Balsam Swamp is a sprawling state forest that stretches almost 5.5 miles east-west across 4 towns. The area is very rural, and the landscape surrounding the State Forest is predominantly forested. Balsam Swamp State Forest is comprised of a mix of native hardwood forests, hemlock swamps, and conifer plantations. There are no designated recreational trails on the forest, but there is ample opportunity for self-guided day hikes to explore the diversity of habitats represented on this State Forest. Additionally, the western section of Balsam Swamp State Forest is adjacent to Five Streams State Forest to the south.
The main attraction of this forest is Balsam Pond. The impoundment is approximately 152 acres and is a popular destination for fishing and paddle boat sports. Balsam Pond is a warm water fishery that contains a mix of largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, chain pickerel, yellow perch, brown bullhead and sunfish. Tiger muskellunge have been stocked in the past with the last stocking occurring in 1995. However, there have been very few reports of anglers catching any of the adult tiger muskies. A shallow gravel boat launch is suitable for launching small fishing boats.
A small rustic camp ground is also located at Balsam Pond. Camping spaces are available at no cost on a first-come, first-serve basis and there is no running water or electricity. A fire ring, outhouse, and picnic table are provided for each camping space. A sign on Balsam-Tyler Road in Pharsalia designates the entrance to the boat launch and camping facility. This is a carry-in carry-out facility. Please do not litter.
It turns out that things were in a place in the office that I could get away for Easter Weekend at 3pm before Good Friday and I took full advantage of it even though it meant setting up camp in the rain and the mud though by late evening it stopped and got fairly decent.
Mostly cloudy and 36 degrees at the Rensselaerville State Forest. 🌥 Breezy, ️21 mph breeze from the west-northwest 🌬 with gusts up to 31 mph 💨💨💨. The current wind chill is 25.
So far the wind hasn’t been as bad as they are warning ⚠ about but I’ve tried to stay in more protected areas. Some breeze last night especially earlier on in the evening 🍃 but nothing too major. More just damp in the evening.
That saidit’s cold ❄ but it’s still early April. Next week is going to be a lot warmer but the woods will be bone dry ☀ and the fire risk super high. 🔥 Plus next week I might have to work and it’s not a 3 day weekend.
The biggest change though is my choices for camp food 🍲. Cookies and beer are out, as are lumps of shredded cheese, hot dogs and crackers. In is water, apples and carrots 🥕 for snacks and for something more substantial brown rice, onions, peppers, asparagus and tofu. 🧅Oh do I like asparagus whenever they had it at various events but I never really cooked it for myself. Tomotoes, broccoli and peppers. 🍅 Salmon probably for tonight. 🐠 Eggs 🥚 with all of the above minus carrots and a banana 🍌 this morning for breakfast. So tasty.
I am not missing the alcohol or the cookies 🍻 that much. It’s kind of nice not to be drunk all of the time and to wake up without a hangover. They used to be okay in my twenties but they got worse in my thirties and would be awful in my forties. 🤕 I feel like I have so much more energy ⚡ and aren’t so fully stuffed 🤰🏼while camping. It’s also nice to go to bed with a clear head and look at the stars.
No fire tonight 🏕️ due to the red flag 🚩 conditions though honestly the ground is still quite wet and soggy with all the rain and snow 🌨 that is left on the ground but it’s not worth the risk especially as I have the propane heater and lights I can use. Last night’s fire was so smokey 🔥 💨 from the wood being wet with things so soggy around here. Tonight I might go for a night hike to look at the stars with no fire to supervise.
Why Mass Shootings Should be Handled More Like Fatal Car Crashes 💥
It bothers me a lot how the politicians and the mass media love to belabor mass shootings to no end. The hours of television with the grieving parents and interviews with police really serve no purpose but as a the interruption to commence, education and every day life.
I was reading the other day how Israel handles terrorism – they arrest and prosecute the perpetrators – but also emphasize returning to normalcy after a terror event. People get blown up and killed, their bodies hauled away, families notified and the scene quickly restored to its prior status – blood cleaned up, bullet holes patched, damaged walls repaired. Life returns to normal within hours of a terrorist attack.
In America on contrast businesses often remain closed for an extended period, memorials are constructed, scars left exposed for the maximum time. It plays to the terrorists’ or shooter’s advantage – as they are able to extract their maximum harm to the public.
America does know how to quickly restore infrastructure and normalcy after many types of death and destruction. Fatal automobile crashes are often cleaned up and the highway fully reopened and restored within hours of the crash. The ambulance comes and takes away the deceased, the firefighters put out the fire and sweep up the broken glass, the tow truck tows away the junked car and the DOT replaces the smashed guard rail. The families who have lost grieve in private. Often news coverage is limited to reporting traffic delays due to lane closures – the fatality if reported at all is in passing.
Fatal car crashes aren’t completely forgotten even as normalcy is quickly restored. Every one is carefully logged by police and placed in the FARS database – which is carefully examined for highway safety improvements and potential changes to the design of automobiles to enhance safety. FARS is also used in a thoughtful way to decide if changes are needed to laws to make roads safer. But FARS isn’t emotional, it doesn’t glorify crashes or their victims. It’s statistics gets news coverage but doesn’t make profits for news media or the police.
Losing a loved one is sad. People should grieve in private and be taken care of to make sure their needs are met. But instead of glorifying terrorists and shooters, the priority should be normalcy and quickly restoring order rather than belaboring private tragedies.
Good morning! Happy Thursday. Feeling good after saying no. 🌧️
I’m really starting to understand what it must feel like when you quit smoking cigarettes, especially back in the 1970s when everybody smoked. The impacts of a healthier lifestyle I’mstarting to feel, as is my sense of taste growth and I slim down but people keep trying to hand me cigarettes for just one smoke, or in my case foods loaded with sugar, salt and fat. Like my investments and everything else in my life, change takes too long but real change takes months, years and even decades. Mission Fifty. 8 ¾ miles walked yesterday.
Cloudy, damp and 52 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☔ There is a south-southeast breeze at 8 mph. 🍃. I don’t know it feels stronger than that. The dew point is 50 degrees.
Yesterday was a surprisingly busy day 🏢 which was good. Made the time go by quickly. Cut my finger 🖕 on some glass 🍸 I was going through in the recycle ♻. Since eating healthier there is so much less trash though more compost. Went to the store and gassed up my truck so I’m in good shape to leave come the weekend. ⛽ Gas prices have jumped back up again a bit with the oil production cut and summer coming sooner rather then later. But I do want to travel a bit, and plan to make the most I can out of summer 😎 while it lasts. And get out what useful use I can from Big Red. I might do more hiking this year, and more back country adventures, especially as my strength and abilities improve. 💪
Carrots 🥕 have replaced cookies 🍪 for camping, among other changes. It is going to be a different camping 🏕 without all the alcohol and calories, but I am actually looking forward to embracing the healthier lifestyle. 💪 Also looking forward to frying up that asparagus 🥬 and onions 🧅 I got and all kinds of other taste-rich things. I can’t do the frozen thing while camping, so it will be fresh fruits and vegetables rather then flash-frozen which I normally eat a home. 😋 Still changes it up a bit.
I don’t think I’ll get bailed out for Good Friday 👐 but maybe if I ask the parole officer nicely they’ll grant me early release by 4 pm for good behavior. That said, I think it will be too dry and windy for a fire on Friday night and might be rather cold for camping 🏕. Next weekend looks nicer at any rate.
Today is expected to be cold, damp, maybe rainy. ☔
It was definitely raining real hard out last night. 🌧 This morning it stopped for the walk 🏃 but I wouldn’t be surprised if it rains some more before the day is done. It’s good as I think we might have red flag conditions 🚩 with that wind come Friday, though I tend to think the ground won’t dry out that quickly, and we’ve had a fair amount of moisture lately, though the dew point will be pretty low tomorrow, Good Friday. ☦
I really want to get out of town this weekend, 🐰 but I’m not sure how far I will travel. My truck is getting serviced on Monday, so I would like to wash it by the end of the weekend. 👩🔧 I actually spilled some salt on my truck’s bumper unloading it last night, as I doubt I’ll need it before spring, and while I swept it off, it would be best to clean it up well in the mean time. 🚿
Today. Feels like … May 1st.
A chance of showers, mainly after 11am. Mostly cloudy.
South wind 7 to 14 mph becoming northwest in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
and
66 degrees
,55 max dew point,
7:28 sunset.
Tonight. Feels like … April 21st.
A slight chance of showers before 9pm. Mostly cloudy.
Northwest wind 9 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
and
39 degrees
,
6:25 sunrise.
☦ Good Friday. Feels like … March 28th.
Partly sunny.
Breezy, with a northwest wind 15 to 21 mph, with gusts as high as 36 mph.
and
50 degrees
,
7:29 sunset.
Friday Night. Feels like … March 26th.
Mostly cloudy.
Northwest wind 7 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph.
It’s already marching towards New York City having covered much of New Jersey from latest satellite imagery. Going to be nice, though Good Friday looks cold. ❄
Days are getting longer but that sun and warmer weather will feel great. I’ve had the windows open a few days this year and the heat has been off for a few weeks now but I’m looking forward to quality sleep with those windows open. And doing more traveling and camping 🏕.
Today. Feels like …
March 24th.
Cloudy.
Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming south 11 to 16 mph in the morning.
and
48 degrees
,
7:26
sunset.
Tonight. Feels like …
May 7th.
A chance of showers before 3am, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms between 3am and 5am, then a chance of showers after 5am. Cloudy.
South wind 10 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
and
45 degrees
,
6:27
sunrise.
Thursday. Feels like …
April 28th.
A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1pm, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm between 1pm and 2pm, then showers likely after 2pm. Mostly cloudy.
South wind 6 to 10 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
and
65 degrees
,54 max dew point,
7:28
sunset.
Thursday Night. Feels like …
April 26th.
A chance of showers, mainly before 8pm. Partly cloudy.
Northwest wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
and
41 degrees
,
6:25
sunrise.
Friday. Feels like …
April 7th.
Mostly sunny.
Breezy, with a west wind 13 to 21 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph.
Good morning! What day is it? Hump Day, I’m afraid. 🐰
Maybe it’s just the too many dreams about evil rabbits after thinking what a healthy meat rabbit is. I’m actually more afraid that witch from Hamburg isn’t going to bail out my weekend plans. I’ve just gottenspoiled in recent years. But heck next week looks like when the green out will occur in the city with warmer weather on its way.
Cloudy and 49 degrees in Delmar for the morning walk. ☁ There is a north breeze at 5 mph. 🍃.
Yesterday worked out to be 8.9 miles walked 🚶 which is just short of the 9.1 that I did on Monday. Dinner took a little longer to cook and it got darker earlier than normal as it was cloudy out last night.
It’s kind of fun exploring new healthy foods 🍐 each week before going to stock my pantry. So many interesting unmolested whole foods that I didn’t know about, that exist on grocery shelves but only if you know where to look for them. And despite popular culture, you can enjoy their raw and often delicious tastes without frying them in a vat of fat, sugar and salt. Eating healthy is a lot like quitting smoking 🚬, you don’t realize how flavor sugar takes from food. Smoking is great but it makes everything tastes like cigarettes, hurts your voice and your sense of taste.
I’m fully operating on the assumption that I will be working in the office on Good Friday but maybe I’ll see if I can use an get out of jail free card 💳 to leave by 4 pm or earlier on Friday. I’d like to get out of town for at least two days, though at this point next weekend looks almost nicer. What can I say spring is coming? 🌸
