I spent five nights camping up at Mason Lake then Perkins Clearing during the Memorial Day Weekend, using my phone and the Speculator Library for Internet. It was fun to get away for one of several long weekends during the 2020 Coronavirus Panademic when all work was remote work.
Honestly I didn’t think this morning would be so wet. Thunderstorms last night yes with the front coming through but the on and off rain started last night and lingered through the morning.
I left everything out to be exposed to the rain. 🌧️ Whatever, I’m taking down camp and heading to a site closer to the Potholers in a while where I have more sun ☀️ and can easily ride my bike to the Potholers. Clearing out slowly after some messy cornmeal and onion pancakes which basically became scramble as I used too much water and heat cooking in the rain. ☕ Coffee was good as was the cigarette but not smoking weed as I’m driving to the next campsite or if that fails maybe home. Getting muggy now, camp is mostly taken down and I’m sitting in the back of the truck hanging out away from the bugs.
The old hammock is all burnt up 🔥 and I’ll order a new one next week when I get home. Forgot how nylon kind of sparks and pops ❇️ as it burns on up. Sucks it had to fail on the first morning of camping. Seems like all my gear is wearing out at once, I really enjoy having it to lay back in an read 📖 or listen to an audio book 🔉. I’ll have one for the next trip. Likewise I discovered that I didn’t pack my fake crocks that I like while swimming 🏊 and honestly hanging out at camp. 👡 It’s just so many of those little annoying things that sometimes set me off.
I have tent stakes ordered and I’ll get a new hammock from E-Bay next week. 📱 Also need a new waterproof case for my phone and a swimming case as the one I have I found was leaking. I know obnoxious. And of course a hammock. Just more shit to buy but at least I didn’t ruin my phone but the headphones mode is stuck on but Bluetooth over rides that.
It was really nice sitting down by Goldmine Falls yesterday. 🏞️ I sat and read for a while and worked on some blog posts. With DEET the bugs weren’t too bad. 🪰 We are in that transition time of year where there are black flies, no see ums, mosquitoes and deer fly out. It’s been kind of bad, I’ll set up the screen tent at the next campsite. 🏕️ Floated on the tube for a few hours ⭕ before retreating to the protection of the truck cap from the bugs and then I rode around Powley Place on my bike before having a fire. Without any sunshine, running the lights late into the night on Friday and inflating the tube the battery voltage is down. 🔋 Stars were crap last night ✨ and the previous night were hazy though some certainly was the alcohol and weed. I just so badly needed an escape from it all. So pissed about the hammock and not having my crocks!
I don’t like the concept of heat pumps as they produce air conditioning, which is something I don’t believe much in a temperate climate like our own. I think air conditioning, while nice in automobile stuck in traffic or in a corporate office, kind of makes people lazy and isolates them from the outdoors.
That said, they probably are an excellent way to heat suburban and urban residences efficiently. Heat pumps produce no local pollution and maximize the value of the energy contained in electricity. Electricity can come from many sources, both carbon-based and otherwise. A lot of people want air conditioning in the city, as it’s hot, and in suburbs it’s become a standard part of McMansion living.
But I am not sure if I want to include a heat pump in the initial construction of my off-grid cabin. For one, heat pump compressors use a fair amount of electricity, especially for heating in the winter when solar is week. That said, I do expect my battery bank and solar set up to be fairly well sized, as it’s going to have to operate a well pump, which has a heavy inductive load when first started. As such, a heat pump might not actually be as energy intensive as you might think, and heat pumps are increasingly popular on off-grid applications down south, where it’s not as cold and air conditioning is more popular. But I don’t want to include air conditioning in my building.
I want to use “real” tangible source of energy, namely wood as my primary heat source, though I may want to have propane as a back up just ensure pipes don’t freeze or batteries get too cold when I’m away from the property for an extended period of time. But maybe it’s a potential future upgrade.
You know it’s amazing to just sit by a waterfall in the heat of summer, a bit stoned watching the glistening of water and trees as the blow gently in the wind. Just observing the little things in this world, not being rushed. Reading a e-book, just thinking freely but not overly focused on the problems of yesterday or tomorrow.
It really was an uneventful trip on up north. 🛻 Stopped for some smokes in Amsterdam but other than that it was very light traffic. I’m not a big smoker 🚬 but sometimes it’s fun up at camp 🏕️ with a few cold ones 🍻 and some weed. Pisceo Road was as rough as usual, drove slowly because the suspension is increasingly worn out on my big jacked up truck.
It was eight o’clock by the time I started setting up camp 🌇 but sunset is late this time of year. But still it was a rush to get firewood. 🪵I camped at the Powley Bridge Campsite to start out the weekend. It was what was available, still not bad if a bit buggy with mosquitoes in the evening though jeans 👖 and DEET seem to do the trick. Set up the lights and moved gear around. 💡 Got a fire 🔥 going around 10 PM watching as that white garbage sack full of discarded and now moldy yougurt containers, milk jugs and frozen vegetable wrappers became a bright yellow flame with some smoke until the wood dried out from the woods and started to burn. I should have grabbed a pallet to bring up here to burn but I figured it would be easy to find wood around campsite 5 or 6 not planning on this site.
Whatever. I smoked some grass and listened to some more of Jack Kerouac’s Desolation Peak. Cracked open a can of sardines 🐟 and fried up some asparagus and onions. ✨ Sat out on Powley Bridge looking at the stars through the haze, glimmer from the THC on my brain. I dimmed the lights, the fire died down and laid in the hammock for a while. Annoyed that I accidentally left my sandals 👡 home. I realized my mistake as I was merging onto Interstate 90 but it was too late to turn back. This morning the $15 hammock I got off E-Bay seven years ago developed a rip all the ways, tossed it in the garbage pail, it will be just carbon dioxide and flames by evening. 🔥 I carefully cleaned out the fire pit in the morning, removing the burnt cans 🥫 for recycling and the banana peals 🍌 which should burn fine if the fire is hot enough tonight.
So that was the downside. 🛟 Had to be careful where I stepped when swimming 🏊 without foot protection. The tube inflated properly and I was ready to float come the heat of the afternoon. I do wish I had a hammock but the new one will be here before Independence Day Weekend in two weeks. Rode to the end of Ferris Lake Road but when I reached the private gate I couldn’t find the herd path back, I found myself accidentally trespassing on the wrong side of sparsely spaced property markers and rain into a creek and turned back. 🚲 Rode back to Campsite 13 and sat there for a while studying the leaves in the trees while listening to American Bulk by Emily Mester, aka another book about middle class consumerism and all the crap people buy and eat.
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I think I am mentally ready to head up to the Adirondacks for five days now – four nights. I wasn’t sure earlier in the week, but I’m feeling better now that I checked the oil and have gotten some practice driving. It will be fine, it’s al in my head. I’ll move to another campsite on Sunday afternoon once hopefully the House Pond Campsite is available. Got some cans of sardines and bungee cords. Prices on both have gone up due to tarriffs! Not packing the kayak for this trip — going to be be too hot — especially come Monday into Tuesday.
Truth is it will be fun and good to get away from the heat – both the swamp like humidity and just the insanity of social media and politics. My radio died some time ago, and while I often will stream NPR on my phone while camping there is no service where going. If I am concerned about the weather, the CB radio in my truck has the weather band, but I am not super interested in keeping up with news. If the US goes to War with Iran or something else terrible happens, I’m sure I’ll find out on Tuesday evening.
It’s going to be hot, but I plan to drink lots of water and some beer, brought a lot of sunscreen and bug spray, along with my hammock and bug screen. Lots of time floating in the tube, laying back in the hammock. I got probably enough podcasts, audio books, and videos downloaded to my phone to listen non-stop for five days, though some I’ll probably graze over. Plus I got six other e-books from the library to read.
I have an event to attend on Wednesday night so I will be back in office before the heat wave is over, but it will be the tail end. Friday is my dentist appointment mid-day, so I’ll be working from home – actually the library probably from my truck – most of the day. Not sure if I have any weekend plans for next, Nature Bus is doing Five Rivers not Thacher Park next weekend. It was nice down by the river on my hammock yesterday, maybe I should consider that plus some fishing and kayaking. Not bringing the kayak north this weekend, but maybe Independence Weekend which is the following week.
Independence Day Weekend I might head back to Potholers or maybe the Mason Lake – Perkins Clearing Area for a change. Or maybe Moose River? I don’t know. That’s two weeks away, and I want to be somewhere I can light off a bunch of fireworks, have a fire. Maybe do some paddling and fishing that weekend as hopefully it will be warm but not ungodly hot like this coming weekend. Then after that, who knows, maybe Schoharie for the Mine Kill Pool and produce at Shauls and then soon I’ll have to be thinking about summer vacation out int he Finger Lakes. How fast summer comes and goes it seems.