John Boyd Thacher State Park

Maybe we are day past the official full moon but turning onto Potomac Road from Searsburg Road, the moon rise was most impressive and so large looming over the pasture lands. Not sure if it’s a super moon but it certainly was super from the angle I was viewing it high from the Hector Backbone looking down towards Cayuga Lake.

Good morning! What day is it? Hump Day, of course. Mostly sunny and 62 degrees at the Finger Lakes National Forest. There is a south breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 53 degrees. Cool start to the morning, I got chilled through wearing shorts and t-shirt, had to get my hoodie on to warm up. The cold is delaying my start this morning but I want to leave fairly soon as today is the calmest forecasted day of the week and I want to go paddling 🛶 and swimming 🏊 on Seneca Lake before the wind picks up later.

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 76 degrees at 4pm. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 11th. Maximum dew point of 53 at 9am. South wind 3 to 5 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 89 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1975.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:14 pm with sun having an altitude of 65.3° from the due south horizon (-5.5° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.8 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:48 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (289°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (295°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:28 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 12 seconds with dusk around 8:58 pm, which is one minute and 10 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:39 pm. At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 69 degrees. The dew point will be 54 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 7 mph. Today will have 14 hours and 29 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 12 seconds over yesterday.

Long day yesterday, I didn’t get back to camp ⛺ until nearly 9:15 pm as I was in Geneva until after 8 pm and stopped in search of clams, Greek yogurt and milk at Tops in Waterloo. 🏪 But still the sunset is pretty late in the Finger Lakes but by the time I was past Ovid heading into Lodi it was definitely approaching dusk. 🌆 That said the open landscape helped a lot keeping things from being too dark as I drove back to camp. But regardless I was tired 😴. I was so fortunate to see last night’s moon rise.

Rode from Seneca Lake to Kueka Lake yesterday via the Kueka Outlet Trail. 🚲 Touched both lakes with the wheel of my bicycle. It’s a lot quicker of a ride then when I walked it. Poked around Dresden and Penn Yan for a while 🏫 I was very impressed with the Downtown on Penn Yann, it was largely untouched by urban renewal 🏗️ and still had many vibrant small businesses and shops. 🍬

I ended up driving 🚘 back to Penn Yan after getting Frozen Custard 🍦at the Spotted Duck 🦆 because I decided I had to visit the Penn Yan old fashioned bulk candy shop. I was going to get fudge but ended up getting black chocolate 🍫 peanut 🥜 brittle that I’m saving for a future day. That place is a throwback not many places like that anymore, especially on Main Street. Reminded me of the old Blue Churn in South Westerlo I used to go to as a kid before it burned down. Spotted duck blueberry Blue Fluer custard was good, the Carmelt caramel custard was amazing. 🍦 Maybe it’s vacation FOMO but who knows when I’ll ever get back to Penn Yan again.

The ice cream was wonderful 🍦 and the two scoups – duck egg 🥚 sized each, wasn’t too much but the sugar fueled a full out anxiety attack in my mind and kept me roaring with crazy 🤪 energy well into the evening though by 11 pm enough sugar burned off I was okay. Truth is I’ve been having a wonderful vacation ☺ but every time I consume any quantity of non natural sugar I get so sick 🤮. But I’ll probably get a small ice cream at Glen Dairy Bar again tonight and remember the crazy thoughts in my head are just that. But not a mega large dish 🍨like on Sunday. Go for the quality not the portion. I don’t know if it’s my fear 😱 of the calories and getting fat, knowing how bad sugar is for you, or something else but my mental health is so much better the farther I stay away from added sugar. I’m fine eating delicious fruit all day long 🍇 🍏 🍑 but give me ice cream and a few minutes later I’m super wound up.

With all that energy, I drove up to Seneca Lake State Park in Geneva, 🏊‍♂️ hoping to get a swim in the lake and a shower 🚿 the later I did but I had forgotten they a few years back had replaced the life guarded beach 🏖 with a kids splash pad due to the pollution on the lake from blue green algea. Hell of it is, this part of state has been cool and relatively dry so not a lot of water pollution this year compared to many years. But I also wangtted to do the Cayuga – Seneca Bike Path 🚲 from Geneva to Waterloo, as much to say I did it. And to use time up. 🌽 Not a lot of exciting view along it, some view of both the Old Erie Canal and the modern barge canal, lot of marshland, corn and soybean fields. Poked around Waterloo for a while 🇺🇸 and visited the Civil War monument. 🦳 Ended up going to Tops in Waterloo on Mound Road, you know the one next to Seneca Meadows landfill and getting milk, plain non fat yogurt not Greek as they’re out, and a small two servings bag of salmon. Made it back to camp by nine o’clock, wasn’t super dark out at that point and had a fire 🔥 until eleven.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌃, with a low of 60 degrees at 6am. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around August 20th. Maximum dew point of 54 at 8pm. South wind 7 to 14 mph. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 64 degrees. The record low of 44 occurred back in 1976.

Cool this weekend with temperatures running 9 degrees below normal but otherwise sunny. 😃 Then again it’s always cooler in the Finger Lakes compared to Albany records. Good for bike riding, maybe not so great for swimming 🏊. Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 73. Maximum dew point of 59 at 8am. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 75. Maximum dew point of 59 at 7pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 83 degrees.

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Average High Falls To 79 ️Degrees ⛱️️️ when the sun will be setting at 7:46 pm with dusk at 8:14 pm. On that day in 2022, we had rain and temperatures between 90 and 66 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 80 degrees. We hit a record high of 98 back in 1953.