The Rattlesnake Hill Wildlife Management Area is a 5,100 acre upland tract, situated approximately eight miles west of Dansville, New York. Roughly two-thirds of the area lies in southern Livingston County, while the remaining third lies in northern Allegany County. The tract was purchased in the 1930’s under the Federal Resettlement Administration and is one of several such areas turned over to DEC for development as a wildlife management area.
The area is appropriately named after the Timber Rattlesnake, which may be occasionally found in the more remote sections of the “Hill”.
The area offers an interesting blend of upland habitats such as mature woodland, overgrown fields, conifer plantations, old growth apple orchards and open meadows.
The area is inhabited by a variety of game species and is open to public hunting. The white-tailed deer, wild turkey, ruffed grouse, grey squirrel, cottontail rabbit and woodcock are found on the area. An occasional snowshoe hare may be observed adjacent to thick creek bottom brush or conifer plantation habitats.
A number of small marsh units have been developed and provide limited hunting for waterfowl. Some of the area’s furbearing species such as mink, beaver and raccoon may be occasionally viewed at these marsh units.
“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. 🐷
Since Monday evening I’ve been watching the thermal sensors on my computer carefully, ever since I brought the laptop home, and it was complaining about the fan not properly spinning up on boot. Things are running a bit hot especially but actually within the recommended limits. I’ll have to see if I need to clean the fan or replace it, maybe this weekend but it’s working okay except when I push it hard.
Rode in at a little after 7 AM this morning, so I could be in the office by 8 AM to make sure I got my hours in for the week 🚲 as tomorrow I’ll be working downtown. Plus I had work to do. 📜 Just been so busy lately. Who knows what the weather will be like by evening, but I can suck it up and ride in the rain downtown to catch the express hoe if it’s bad or wait out a thunderstorm in my office. 🌩 At least riding in one way gets some exercise in. 💪 I am excited, my new business cards came in today. Why I didn’t order them before the vendor came in last month, or
Johnnycakes this morning with lots of onions and garlic from shauls. 🧄🧅 🥞 Topped them off with non-fat greek yogurt and included lot of tumeric. Also while on cooking with tumeric, I made up rice and creamy red lentils 🥟 which should make up a good lunch. I haven’t done many rice dishes lately, in part because it’s been kind of hot, and who wants a big pot cooking down on the stove, and because change is good, and because I still have too many carbs in my diet, especially when you consider how much oatmeal 🥣 I’ve been eating. Milled oats are so good with bananas but I”ve been eating so much of them lately. 🍌
If I didn’t have seven interviews scheduled for tomorrow and wasn’t a bit short on vacation time, and it didn’t look so stormy for the coming weekend, maybe I would have found a way to extend my weekend out in Schoharie for a few more days. It was nice, particularly at that Betty Brook site.
Turns out that I didn’t run out of propane this morning, 🔥 but instead I forgot to turn the tank back on this morning, and if I had done that I would have had enough fuel to make it through the morning. I guess it took a while to burn the fuel out of the lines in the hot weather, and I should have known that but I wasn’t thinking clearly. Must have been the pot I smoked last night. Always blame it on the drugs, and not my stupidity. At any rate, campfire breakfast was good. 🍳
It was nice at the car show 🚘 but a hot day for sure, with the sun beating down and humidity. Turns out the Fultonham Country Store next to Shauls — the ice cream stand — doesn’t open until 2 PM. 🍦I know that’s kind of lame, but so be it. Spend a lot of time soaking my feet down in the Schoharie Creek by Mine Kill before going to Shauls to get a few more produce things, 🌽 🍆 then the auto show and the pool. 🏊♀️
Doing my wash currently at my parents house 👕 I may see if I can if I can stay overnight to beat the heat and because it will probably be dark 🌆 before things are done. It won’t be bad sleeping in the truck camper with the fan running, then I can listen to podcasts or stream other content, kind of like I can do at home.
Going to be a hot week. 😅 But then again, that’s to be expected this time of year. Ten the heat breaks come mid-week. I’m just hoping things will get hot again for summer vacaton.
