Perkins Clearing and Speculator Tree Farm Conservation Easement Lands
The Perkins Clearing/Speculator Tree Farm Conservation Easement Lands span 40,000 acres near Speculator, divided into the 14,332-acre Perkins Clearing Tract and the 21,648-acre Speculator Tree Farm Tract. Access is allowed with limitations due to private ownership, active logging, and leased cabins. Public recreation is permitted within special guidelines — camping only at designated sites, certain trails and roads may be closed for logging — look for signs that designate use.
While you can quibble about the lack of sun it’s very warm for the holiday weekend 🍂
Still some patches of blue around especially earlier and the soft light somewhat brings out the colors. Leaves are good at the higher elevations for sure.
Today. Feels like …
October 12th.
Mostly cloudy.
Southeast wind around 10 mph.
and
63 degrees
,52 max dew point,
6:26
sunset.
Tonight. Feels like …
September 24th.
A slight chance of showers between 11pm and 4am. Cloudy.
Southeast wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
and
49 degrees
,
7:06
sunrise.
Sunday. Feels like …
October 9th.
A chance of showers, mainly after 7am. Mostly cloudy.
Southeast wind 5 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
and
64 degrees
,55 max dew point,
6:24
sunset.
Sunday Night. Feels like …
September 19th.
Mostly cloudy.
East wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
and
51 degrees
,
7:07
sunrise.
Columbus Day. Feels like …
September 26th.
Partly sunny.
Calm wind becoming southeast around 6 mph in the morning.
Partly cloudy and 54 degrees at the Catskill Scenic Trail. 🌥 There is a east-southeast breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 49 degrees. Beautiful autumn day. The skies will clear Monday around 5 pm.
Yesterday, I hiked Bearpen Mountain for the first time. I had been there previously tried a few back but I missed the driveway to the parking area as I lacked a good map of the area. 🗺 The track on All Trails was pretty good and that got me started. Ironically, once you find the trailhead, the trail is a gated gravel road, in pretty good maintenence – looks like part of it was rebuilt and rerouted after Hurricane Irene. 🅿 The best views are to the north and west, definitely don’t stop after the first view, take the trail north across the summit to additional views. 🏞
I wanted to also do North Bearpen but time was tight and the trail across the col was soggy unlike the gated road up Bearpen. 🍂 Good color on Bearpen but some of the views were less colorful. Autumn is late this year, we’ve yet to have a good frost. 📸 Photos to be posted Monday or Tuesday.
I got to Betty Brook fairly early last night as I wanted to have time to get a campsite should the first one I wanted be taken. ⛺ I got set up – it was a beautiful night – the kind of night you don’t even need a long shirt for. Something more akin to August then October but the sun still set early. Despite the threat of clouds it actually was a very starry night. ✨ I would have liked to have laid back in the hammock but I dropped one of the straps in the dark and couldn’t find it until morning. I thought I had left the strap home. Maybe tonight will also be good for laying in the hammock.
There was some litter 🚮 on the other side of Betty Brook from the summer when somebody had set up targets for blasting. Just some cans and paper targets 🎯 but I didn’t want to look at the garbage all weekend so I put on my muck boots 👢 and crossed the creek. Picked up the litter and proceeded to slip on a log 🍁and get completely soaked from head to toe and had to change. Fortunately it was a very mild evening so I just toweled off and changed.
Today I’m hiking the Catskill Scenic Trail south of Stamford. It’s a nice day with more sun ☀ than I expected. There was a slight delay getting down here due to a detour from an auto crash on NY 10 but I still got an early start. 📸 I misplaced the battery 🔋 for the camera but was able to find another one so I’ll be able to get pictures today. One thing I’m is I’m a bit disappointed with the scenery here compared to the other part of the rail trail but I think it will be better father south I go. I’ll drive up Utsaythana later and through the township valley which is always beautiful in the autumn.
This evening I got my truck intertube I bought last week out on the Jessup River. I haven't floated in one of them in 25 years... Great fun! Though I think next time I use it I'll bring a full kayak paddle not a half paddle. Or just use my hands, which worked fine.
Something about the old fashioned rubber intertube - that brought me back to being a little kid when either my grandfather got me one or maybe it was my parents had from the 1970s. It's just such a throw back to a different era - it could have easily been 1951, laying on that rubber tube, looking up at the trees and the darkening skies, gently floating down the river.
Now I get that they sell modern swimming tubes on Amazon or at Wally World, the kind with handles and drink holders, painted bright colors of your favorite sports team or with penguins on it. But nothing beats the feeling of an old fashioned truck semi intertube. The light smell of the rubber and its warmth of the black rubber, the feeling it has you lay on it, and even the metal valve stem even if you lean over too far.
Maybe it's just nostalgia. But it's fun laying back in the water, floating down the stream like one might have done 70 years ago.
