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.
Good afternoon! Happy Saturday from the Finger Lakes.
First full day of vacation, though I got a pretty early start on Friday and was actually setting up camp by noontime on Friday, followed by light work by email and some drinking.
Mostly sunny and 77 degrees at the Aunt Sarah’s Falls. ☀ There is a northwest breeze at 10 mph. 🍃 with gusts up to 20 mph 💨💨💨. The dew point is 58 degrees.
Today I’m out hiking a bit of the Catharine Valley Rail Trail 🚂 and Aunt Sarah’s Falls and then I’m going to head over to Watkins Glen State Park to swim 🏊♂️ for a while. The park is usually crowded on the weekend but I have my place where I like to park and hopefully the full pool will be open. 🍧 Then I’ll get ice cream and sit down by Seneca Lake for a while then head back to camp.
While it’s not super dry in the Finger Lakes where I am 💧there isn’t a lot of water going over Aunt Sarah’s Falls. The birds 🐦 are fairly ordinary on Catharine Creek Marsh today, a lot of bicyclist 🚴 on the rail trail. Not a race weekend 🏎 but still pretty busy down in the village today.
This year cutting back a little bit on day trips due to price of gas and those hills where I swear I see the needle drop as a climb them. ⛽Figure alternate each day between camp and heading to town, works well with the ice. Trying to keep my fuel bill under $250 for vacation but still get out and do things but not feel rushed.
I actually got good gas mileage coming out to the Finger Lakes. 🛻That’s despite having the kayak 🛶 on the roof of my Big Jacked Up truck. I tried to avoid using passing gear climbing the hills, traffic was light on a Friday morning and I climbed the hills at 35-45 mph and took my foot off the gas as soon as I reached the summit. Even on Interstate 88 I rarely hit 60 but to be fair the road was mostly under construction and posted at 55.
That said, on Friday it was a nice leisurely drive out to the Finger Lakes. 🚜 I like seeing all the farms and small towns, the run down and somewhat disorderly homesteads along the hills and the deep valleys. I’m not a big fan of NY 206 and NY 78 especially near Ithaca due to the traffic and hot to trot drivers but on a Friday morning unlike a weekend it was very quiet. I got to camp around noon time Friday.
Spent most of Friday afternoon setting up camp. ⛺ I figured if I am going to stay here all nine nights might as well get it set up nice. Ended up camping at my usual site on Chicken Co-op Road 🐔 (as my GPS calls it), which was good as I need cell service 📱 so I can text and email 📧 for work. Kind of a working vacation scheduled this year. Busy year with all those political campaigns going on.
The mud is wallow into this campsite is getting deep 🐽 so I trenched it out, draining it out and then finding rocks and mud in the woods to fill it in. It’s still kind of soft and a mess but I think with the dry weather and the water mostly drained end ditched off things should improve over the week. I figure I can keep adding rock to fill it in more as needed.
At this point tomorrow I should be ready to head out to the Finger Lakes. Going to be a hot week, but the gorges should be cool.
Cloudy and 72 degrees at the Elm Ave Town Park. ☁ There is a south-southeast breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 63 degrees. The skies will clear around 10 am.
I’ve been doing a little packing for vacation 🏖 but truth be told there is only so much I can do in advance. I need food, 🍔 personal supplies 🪥 and clothes 👚 to wear in the mean time and a lot of my camping 🏕 gear is already in my truck.
Tomorrow I want to leave by 7 am 🌅 so to avoid the heaviest traffic in the Capital Region and get out to the Finger Lakes by around noon to hopefully get the campsite I want. Plus I just want to get set up so I can relax and come Saturday hit up the swimming 🏊 pool in Watkins Glen maybe after a vigorous hike in the gorge to build up some sweat.
They must have a real problem with crashes on the Wine Trail NY 414. 🍷
I see this year that they have posted literally every mile along there a caution sign that reads:
Watch for Turning Vehicles Wineries
And they’ve reduced the speed limit to 50 mph.
Then again I can see the problem. Once or twice I’ve come over one of the many blind hills, barreling along at sixty miles per hour, slammed on my brakes as there is a driver going like 25 mph, eyes glazed over wondering if they should do one more wine tasting before before sloshing their car back to their motel room.
There is probably a reason why Cayuga and Schuyler Counties lead the state in per capita drunk driver crashes.
No complaints about that. Hot and dusty yet but better than some really wet summers. Not a lot of thunderstorms for a summer week. I will probably need to get ice every other though with the heat.
Today. Hot !
Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, mostly sunny.
Light and variable wind.
and
86 degrees
,59 max dew point,
8:22
sunset.
Tonight. Hot !
A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2am. Mostly cloudy.
Calm wind. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
and
66 degrees
,64 max dew point,
5:41
sunrise.
Thursday. Muggy !
Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 4pm. Partly sunny.
Light south wind increasing to 6 to 11 mph in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
and
86 degrees
,69 max dew point,
8:21
sunset.
Thursday Night. Muggy !
A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm, then a slight chance of showers between 11pm and 1am. Mostly cloudy.
West wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
and
65 degrees
,67 max dew point,
5:42
sunrise.
Friday. Feels like …
August 3rd.
A chance of showers.
Calm wind becoming west 5 to 8 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Good morning! What day is it? One more morning until summer vacation of course.
Another cool and crisp almost fall like morning, pretty beautiful. Going to be stormy tomorrow then much more hot and humid for my vacation.
Mostly sunny and 58 degrees at the Elm Ave Park and Ride. ☀ Calm wind. The dew point is 57 degrees.
I did some packing for vacation 💼 but truth be told there isn’t a lot to pack except for the night before tomorrow. I will probably not go shopping until I’m actually on vacation as then I’ll have a better idea what I want to eat. 😋 Did some minor cleaning and general preparation. But there is only so much that I can do and I was tired 😴.
I did walk 🚶 down to the park 🏞 for a while yesterday but didn’t stay too long as it was getting dark earlier and was kind of buggy. Read for a while at home 📙 and then went to bed 🛏 pretty early. On summer vacation I plan to stay up later. Sunset is later in the Finger Lakes too.
I noticed that the accessory batterybank 🔋 wasn’t fully charged on Monday evening but I think the issue was the truck was parked in the shade at the shop and didn’t get a good charge. I checked yesterday and despite being parked in the shade and the battery partially full, the solar put 77 watt hours into the system. So I think it’s fine.
Going to be hot and sunny 🌞 for the summer vacation. Probably gorge hiking will be reserved for the AM and a lot of swimming 🏊 in the afternoon. Gas prices have come down somewhat and I’m more inclined to bring my kayak 🛶 even if it ends up being parked at camp for a lot of the vacation. Only going out to the Finger Lakes this time and taking the most direct route so I figure I can away with with $350 in fuel ⛽ or three tank full. A sign of the times. I can bitch about inflation or having to work so hard but I make a lot of money compared to years ago.
I have a feeling it will be so dusty in the Finger Lakes 🌫️ being such a dry summer but I figure I will wear a bandana when walking the dirt roads and cover my mouth. Kind of like the COVID years. I will probably also want to top off my windshield reservoirs and want to keep my fires relatively small 🔥 and make sure they are out cold before bed.
I decided to take the fastest and most direct route to the Finger Lakes on Friday 🛻 so I can hopefully get the campsite I want early, set up, have the hammock up and crack open a beer 🍻 before too late in the afternoon. Saturday probably spend the bulk of the day swimming 🏊.
My vacation plans are unordinary, ⛺ although I always find a few new things to explore. I’m kind of just tire and burnt out and just want some quiet time to read 📖 books and swim, do some hiking in gorges before it’s too hot out. 🏊♂️ I think this year I want to explore the gorges in Ithaca I’ve not done like the one on the Cornell campus and maybe the botanical gardens there. Probably swim one day in Enfield Glen just for the picture 🖼. I think it might be too hot for a lot of hiking though, although I doubt the trails at Sugar Hill would be real muddy this year though the horse 🐴 shit 💩 might stink in the heat.
