John Boyd Thacher State Park, is situated along the Helderberg Escarpment, one of the richest fossil-bearing formations in the world. Even as it safeguards six miles of limestone cliff-face, rock-strewn slopes, woodland and open fields, the park provides a marvelous panorama of the Hudson-Mohawk Valleys and the Adirondack and Green Mountains. The park has volleyball courts, playgrounds, ball fields and numerous picnic areas with nine reservable shelters. Interpretive programs are offered year-round, including guided tours of the famous Indian Ladder Trail. There are over 25 additional miles of trails for summer hiking and mountain biking, and winter cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, and snowmobiling.
I find lately I’ve been staying up later and later. This is a problem because I’ve continued to get up fairly early in the morning, with the early sunrises and my alarm ⏰.
My excuses for staying up late…
The sun doesn’t set until late and I want to see the stars or have a fire after dark
The evenings are mild and I want to sit out back and enjoy the fresh air before going into my stuffy bedroom
I get myself down some rat hole on my phone, learning about some random thing on the internet
I get watching some YouTube videos I previously downloaded
I don’t have to get up early because I’m working remotely
If I’m exhausted at work the next day nobody will know unless of course there is a Zoom meeting
It was a nice weekend, spent camping up at Cole Hill, cooling off in the Switz Kill and riding trail and road at Partridge Run. But it came and went much too quickly. Four work days, and then it’s off for summer vacation, leaving bright and early on Friday, before the morning rush hour.
Stayed overnight at my parents house on Sunday night. 🏕 Slept in the back of my truck, after the previous night hammock camping up at Cole Hill. Ended up sleeping in my bathing suit, because somehow I managed to misplace my change of clothes I packed from camping. 👕 The only thing I can think of is they got mixed in with the dirty clothes and got washed. I don’t think I left them up at the State Forest and I can’t find them anywhere in my truck. 😕
Spent a while down at the swimming hole — maybe just waterfalls, 🏊♀️ cooling off after taking down Camp in the Switz Kill along Old Partridge Run Road which was nice. Rode trail for a while at Partridge Run, 🚲 it’s nice they’ve restored the deck on the bridge there, to the full width as a motor vehicle bridge but it seems unlikely they will ever fully restore it.
It was nice to see the family, 👨👩👧 but boy oh boy were those eggs greasy this morning they made up. I felt like I was drinking vegetable oil straight out of the bottle — I swear three-quarters of the eggs were lardy goulda cheese 🧀 with one half of an egg white, and a sprinkle of spinanch. 🍳 Certainly not may way of cooking, but it’s good to enjoy what my parents still offer when I still can. Some of their recipes will forever be gone upon their passing. 😞 I am in my forties now, my parents 75 and 77 respectively, so I know I won’t be with them forever. Burgers 🍔 the previous night which also were quite greasy.
Then of course their biggest excitement of the day is trash pickup. 🗑 Last year my dad finally broke down and let mom sign up when they decided it was too difficult to drive things to the transfer station, and you’re not supposed to be burning stuff anymore. 🔥 Not that rednecks ever pass up on a good bonfire. Every Sunday, it’s all they want to talk about and when the trash man comes their excited. 🗑 I don’t know, I like the old way of doing things.
“Accentuate the Positive”, the cheesy motivational poster says.
Like so many people, I am overly focused on the downside of any action or purchase. Things rarely work out quite as rosy as one would hope what your eyes are starstruck and daydreaming about the possibilities. You know the vision of the world sold by the marketers and YouTube stars is never as wonderful as they want you to believe.
I try to be honest and thoughtful about my choices and any celebration of the positive should be weighted against the potential negatives. But when I start to look at the downsides too often my dread of lost aversion kicks in. The inevitable loss of a buck or a piece of worn out wrecked equipment seems to out strip the joy it will bring in the mean time. We want to believe lifespans will be eternal when the truth is they are much too short and you should enjoy them while you can.
I often hear that the Adirondack Park is unique, unlike any other park in the United States. Maybe it is different in the sense it’s called a park, but in many ways it’s not that unique or special compared to other mountainous areas in the Eastern United States.
How much different is the Adirondack Park from the Pennsylvania Wild Region or the Green Mountains or West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest? Well not that different. Some of the hills have ascents greater over their valleys than the mountains in the Adirondacks.
Each one of these areas has a great deal of public land open to the public for free use for hunting, fishing and camping. Each is a mix of public and private lands. They have mountains and streams, high points and low ones. None of them charge an admission fee for accessing the bulk of the land.
One thing that is unique about the Adirondack Park is that all of the public land is managed as wilderness. They may not call all of it wilderness but within the park the state can’t cut any of the trees above 3 inches with narrow exceptions a tree that poses a public safety hazard by hanging over a road. But other than that, the Adirondack Park is quite similar to other mountainess region on the east coast.
Not sure what I ran over but that front tire went flat quickly on my bike along Erie Boulevard. Something big, I pushed my bike the last 1/4 mile to the office. But I still was in plenty early and I should be in okay for legislative hours.
It’s stupid but annoying to say the least. 😡 If it hadn’t been a Friday, I would have just left my bike at the office and brought the wheel home and patched it. But alas, I am going to bus it home tonight, have a quick dinner, go get my bike, and then run to the store. 🏪 I will get the propane tank filled; 🏮 and get some extra food for camping and other supplies for the coming week, as I probably won’t shop again until vacation. 🍏 Might be nice to sit down by the river for a while this evening reading, although I’m kind of tired. 📚 If I need any other food items in mean time, I’ll just get them at Hannaford riding in to work.
Tomorrow I want to get out early 👷♀️ before the inevitable pickup trucks and the grinding and sawing 🪚 that is part of the endless next door construction on the rebuild of the unit next door. I’d rather get out early before all the craziness starts. It’s creepy having the landlord snooping around, and it’s just loud and noisy with all the construction. They keep gutting more and more of that unit next door. 🏗 I’d rather be away while it’s happening. Though it doesn’t look quite as nice as they had first predicted for the weekend, with more clouds ⛅️but at least seasonably warm and low humidity. Sunday seems nicer. 😎 Still it’s too bad no nature bus to Thacher Park tomorrow. But I’m thinking hammock camping tomorrow 🦦 and maybe finding a swimming hole for Sunday before heading out to the folks house for Sunday dinner. 🍔
A week from now I should be in the Finger Lakes. 😁 I really want to get to For the Love of Bacon as close to 7 AM as possible on Friday, so I can hit Ithaca by around 11 AM or so. ⏲ That way mid-day I can set up camp, and be ready when I need to clock in work in the afternoon. The long range suggests it will warm up again for summer vacation, but maybe more unstable with thunderstorms. 🌩 But alas, it’s summer. Warm is good for pool time and floating on Seneca Lake in the tube or kayaking. Even biking ain’t bad on trails in the shade. 🚲 Or just relaxing in the hammock, doing some reading. And if there are rainy days, they are good for some reading, hanging out, maybe having a smoke or two. 🚬 Plus doing some cooking. 👩🍳 And ice cream is certainly good when it’s hot. 🍨
The weatherman says it’s a lot less humid out there, and it’s going to drop today, but I wouldn”t exactly call this morning’s commute refreshing and it still was pretty humid throughout the night at home, maybe from all that rain we got last evening.
Last night was a real soaker for the evening commute. 🌧 I didn’t bring my rain coat for riding home, but it wouldn’t have helped. It wasn’t raining when I left my office, but by the time I rode downtown 🚲 the water was over the curbs in parts of the road. I guess it was a free bike wash, but then again, it’s was more then the bike that got washed. I got to the bus, and the driver, said just get on, bike and all, you looked a bit soaked.
The ride in this morning was drier, 🪵 they’re cutting up the tree blocking part of the bike path this morning. DIdn’t get in the office quite as early this morning, 📂 but still early enough that I shouldn’t have to use time for non-legislative work as I’ll have my hours for the week. Last night, I was in bed a little after 7 PM 🛌 as I’ve been getting up earlier and after getting so soaked, I just kind of wanted to bed down and listen to some podcasts and relax. I prefer getting up early when it’s cooler out. On vacation though I’ll probably stay up later, as the sun still doesn’t set to relatively late, and I want to spend evenings watching the stars by Foster Pond 🐸 especially now that my new phone works well with the star mapping app. 📱
Still chewing over weekend plans, 🏕 I am thinking about staying local, and probably just hammock camping on Saturday night, maybe finding a creek to soak in and do some reading 📚 and maybe just do a single night in the woods. I was in Schoharie last weekend, and I’m not sure if I want to do Vermont or the Adirondacks, especially if I’m leaving on Thursday or Friday of next week for the Finger Lakes. I should spend some time cleaning and preparing for my vacation this weekend. 💼 Plus it wouldn’t be a bad thing to ride to work on Friday, as I haven’t been doing as much riding this week due to the humidity and bad weather. 😅
Well, a week from now after work I could be on my way to the Finger Lakes, but I’ll probably wait until early Friday to leave. 🛻 Very early Friday … BEFORE rush hour. For the Love of Bacon 🥓 opens at 7 AM, so I just can’t get to Interstate 88 before then, but other then that I want to be to Ithaca before the lunch time rush hour. I might also stop at Annuto’s but that doesn’t open until 9 AM I think and I am not 100% sold on it… it’s better in the autumn obviously.
I want to get camp set up early, because we don’t have coverage in the office in the afternoon, 👩💼 so I want to be set up at camp before I have to remote into the system. 🤖 Plus I have a very specific campsite in mind at the National Forest for the week. 🌲 And I need time to stock up at a farm stands. 🍇 🌽 Note that’s plural.
I’ve considered leaving Thursday evening and going out to Long Pond in Greene 🏕 but its a pain to overnight one night with a full week’s worth of toys and gear packed in the truck, and by the time you get started in the morning, it won’t save that much time, if I leave very early on Friday. ⏲ Plus, I want to make sure I have enough bacon. Granted, I could go to the Piggery in Ithaca. 🐷
