Sun is rising and it clear looking out over the mountains. To the start out the day, it looks like it will be clear and sunny – and I hope to ride down to Rugar Woods and maybe Downtown Plattsburgh– and just poke around a bit.
It’s fun being back in Plattsburgh 20 years after I was in college. In the morning, for a while I was in Beekmantown and Point Au Roche, exploring the same old backroads I used to explore in college just trying to learn the land and see the rural landscape, and maybe see a burn barrel or two. Silly me the pyro, but I tell you back in the day, lots of country people burned a lot of junk and debris. In the afternoon, I went back to Plattsburgh State for a while to explore the college, poking around the library and campus center for a while – noticing what had changed and what had remained the same. Adirondacks and Banks Residence Halls were demolished – they say the student population is a fraction of what it once was – and the old buildings either needed to be renovated or demolished due to asbestos, leaks and other issues after 50 years. It’s good to see the quirky, mid-century Brutalist library with those cool lamps live on. I forgot how much I fell in love with the quirks of the architecture and landscape.
The continential breakfast at the hotel I’m saying at is such crap 🥮 all sugar and sweet, no fresh fruit, so I went to the store and got a big tub of greek yougurt, oranges and bananas. I brought beans and rice from home and a few other healthy things but I needed bananas and I was going to get them on the way up. I forgot how large that Walmart is in Plattsburgh. But it does the trick. The plain Greek yogurt they had seemed more expensive then back home but it should last the trip. I brought a cooler to store it in though the hotel I am staying at all has a refigerator. Honestly, I hate all the paper trash and disposable nature of take out – even though I can get partial meal reimbursements for work – I’ve been mostly eating in my room healthy stuff I brought from home without all the packaging. And I’m taking the cores back home for compost. I don’t get this whole throw-away eat everything with sugar and larded down with fat. I’m no so strict – one night I got dinner at the El Doridos Mexican Resturant with the team and did have a blueberry muffin and some of the other junk at breakfast, but I don’t want to totally kill myself or the planet with the typical American crap.
This morning I want to poke around Rugar Woods and Imperial Dam Area, mostly to see what it’s like. I’ve heard it’s more developed then before, but I haven’t been back there since my college days. I think most people wandered around back there to smoke weed but I just liked being in alone in woods, enjoying solitude between classes. Then I have other things to do, and rain is expected by evening. Kind of want to get back to the PoliSci department and see if Dr. Harvey Schantz is still around at the college. But I don’t know if I’ll have the time. I’m leaving tomorrow fro Albany. Back to work on Wednesday, and I have a busy schedule especially if I want to take off next Monday for a four day weekend in Madison County. Another weekend in a small hick town that smells like cow shit. I do love those small towns, and its been fun going out wearing my cowboy hat here in P-burgh.
I patched the hole in my bike tire where I ran over a thumb tack earlier in the week. Rode fine like 100 miles but was starting to leak so I pulled the tube out, got the rubber cement and a patch out, and after it dried, reinflated and the tire is hold air good now. The fix a flat plus a patch works almost every time the fix a flat doesn’t work on it own bar the pinch flat I got the other day back in August. Rode all over Point Au Roche with the bike yesterday, and it still looks like it’s holding air. Kind of don’t want to get too far out today, and have the tire stop holding pressure, but I do carry a pump and spare tube. Now just not to get stranded at Rugar Woods.
Taking down camp, remote working, after a nice weekend up at Charles Pond at that campsite at Lost Pond which is really nice and quiet -- I think I saw all weekend just one dog walker and a hunter dirve by.
Like everything in this world, it’s a compromise. More darkness in the night – including giving up on the evening bike ride home – means more light in the morning. The past few weeks have been so dark at night, so I’m glad I can get up and enjoy more of the day before work, at least or a while. Nice mornings I might find ways to get out and do things before work, though it really doesn’t add that much daylight to the day as we are still rapidly losing daylight with winter approaching.
So the seasons come and go. Yesterday was remarkably cold and chilly for the balance of the day, but at least no snow on the roads driving up to Plattsburgh. At times though the wind was really roaring, it was a bit sketchy with the cross-winds driving up on the Adirondack Northway yesterday. Left home at around 7 AM but I had to stop to air up my tires and into the office over at Enterprise Drive to get my laptop and do some work, and had to make a few different pee breaks along the Northway but I made it to Plattsburgh by around 10:30 AM. I am not a real fast driver, and after drinking a bunch of coffee, you know I frequently have to piss. Boy was it bitterly cold when I reached Plattsburgh with the Lake Breeze. Even though I spent most of the day downtown yesterday, it was cold.
This morning, I plan to get up early and ride at Point Au Rouche State Park, maybe poking around a few old roads I used to explore when I was back in my college days. See which ones of the homesteads and farms still have burn barrels. Shit people back in the day up here in country used to burn everything, much to disdain of the liberals and Press Republican. I think Cassela Waste Services was a big advertiser and mob boss in the North Country and Vermont. A while back I got a copy of that newspaper, it’s really just a fraction of what the paper once was. But first I need to patch the tire on my bike. I have a spare tire but I’m thinking if I patch the tire 🛞 then by the time I’m ready to ride hopefully the rubber cement will hold well. Usually it does hold well with the fix-a-flat in the tires.
Hoping for good weather when I head out on Friday or Saturday to Madison County – most likely – through Veterans Day. I don’t actually have next Monday off but I’m thinking about requesting it once next weekend approaches, and the forecast looks okay. Right now, I’m just leaning towards the horse camp but my mind could change between now and then. Might also do Lost Pond, which is the Horse Camp but a bit more remote up there. Or I could do Mason Lake. Or if I was adventurous I had been considering going down to Long Pond in Chenango County. I don’t know if I feel up to such a trip for only 3 days though, and Long Pond always is very picked over for firewood.
Silly me the pyro, but I tell you back in the day, lots of country people burned a lot of junk and debris. 
In the afternoon, I went back to Plattsburgh State for a while to explore the college, poking around the library and campus center for a while – noticing what had changed and what had remained the same. Adirondacks and Banks Residence Halls were demolished – they say the student population is a fraction of what it once was – and the old buildings either needed to be renovated or demolished due to asbestos, leaks and other issues after 50 years. 
It’s good to see the quirky, mid-century Brutalist library with those cool lamps live on. 
I forgot how much I fell in love with the quirks of the architecture and landscape.
and I was going to get them on the way up. I forgot how large that Walmart is in Plattsburgh. But it does the trick. The plain Greek yogurt they had seemed more expensive then back home but it should last the trip. I brought a cooler to store it in though the hotel I am staying at all has a refigerator. Honestly, I hate all the paper trash and disposable nature of take out – even though I can get partial meal reimbursements for work – I’ve been mostly eating in my room healthy stuff I brought from home without all the packaging. 
And I’m taking the cores back home for compost. I don’t get this whole throw-away eat everything with sugar and larded down with fat. I’m no so strict – one night I got dinner at the El Doridos Mexican Resturant with the team and did have a blueberry muffin and some of the other junk at breakfast, but I don’t want to totally kill myself or the planet with the typical American crap. 
mostly to see what it’s like. I’ve heard it’s more developed then before, but I haven’t been back there since my college days. I think most people wandered around back there to smoke weed but I just liked being in alone in woods, enjoying solitude between classes. Then I have other things to do, and rain is expected by evening. 
Kind of want to get back to the PoliSci department and see if Dr. Harvey Schantz is still around at the college. But I don’t know if I’ll have the time. I’m leaving tomorrow fro Albany. Back to work on Wednesday, and I have a busy schedule especially if I want to take off next Monday for a four day weekend in Madison County. 
Another weekend in a small hick town that smells like cow shit. I do love those small towns, and its been fun going out wearing my cowboy hat here in P-burgh. 
Rode fine like 100 miles but was starting to leak so I pulled the tube out, got the rubber cement and a patch out, and after it dried, reinflated and the tire is hold air good now. The fix a flat plus a patch works almost every time the fix a flat doesn’t work on it own bar the pinch flat I got the other day back in August. Rode all over Point Au Roche with the bike yesterday, and it still looks like it’s holding air. Kind of don’t want to get too far out today, and have the tire stop holding pressure, but I do carry a pump and spare tube. 
Now just not to get stranded at Rugar Woods.
Yesterday was remarkably cold and chilly for the balance of the day, but at least no snow on the roads driving up to Plattsburgh. 
At times though the wind was really roaring, it was a bit sketchy with the cross-winds driving up on the Adirondack Northway yesterday. Left home at around 7 AM but I had to stop to air up my tires and into the office over at Enterprise Drive to get my laptop and do some work, and had to make a few different pee breaks 
along the Northway but I made it to Plattsburgh by around 10:30 AM. I am not a real fast driver, and after drinking a bunch of coffee, 
you know I frequently have to piss. Boy was it bitterly cold when I reached Plattsburgh with the Lake Breeze. Even though I spent most of the day downtown yesterday, it was cold.
Shit people back in the day up here in country used to burn everything, much to disdain of the liberals and Press Republican. 
I think Cassela Waste Services was a big advertiser and mob boss in the North Country and Vermont. A while back I got a copy of that newspaper, it’s really just a fraction of what the paper once was. But first I need to patch the tire on my bike. I have a spare tire but I’m thinking if I patch the tire 🛞 then by the time I’m ready to ride hopefully the rubber cement will hold well. Usually it does hold well with the fix-a-flat in the tires.
I don’t actually have next Monday off but I’m thinking about requesting it once next weekend approaches, and the forecast looks okay. Right now, I’m just leaning towards the horse camp but my mind could change between now and then. Might also do Lost Pond, which is the Horse Camp but a bit more remote up there. Or I could do Mason Lake. Or if I was adventurous I had been considering going down to Long Pond in Chenango County. I don’t know if I feel up to such a trip for only 3 days though, and Long Pond always is very picked over for firewood.