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.
Stick a fork into its done, as they say about summer, high gas prices and just being so busy with work makes life kind of sucky these days.
Maybe I have an attitude problem but I am just focused on making it through to 2023, saving some money up, getting closer to my goals of owning my own land. I can see the finish line at this point, and every dollar I can avoid spending and instead investing the better.
Partly cloudy and 63 degrees in Delmar, NY. ⛅ Calm wind. The dew point is 61 degrees.
I decided against packing last night to head up north this weekend. 🏡 I was just super tired after a long day of meetings and number 🔢 analysis that stretched into the evening. I was going to go grocery shopping 🛒 but it was getting late, and I just couldn’t imagine running to the store, spending a shit ton of money on food, gas and beer, then packing my gear, and then driving an hour and a half in thunderstorms and pouring rain, to set up gear in the dark and wet, for a hot Saturday with the Potholers mostly dried up, then head home back home on Sunday. 😫 I am spoiled from the pandemic, remote work, and the many long weekends I’ve spent up north. But with work load these days, it’s not a good or realistic option, as I’m sure I”ll be getting emails and texts all weekend, and it’s just not responsible to ignore them all weekend.
I am not fully discounting heading out to Schoharie for this weekend on Saturday, 🏕 but I am not sure. It is still pretty expensive with the gas, and a lot of work to pack gear, and shop as I have virtually no food at home. Maybe it’s just better to stay home and just go to Thacher Park on the Nature Bus. 🚌 That is a free option, that would save like $100 with inflation these days – money 💵 that could be invested for a better tomorrow. On the other hand, if I could find somewhere nice to hike, that might be fun and then camp over night at Burnt Rossman and do a swim in the morning at Mine Kill. ⛰ But if I do go out there, it had to be for something novel and new — and memorable. Not spending $100 to swim in a free swimming pool, when I can use the town pool for $7.
That said, I am hoping next Friday to take off and head up north ⛺ for the Long Labor Day Weekend. Probably leave at sunrise 🌅 next Friday, set up camp early and possibly remote work 💻 part of the day. Saturday hike in the West Canada Lake Wilderness 🍁 possibly up Pillsbury Mountain Saturday night to see the fire tower lit up 🗼 for the tower lighting. From there you can see both the Wakely Tower and Snowy Mountain. 🕹 I want to get clams to boil in some beer, do some floating in the Jessup River or maybe some paddling in Lake Pleasant. I don’t think there will be enough water to do the Kujamunk or even the Sacandaga River out of the lake, unless I do a lot of portaging. 🛶
If you ever need to do GIS work with R using an remote ArcGIS server … you’ll like arcpullr
With arcpullr you can for example get a shapefile of Schenectady EDs with all of four lines of code, only one if you don’t count loading the libraries. It also can do seamless spatial queries using get_layer_by_polygon(), so you can pull only part of layer your interested in, which is good for large layers like tax maps.
Calm wind becoming northwest around 5 mph in the afternoon.
and
86 degrees
,65 max dew point,
7:43 sunset.
Tonight. Feels like … July 15th.
Partly cloudy.
Light and variable wind.
and
63 degrees
,64 max dew point,
6:12 sunrise.
Friday. Muggy !
A chance of showers before 9am, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms between 9am and 2pm, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 2pm. Partly sunny.
Southeast wind 6 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
and
85 degrees
,68 max dew point,
7:41 sunset.
Friday Night. Feels like … July 15th.
Showers and thunderstorms likely before midnight, then a slight chance of showers between midnight and 2am. Partly cloudy.
Light and variable wind. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
6:15 am sunrise – Sunday, August 28
6:30 am sunrise – Sunday, September 11
6:45 am sunrise – Sunday, September 25
7:00 am sunrise – Saturday, October 8
7:15 am sunrise – Friday, October 21
7:30 am sunrise – Wednesday, November 2 Standard Time Begins – Sunrise on Sunday, November 6 is at 6:34 am
6:45 am sunrise – Monday, November 14
7:00 am sunrise – Sunday, November 27
7:15 am sunrise – Monday, December 12 Latest Sunrise (Standard Time) – Tuesday, January 3 at 7:23 am
How fast the weeks come and go. Sun is rising noticeably later now though part of it I got a fairly early start.
Mostly sunny and 62 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☀ Calm wind. The dew point is 59 degrees. Not so humid, nice.
Yesterday was a super busy day 📄 with a million things to do and bringing work home and sitting down at the library outside with the laptop 💻 working until nine.
Got a phone call 📞 right when I was leaving work so I missed the express 🚌 home but the local was an electric bus ⚡ so that was fun. Got my steps 👣 in regardless.
Still chewing over my weekend plans ⛺ especially now that Friday looks more stormy and I can’t leave until around five and I don’t know how busy the weekend will be.
At one level I want to do one last trip to Piseco-Powley Road 🏊♂️ for the year if only because it would be a day away from the email 📧 and phone 📱. But it’s such a long trip with the high gas prices ⛽ and just two days. The pandemic and remote work got me spoiled.
I think we are done with the rain for a while and it looks like a nice late August.
Today. Feels like …
July 15th.
Sunny.
Light and variable wind becoming northwest 5 to 9 mph in the morning.
and
84 degrees
,67 max dew point,
7:44
sunset.
Tonight. Feels like …
August 20th.
Mostly clear.
Light and variable wind.
and
60 degrees
,
6:11
sunrise.
Thursday. Hot !
Sunny.
Calm wind becoming northwest 5 to 8 mph in the afternoon.
and
86 degrees
,64 max dew point,
7:43
sunset.
Thursday Night. Hot !
Mostly clear.
Light and variable wind.
and
64 degrees
,63 max dew point,
6:12
sunrise.
Friday. Muggy !
A slight chance of showers, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly sunny.
Calm wind becoming south 5 to 7 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
and
86 degrees
,65 max dew point,
7:41
sunset.
Friday Night. Feels like …
July 15th.
A chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 8pm. Mostly cloudy.
Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Good morning! What day is it? Hump Day, of course.
The answer is I don’t know but time goes by so quickly these days. Tomorrow I’ll have to pack my truck and go shopping for what is likely my last trip to Piseco-Powley Road for the year.
Partly sunny and 69 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☀ Calm wind. The dew point is 64 degrees. Definitely still muggy from yesterday’s rain which didn’t add up to much but better than nothing.
Out walking 🚶 at six thirty today which isn’t as early as I would have liked but it was another dark morning and I was trying to retrieve the mouse 🐭 I caught that snuck under the stove in the trap. Haven’t got him yet, he’s way under there. With work today I’m not sure if I can do my lunch time walk but between the evening commute and going)library I should be good. 👣
Last night 🌃 I spent some time reading 📖 before going for my evening walk 🚶. Rain stopped relatively early yesterday but it gets dark so early these days. I wanted to get through a few more books 📚 as the ones I got out for summer vacation are due this week. I may get more before I go up north this weekend. Maybe I should do that tonight and go shopping 🛒 and pack tomorrow night.
