 or 6. The base Trek mountain bike. This has tougher 60 TPI tires with inner tubes, a front suspension that is upgradable and wider tires for better grip and stability I the mud and rougher terrain. I think this might be much better suited for State Forest roads and the occasional trail ride but still be decent for around town or an occasional commute to work. And it still fits in my price range. It will be slow and heavy, kind of like Big Red.
I’m really moving away commuting to work daily on a bicycle as while I did that when I was in my twenties, the traffic and the hills worry me more Delaware Ave after learning how Lynne Jackson got struck on her bicycle a few years back. To say nothing of the pollution from autos or riding through seedy neighborhoods, swerving around needles left behind by the heroin addicts. The Albany County Rail Trail is great but problematic to get from the Corning Preserve back up the hill to the Alfred E Smith building. Plus while there is a bike rack behind the office where I work, the more I learn about bike theft and how fast bolt cutters are I really think twice about locking my bike up there without a very good quality lock. I keep seeing how all the homeless people at Capitol Park have wonderful new bicycles. Must be nice to be homeless.
Those lazy, hazy crazy days of summer are here minus maybe the hot dogs, pretzels and beer. Time is marching on the world changes in your forties.
Good morning! Happy Hot Thursday. To be predicted, it’s the hottest time of the year. Mostly sunny 😎with fog 🌫 around and 69 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind. The dew point is 67 degrees. The muggy weather ends Wednesday around 7 pm. 😓
Another hot summer day ahead 🏖 though I’ll be spending it my air conditioned office and usually it will be cooling down by evening when I get home. Out for the morning walk before it gets too hot out. 10 1/2 miles walked yesterday, climbed up and down 36 flights of stairs in the office as usual.
Red kidney are cooking down in the kitchen, 🍲 they will be good with maple 🍁 syrup in the evening when it’s hot out. I got fresh blueberries at the farmers market which where $7 which seems much too expensive but inflation. 🔵 I’m running low on food and supplies but I don’t know what I want to buy and eat with the heat. 🛒 Next time I go shopping, I do want to get some freezer bags, as they’re good for freezing rice and also things like black beans for compact carrying while camping. They can be reused a few times too.
This morning I’m thinking just black coffee ☕ cream of wheat with the fresh blueberries for breakfast 🥣. I do need to get milk 🥛 as what I have in the refrigerator has spoiled. But not this morning. I’m also out of cottage cheese and Greek yogurt and frozen fruit.
Yesterday’s meals where too bland. Too much kale and brown rice. 🍚 Easy and healthy but bleh. Makes it easy and healthy but not so easy to keep on the diet going forward. I was really into kale for a while eating multiple pounds of week, but I’m getting tired of it, much like the tofu. Today I am doing chicken, peas, corn, black beans and red peppers for lunch. Pre-cooked shrimp 🦐 are thawing in the fridge, I’m going to mix with the brown rice and tomatoes for dinner and have red kidney beans with maple syrup for dessert. I put chickpeas in the fridge for soaking, I’ll either roast them to toss in with fresh blueberries, strawberries and raspberries with walnuts with a snack. Walnuts are good but loaded with fat, though at least it has a decent ratio of Omega 3. I might also make hummus, which I’ll either need to get tahini or sesame seeds to cook up.
Today will be sunny and hot ☀ , with a high of 91 degrees at 2pm. Seven degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 71 at 9am. Heat index values as high as 95. Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph in the afternoon. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 81 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1886.
As I’m back on the Trek FX 2 bicycle as my choice, I might try to get up to the Downtube to talk to them about potentially buying that bicycle 🚲 and doing a test ride. I’m getting tired of studying the pros and cons of bicycles and want to commit sooner than later so I can take delivery of the bike and finally be on the road, both for commuting and getting around town. I want to break the bicycle in well before heading out to the Finger Lakes in three weeks. An additional expense I overlooked was a good quality U-lock that resists bolt cutters ✂️ which is going to add $75-100 go the cost, but I might be better off getting that on the internet rather than at the bike shop. I also want to get a rear luggage rack so I can tie a small milk crate style storage containers for keeping lunch and supplies on me when doing day trips on the bicycle 🚲 in the Finger Lakes. 💸 Looking at around or maybe slightly below $50 for that. Then another under $50 for the combination of buying a very basic digit speedometer / odometers and lights both for safety and do night riding in the National Forest after watching the sun set. 🌇
Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:01 pm with sun having an altitude of 70.1° from the due south horizon (-0.7° vs. 6/21). The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:54 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (296°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (303°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:37 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 26 seconds with dusk around 9:10 pm, which is 19 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:56 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 82 degrees. The dew point will be 69 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 15 hours and 14 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 57 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌃 , with a low of 68 degrees at 6am. Six degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 69 at 7pm. South wind 5 to 7 mph. Another sticky night sleeping 😴 with the fan roaring. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 58 degrees. The record low of 44 occurred back in 1979.
On this day in 1947, The AK-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union. Even after almost seven decades, the model and its variants remain the most popular and widely used assault rifles in the world 🪖 because of their substantial reliability under harsh conditions, low production costs compared to contemporary Western weapons, availability in virtually every geographic region and ease of use. ⚔ I bet it would be fun to own one someday, in a freer state when I own my own land. Probably fun for ventilating a burn barrel, lol.
A hot summerweekend ahead. 🏖 Saturday, a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 86. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Maximum dew point of 69 at 9am. Sunday, a chance of showers, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 81. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Maximum dew point of 70 at 10am. Typical average high for the weekend is 84 degrees.
That said, maybe not the nicest weekend ever especially Sunday with the clouds. 🤷♂️ One more weekend to decide and acquire a bicycle 🚲 then hopefully get out camping 🏕 the following weekend after my dentist appointment 🦷 assuming that the weather is decent. I’m thinking Schoharie County, the Mine Kill Pool, the Catskill Scenic Trail from Grand Gorge to Stamford it maybe even beyond there. 🚲 Also maybe on the Saturday bike from Old Blenheim Bridge up and over Bear Ladder Road 🐻 then down to Fultonhsm by Shauls to get ice cream. 🍦 If I have the rack on the bicycle by then not only can I carry lunch but also get some veggies. If not both of these things are good for the following week or after summer vacation. 🏖 Pool closes Labor Day but the best bicycling and farm stand finds are certainly in September and October. 🎃
Summer vacation starts Friday July 29th 🏖 with plans to head straight out to the Finger Lakes National Forest and set up camp ⛺ by noon time. Then have all afternoon to unpack and do a nice bicycle 🚲 ride and enjoy the afternoon from the forest maybe with some fishing 🎣 and a sunset 🌇 to a start things off. Watkins Glen on Saturday to paddle and swim 🏊♂️, though I may want to get to the park 🏞 early to ensure parking 🅿.
Looking ahead, there are 2 weeks until Ugly Truck Day 🚚 when the sun will be setting at 8:29 pm with dusk at 9:01 pm. On that day in 2022, we had hot, humid, mostly sunny, thunderstorm and temperatures between 97 and 72 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 84 degrees. We hit a record high of 97 back in 1991.
Most of the booms last night weren’t fireworks but the thunderstorms that came rolling through that got me a bit wet heading down Bennett Hill but wasn’t the terribly violent storms they predicted from the radar. Odd how they pushed south from the north.
Good morning! Mostly foggy 🌁 and 63 degrees in Delmar for the morning walk 🚶. Calm wind. It’s foggy a with a dew point of 63 degrees. The air quality is a moderate 55.
Normally we’d call today HumpDay 🐫 but it’s more of psudeo Monday as the work week is ahead. Should be a quiet three 3⃣ day week, the other director is on vacation but so is a lot of staff and the work load light. The past few days have been very hot and lazy at home, 🏡 it’s tough to get up and going. 18 flights of stairs await me to climb at my office 🏢. While I do worry having eggs this morning after a hamburger 🍔 on the forth means I’ll be over on the saturated fats, eggs 🍳 have loads of protein and it’s good as I will include about two cups of ground spinach, plus tomatoes 🍅, peppers and onions plus maybe mix in some cottage cheese for even more protein. Walked 🚶 7.8 miles yesterday.
Today will have fog before 7am. Otherwise, sunny and hot 🌞, with a high of 90 degrees at 3pm. Six degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 70 at 10am. Calm wind becoming north 5 to 7 mph in the morning. A year ago, we had rain in the morning, which became rain by afternoon. It became sticky as the day progressed. The high last year was 74 degrees. The record high of 99 was set in 1919.
Yesterday was fun, spent some time with the folks before climbing Bennett Hill and getting chased down it ⛈ when a sort of freak thunderstorm pushed down from the north, lighting the radar up with a dense red cell heading right towards me. I was hoping to watch the canceled Albany State Plaza fireworks 🎇 from the hill and all the unofficial ones people were lighting off in their backyards but not during a severe electrical storm with hail, torrential downpours, strong winds. 🍃 I stayed up top for a while but hearing thunder ⚡ and seeing lightening I rushed down the hill only getting a little wet 💧 by the time I reached my truck. It rained somewhat hard on my drive home and the underpass on 443 was fairly flooded but no hail and I made it home safely, spending the last 15 minutes of the storm watching it from my truck. 🛻
Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:01 pm with sun having an altitude of 70.2° from the due south horizon (-0.6° vs. 6/21). The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:54 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (296°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (303°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:37 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 26 seconds with dusk around 9:10 pm, which is 16 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:56 pm. At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 83 degrees. The dew point will be 68 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 15 hours and 15 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 53 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 68 degrees at 4am. Six degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 69 at 9pm. Last night was pretty sticky, so will tonight be. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening. In 2022, we had light rain in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 63 degrees. The record low of 47 occurred back in 1962.
On this day in 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton imposes trade and economic sanctions against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. ⚔ 25 years later and a few trillion spent not sure we have a lot to show for it besides bass boats for military contractors, a bunch of dead and injured Americans and Muslims rounded up in racist prosecution. It was pretty bad but then the American government doesn’t have that good reputation of treating Americans fairly, remember COINTELPRO and before that the Red Scare. Old J. Edgar Hoover might be long gone, but his agency sticks around.
Hot and summer like for the weekend. 😎 More clouds for Sunday then Saturday but that’s getting ahead of myself. Saturday, a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 87. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Maximum dew point of 67 at 8pm. Sunday, a chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 85. Chance of precipitation is 50%. Maximum dew point of 68 at 1pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 84 degrees.
It truthfully would be a great weekend to spend out in Schoharie 🏕 at the Mine Kill Pool but I really want to figure out the bicycle thing this weekend. 🚲 I think I am really zeroing in the bicycle I want, a place where I can pay and take delivery potentially as soon as Saturday, so I could be back out on the road as soon as Saturday afternoon or maybe Sunday. I may end up having to drive down Hudson to take delivery of the bicycle but I could combine that with some beach time at Lake Taghkanic or ride some of the Albany Hudson Electric Trail. Or maybe some of both?
One month 📅 from now will be Work Like a Dog Day 🐩 when the sun will be setting at 8:12 pm with dusk at 8:42 pm. I bet, in August. Maybe more like nap like a dog day. 🐶
I’m tired of my clunker and the endless rebuild. One step forward and there’s always more to do. Been surveying bicycles I see actually being ridden in town and on the bike paths…
I’ve looked at a lot of different makes and models, increasingly thinking Trek Dual Sport 2 as I want somewhat beefer wheels and tires for riding gravel and dirt roads but also be reasonably good for commuting around town and bicycle paths.
I had looked at urban bikes like the Trek FX 2 and the comfort Jamis Citizen 2, though I found the Citizen to be super walllowy – more comfortable than my bed at home but mad heavy and I think I want thicker and more aggressive tires then what the FX has.
I just want something not for jumping tree trunks but is reasonably good on gravel and dirt without being too much of a pig for bike paths and urban commuting.
I’ll bitch about the price but it’s worthwhile to spend on quality and with inflation everything is dang expensive but I’m making good money at work these days.
Fun fact: In some large apartment buildings in America, kitchen stoves cook 14% percent slower than single family homes.
These buildings use 208 volt wye, which provide on each leg 120 volts to ground. Which is economical for wiring purposes but leaves 240 volt electric stoves with only 208 volts or 14% less heating ability. Not a big deal but slower boiling of a pot of water or more time bringing the oven up to temperature.
