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.
Day four of summer vacation. Cool start to the morning with the breeze but it should warm up later on.
Mostly sunny and 62 degrees at the Finger Lakes National Forest. There is a south-southeast breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 61 degrees.
The coffee ☕ is percolating, birds 🐦 chirping and cows 🐮 are mooing with a gentle breeze this morning. 🌅 Going to be pretty hot later on – I need to finish up some work stuff down at the Watkins Glen library at 11 then I’ll probably do a hike and swim 🏊♂️ and hang out the Watkins Glen Park until 6 pm, get some ice cream 🍦and return to camp. ⛺
As planned, yesterday was a pretty quiet day 😴 with a lot of hammock time, some fishing 🎣, reading 📖 and a hike up to the top of Hector Backbone. By afternoon it was hot, muggy with that gray glare that often dominates on those not super nice sultry summer days. 💻 Also spent a few hours doing work things on my laptop and sat and watched it get dark by Foster Pond.
While gas prices are my excuse, taking every other day or so to do things around camp ⛺ just makes vacation less hectic. I have plenty of battery 🔋 bank and solar to work such schedule and it saves on having to spend so much time moving things around in the truck. That said, two days is about the maximum I can expect for the ice at camp.
I need to get ice and milk 🥛 this morning and then I will head down to the Watkins Glen library to work. Such a nice morning so I want to maximize it. But first I should get some firewood as I think I want to have a fire 🔥 this evening after star gazing at Foster Pond. ✨
I think Wednesday I will hike Enfield Glen and swim 🏊♂️ there. I have a 9:30 work call I need to do in the morning but after that I should have the rest of the day. Assuming Enfield Glen swimming is open, which I’ll have to check in advance as it often closes due to turbidity and other water quality issues.
You should get vaccinated against COVID-19. While getting vaccinated isn’t fun and you want feel miserable after your second shot for a day it worth it as because getting COVID-19 and ending up in the hospital is no fun. Now more than ever its super easy to get a shot – no more playing with a state website, trying to get an appointment in a massive civic center to get your arm jabbed. Just walk in to any pharmacy. It’s free.
That said, I don’t like the idea of mandating the shot. People should have a wide range of choices over their bodies, they shouldn’t be treated like regulated property of the state. Getting vaccinated might have some marginal benefit to the interest of the state in the form of fewer virus mutants and spread, but the primary reason for getting vaccinated is to protect yourself and not others.
I usually buy the. 5 lb boxes of Aunt Jemima pancake mix at Wally World as it’s relatively inexpensive and makes better pancakes then the Wally World brand and the box tends to hold up better when camping. I like to buy in bulk, as it saves money and is less garbage to get rid of – and fewer trees wasted.
I had heard a while back that they were replacing the Aunt Jemima banding with Pearl Milling Company branding. Honestly, I don’t care if the pancakes are still good. I eat the pancakes, the fire doesn’t care what the label reads when it becomes trash and I burn it. I know some people in Syracuse were offended when they thought their beloved characters – the black state fair pancake maker – was removed from the box for purposes of political correctness.
Maybe Aunt Jemima has a good innocent back story, the wholesome legend or maybe it’s a throwback to the era of reconstruction when dumb hick looking illustrations of African Americans were used to sell the output of massive industrial factories. But probably that debate is irrelevant to the marketers of the brand. They wanted to sell their product as a more high end pancake mix, and the Pearl Milling Company name combined with eventual changes to the packaging.
Ultimately, packaging and branding is just trash. Something that might catch your eye at the store but is soon to be tossed in a burning barrel, buried in a landfill or maybe bailed up and sent to China in hope of being re-pulped and used as low grade filler in future cardboard boxes.
Night before dawn is 5 hours and 25 minutes, Dawn starts at 5:25 am and runs for 30 minutes, Sunrise is at 5:56 am which is 6 hours and 3 minutes before noon, High noon, the transit of the sun, is at 1:12 pm, From twelve noon to the sunset at 8:29 pm is 8 hours and 29 minutes, Dusk lasts for 29 minutes concluding at 8:59 pm, Leaving 3 hours and 0 minutes until midnight.
Definitely though not as hot and sunny as back in Albany and it’s always pretty nice up here on Hector Backbone. Not a lot of rain in the forecast though it’s actually not super dry in this part of the Finger Lakes. It’s probably drier back in Albany. But not so wet that everything is mud like often is the case up here where the soils are shallow above the bedrock.
Today. Feels like …
August 14th.
Mostly sunny.
Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph in the afternoon.
and
82 degrees
,60 max dew point,
8:29
sunset.
Tonight. Hot !
Partly cloudy.
South wind around 6 mph.
and
66 degrees
,62 max dew point,
5:57
sunrise.
Monday. Feels like …
July 15th.
Sunny.
South wind 5 to 10 mph.
and
84 degrees
,64 max dew point,
8:28
sunset.
Monday Night. Muggy !
A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy.
South wind around 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
and
69 degrees
,66 max dew point,
5:58
sunrise.
Tuesday. Feels like …
August 28th.
A slight chance of showers before 8am, then a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms between 8am and 2pm. Mostly sunny.
Northwest wind 6 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
and
80 degrees
,67 max dew point,
8:27
sunset.
Tuesday Night. Feels like …
July 31st.
Mostly clear.
and
62 degrees
,62 max dew point,
5:59
sunrise.
Wednesday. Hot !
Sunny.
and
87 degrees
,61 max dew point,
8:25
sunset.
Wednesday Night. Hot !
Partly cloudy.
and
72 degrees
,64 max dew point,
6:00
sunrise.
Thursday. Muggy !
Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm, mainly after 2pm. Partly sunny.
Chance of precipitation is 60%.
and
90 degrees
,70 max dew point,
8:24
sunset.
Thursday Night. Muggy !
Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 8pm, then a chance of showers. Mostly cloudy.
I don’t know, I don’t care I’m on vacation. I have a vague idea that Labor Day Weekend is five weeks away but for now on vacation I refuse to acknowledge that fact. Another beautiful low humidity day in the Finger Lakes before the heat pushes in later in the week.
Mostly sunny ☀ and 60 degrees at the Finger Lakes National Forest. Calm wind. The dew point is 58 degrees.
Nice morning but I already see the clouds pushing in. 🌥 Might be a good afternoon for fishing 🎣. I also need to edit that report for work. That was part of the deal with getting this week off from work – all six days. For two full weekends and the campsite ⛺ that I wanted.
Today I’m sticking around camp, maybe fish Foster or Potomac Ponds, 🎣 do a little hiking, hang out read and listen to podcasts. 📚 My coolers are full after today, so I can make a good lunch and dinner. 🍔 I woke up much too early but I’ve gotten so used to early rising.
That said, I believe vacation need not be rushed 😎 and that’s how I plan to do things this year. Enjoy the nice days, get out and see things but not feel like I have to visit every park 🏞 and water fall in the Finger Lakes.
Last night I saw four shooting stars until I decided to head back to camp. ✨ It was a nice starry night but the lights from the froggers kind of blinded me after staring into the darkness into the evening. Plus after a hot day at the Watkins Glen pool then hiking along Rock Cabin Road in Watkins Glen I was fairly tired.
Group of people out on the pond with headlamps, shorts and spears out frogging. 🐸 They had a fire on the shore which looked so yellow compared to the stars and the bright white LED headlamps reflected off the the water. 🔥 The fireflies flickered a bright yellow. 🐝 Usually see the froggers here most years on the weekends. Nice evening though.
I got my fishing 🎣 license renewed yesterday so I can legally fish 🐠 all day in Foster Pond. I patched the inner tube and will inflate it later and head out on the pond. And maybe go for a hike somewhere. To be decided. Summer vacation. 🏖
