There are 80 designated campsites in Cattaraugus County in following state forests …
This listing provides the total number of campsites in each forest along with a link to map and photos of forest.
Here is a listing of the individual campsites. The road indicates the nearest road, links on state forest go to DEC website for more information, while the location link takes you to ACME Mapper to see the exact location …
The cliche that got a lot of people mad at me at the end of 2022 was saying, “years don’t really matter much, decades matter much more”. To make people even madder at my, I pointed out years are only meaningful in how they contribute to the decade. A whole is the sum of it’s parts. But that’s so true.
One thing I’m seeing over and over about healthy eating, it’s much like investing and personal finance. Each little investment isn’t that much in the grand scheme of things, you will never have a secure future or retirement with one investment. But over time, that buck or two here and there, every day adds up. Likewise, each calorie consumed adds on to the waistline, each unhealthy food eaten leads you closer and closer to an untimely death.
Future goals are big and distant, as they are the sum of so many parts. But each part is meaningful as it contributes to the future. It’s true that life is like a flywheel in an engine, an occasional misfire here and there won’t add up to much. But that should not be an excuse for operating an engine that is regularly misfiring, as damage accumulates. People often think it’s okay to give excuses for occasional misdeeds or misfires — that occasional slice of cake or cup of store bought coffee– some liberties to lighten life up, but that is a dangerous practice.
There are things out of your control that you can’t address — like the a downturn in the market or that cup of coffee on the road you need to stay alert to drive home safely. Maybe you have to go out and have an unhealthy meal with some friends. But you should avoid incidental bad behaviors whenever possible. Misfiring in an engine is harmful, as it to your goals. Just because you can survive an occasional misfire, doesn’t mean you should build into your life.
The best thing when it comes to self-improvement is automation. I have a set investment and savings plan, I rarely look at it or give it much thought. A few times a year, I’ll check on my net worth but normally the money comes out of my paycheck and is invested. Each morning I go for a walk at 6:15 AM and each evening at 7:00 PM, regardless of weather, because it’s important to get my default 10,000 plus steps in. Likewise, I just make it the default option to buy healthier foods, and follow the one bowl or plate rule. As I don’t eat out often at all, whatever I buy is what I end up eating. I continue to learn to be a better cook and eater, but it’s not because I intend to be thinking about it non-stop, but because I want to make sensible defaults that make eating healthier the default option.
A lot of people think it takes willpower or effort to do the right thing. But that’s not the truth. If you want to do something, it’s best to automate it and give it as little thought as possible. And just move forward.
When traveling for work I can usually get reimbursed for one meal a day along with lodging. But I usually don’t get food because I’m not a real big fan of restaurant food.🍝 I don’t really find it pleasant to eat out, especially when I am traveling alone and I don’t like all the waste and packaging for take out. I also think fast food is just plain gross, 🍟it’s all grease and not very filling. It’s not something I’m used to eating at any rate.
But even at home I almost never eat out. Maybe because I’m single but it also just seems kind of weird trusting strangers to cook your food.🍳 I also am trying to save money wherever possible for my future off grid cabin.💰 Five or ten bucks doesn’t sound like much, but I’m trying to save money wherever possible. While I do often buy lightly packaged per-cooked food at home, and I’m no chef, I would rather do the cooking myself then rely on others.👨🍳
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This book I am reading makes a good point about the Midwest – the land is cheap, people are friendly and laid back, zoning and codes regulations tend to be much less with less enforcement. Conservative cultural norms are more laid back, preferring that government stay off people’s land and out of private businesses.
Building and living in an off-grid ‘tiny’ house or cabin is much easier when you don’t have to deal with nearly as aggressive of code inspectors. Buying a handgun or other firearm for hunting and personal protection is just as easy – fill out the federal paperwork, have them do a quick background check, and pay the cashier, and walk out with your new gun. Outhouses and composting toilets are easier to get approved, if there is any review at all. As long as there isn’t a high fire risk, you’re free to burn your trash and debris, typically with no permit. Off-road shops, ATVs, snowmobiles, and alike abound, often with a good trail system to ride not too far from home. Good-sized white tails, geese, ducks for hunting and other wildlife abound in the rural landscape.
The flip side, as the book notes, is the Midwest is mostly flat or with rolling hills. There aren’t the big mountains to hike, the state forests and national forests are much smaller part of the landscape – and often far away. The distances are spread out, they mean a lot of driving to get to work, shopping, or healthcare. Much of the Midwest is gritty and industrial, with lots of big farms and industry in cities and surrounding areas. Farmers for the most part don’t care what you do on your land, but recognize they have a business to do and that includes spreading manure and applying pesticides their fields, sometimes late at night with big loud tractors. Cows can be noisy, even if they are fun to watch graze. Hunters hunt, they have loud guns. People love shooting. I get it, I grew up in the country. I like doing many of those things too.
I am not one for conservative politics per se. If anything, I have become less political in recent years, focused on my own life concerns, making and saving money. I actually kind of like the idea of living in a culture that is less politically liberal, one more focused on natural resources and using them efficiently. Is there a thread in conservative politics that is entirely irresponsible and not based in reality? Sure, but it’s hard for a farmer, a hunter, and outdoors-man not to love and respect the resources that produce for them.
Walking in the Albany Pine Bush this afternoon, I was thinking how much I miss spending nights in the wilderness. Those open canopies, like Moose River Plains or even Confusion Flats in the Western Adirondacks are special. While I have a trip planned for 2 1/2 weeks from now, it’s seems like that could be an eternity. I guess I could out somewhere sooner, although the issue would be that there is still a lot of snow up north and the next few weekends I expect to be fairly busy. But it’s obvious that nicer weather is heading our way, and I fully expect to spend more nights in the near future out in the wilderness.
By mid-day it was absolutely beautiful spring day, but alas the clouds started to push in and by evening the wind was roaring and there was an incredibly strong band of heavy rain that came blasting through everything and then it’s cold this morning.
I won’t say it was a complete waste of a weekend, 😎 as I enjoyed the ride out to Hollyhock then Blodgett Hill in Coeymans. It was a bit cool to start out the day but by mid-day I shed the winter coat, especially after riding up Blodgett Hill then pushing the mountain bike up part of way up the steepest part of the hill. Couldn’t really ride 💪all the way up due to drainage breaks they’ve dug into the logging road. I don’t know, you’re probably not supposed to ride a mountain bike in a Wildlife Management Area, though I stayed on roads and truck trails, except maybe that short section of the blue trail, but going up I mostly pushed the bike up the hill.
Generated so much heat with the front rotator on the bike that it started smoking 🚲 — literally 👩🚒 as I rode down Blodgett Hill. I rode the brakes hard going down to the logging rode down the north-side as there was many water breaks to cross then rode the brakes to go slowly down the blue trail but it wasn’t until I picked up speed heading down the hill on County Highway that the brakes literally started smoking. The whole rotor was covered with a grayish-blackish smoke. Not sure if it was brake fluid I got on the rotator when it leaked when I changed the pads a few months back, or if it was a mixture of road and trail dust, leaves and deicing chemicals that burst into smoke when the rotator got really hot.
Of course now, my advertising feeds are full of ads for muffler shops. 👩🔧 Get the brake service you need at our shop! That said, if anything I am not sure if I need any service to bike, if anything the brakes preformed better once they got that hot, they stopped sqweaking. With a bit of chain wear, that new chain – well the one I found from old stock – is preforming well with only a bit of gear jumping at times so I’m going to hold off on replacing the cassette for a while even if I get it in the mail in next few days. I did get the chain wear measurement tool yesterday, and checked the chain wear. It was good but it’s something I’m going to check every time I grease the chain.
While this morning is cold and windy 🌬 I think I will ride out to Five Rivers for a while this morning. I do have hope though for spring sooner then later, and it might actually be a decent evening after visiting the folks to do a quick hike up Bennett Hill. Mom is cooking chicken and sweet potatoes for dinner, 🦃and I’ll do my wash out there and dump the compost buckets out there. And then this weekend will be done, and I’ll head to bed again. 🛌 I am just waiting for warmer weather and more meaningful weekends, spent out in the wilderness, though truth be cold it wasn’t a bad riding out to Blodgett Hill. It was nice seeing the Pitch Pines and Scrub Oaks up there, and that they’ve cleaned it up after the raspberries 🍓and other trash species crowding out the scrub oaks in recent years that have passed since the last controlled burn. I am so ready for a night in wilderness, not just to burn shit 🔥 and turn that junk mail and wrappers in carbon dioxide but also get my sanity back, 🤪 so I can be less extremely mentally ill. I doubt I’ll have be sane though, as I don’t worship the plastic crap that smells so bad when you toss in the fire. Just don’t tell a liberal. 🤫Just like I wasn’t riding my mountain bike on the logging trails at a WMA. 🏳️⚧️
It’s not like invasive species plan an invasion of an area. In many cases they don’t seek take over an area, kill native species, cause economic harm or job losses. Instead, they are just looking to survive and reproduce in a suitable habitat. Moreover calling something an invasive species rather than a introduced species is a very political statement – introduced species are defined by humans as being helpful rather than harmful.