But seeing all the colorful flowers and herbs at the Cornell Botanical Gardens I think it was worth it! Good to burn some calories and not have to deal with traffic or parking. Plus the bus bike rack was full. Going to hang out here for a few hours, visit the Cornell Dairy Science Bar and then fly down the hill on my bike. I brought my kayak and if the wind dies down I’ll go for an evening paddle. Tomorrow is still a wildcard in my mind. Last full day tomorrow in the Finger Lakes!
Ten Square Miles of Traffic Surrounded by Reality
I do give the Ithaca traffic engineers credit for synchronizing the traffic lights well but there are significantly more cars in Ithaca today then there is lane space. I’m abandoning my truck for the bike lol so I can get where I want to go ten times faster than by vehicle.
Everything is completely jammed up in Ithaca.
Scurrying down a cow path to see the sunrise 🌄
A chilly and dark morning but I needed to get up to poop so I started the coffee and rode my bike down to the pasture to watch the sun rise. Stepping through the cow shit, studying my compass on my phone I got a decent view of the rising sun over South Hill in Ithaca.
Another cool morning but not half bad sunrise. 🌅 See pictures above. Also watched the sunset last night from a different pasture, that one overlooking the western slopes towards Seneca Lake. Pancakes with zucchuni this morning, egg plant 🍆 last night. Finished off that last sausage from For the Love of Bacon 🥓 yesterday during my late lunch between my hike and fishing. 🎣 Had a fire 🔥 last night, sat by it for a while emptied out the garbage can. Haven’t decided for sure about Pennsylvania for tomorrow, though that’s one of several options for my last full day in the Finger Lakes for the new few years. The waterfall on the Ravine Trail was nice, as was my somewhat stoned hike 🧟♂️ looking at the wildflowers. Started listening to Edward Abbey’s the Monkey Wrench Gang. Believe it or not I’ve never read that book. If you ask me my view of the National Parks – I would encourage the federal government to napalm the buildings and rip up all the asphalt and restore it to a natural state with dirt roads and maybe a handful of out houses and dirt driveway campsites every few miles along the road. Surprisingly quiet 🤫 in the National Forest this weekend despite being Labor Day Weekend. Kind of a cool weekend for sure.
I didn’t dare turn on the heater until after breakfast, lest I run out of propane. I realize it’s been 10 days camping now – going on eleven and I had camped 4 days in August between Burnt-Rossman and Piseco-Powley since I last filled my propane tank and I noticed how light it was yesterday. 😲 Didn’t run out of propane but visiting Tractor Supply 🏮 is on my priority list of first thing to do this morning. Followed by Walmart to get bike lubrication, salt because most food is so much better with a dash of salt despite raising the sodium levels slightly in my blood (I don’t eat processed food beyond beer and ice cream vacation). 🍻 🍦 Then I think I am going to park in the residential neighborhood near Cascandia Gorge, up on the hill, then get out my bike and ride around the Cornell Campus exploring the Botanical Gardens. I don’t want to go up the hill, because the low gear doesn’t on my bike currently. ⚙️
Really after today, there is only one full day left in the Finger Lakes. 🐮 🐠 🌲 🏕️ I am not sure what tomorrow’s plan and I’m still debating on should I bring my kayak for paddling later today or go for a swim at Enfield Glen later. Kind of cold and breezy though, but shouldn’t be so much the case into the valley. Loading the kayak 🛶 is a bit of work, and it blocks the solar panel which assists the alternator at topping of the batteries. 🔋 Might be kind of choppy on Cayuga Lake too. Truth is I’m going to miss all this time in the wilderness, though I can be happy knowing I camped 18 nights over the past month – which made up for the derth of trips in May, June and July. 🐮 I love listening to cows moo and chew grass, the distinctive smell as they graze near the campsite. Need to organize gear a bit, 💼 as Labor Day will here soon, and I’ll be packing my truck up and heading home. Going to take NY 23 at least from Oneonta to my parents house to avoid the craziness 🚗 of Interstate 88 much less the Thruway on Labor Day. I am not ready to face traffic anytime soon. I will drive in on Tuesday to work, but I am hoping that evening after shopping and unpacking, 🛒 I can replace the broke spoke on my bike so I can commute via bike 🚲 Wednesday through Friday. The following weekend I will likely stay home, 🏡 but eventually am thinking of one of later two weeks in September doing one or two nights at Rensselearville State Forest. The last weekend of September I’ll be out of commission recovering from my LASIK. 👀
Don’t worry, I opened social media and it’s full of ads for roofs and kitchen remodels, plastic and mental health products. 🏡 And click baiter stories about people frying their cats 🐈 with french fries 🍟 or whatever the shock jocks including the New York Times are talking about these days. But I’m just far away from it all in the Finger Lakes. Monday or Tuesday I’ll be back at my diapolated apartment and back at the Assembly Data Center next to the sewage treatment plant and old city garbage dump 🗑️ but that’s a ways away. Some day I’ll have that off grid cabin with hogs and cattle 🐖 and a burn barrel to burn my garbagei but first I need to get out of the hammock, get shaved and then propane and look at the pretty flowers 🌸 at Cornell. I think I have enough grass for the rest of vacation but I can keep dreaming as I listen to Swine Before Pearls and the Monkey Gang. 🐒 Edward Abbey for President! I want to see his face plastered all over the USDA and Department of Labor building.
I never really liked the National Parks 🏞️
They are often very developed and designed for the tourist to enjoy from the comfort of their air conditioned SUV with the emphasis on concessions, gift shops, and designated activities and view points with a detailed explanation on the signs on what you are supposed to be experiencing. And lots of crowds. If that is the purpose of public lands then why leave the suburban strip malls and parking lots behind?
Any day I would prefer a State Forest or National Forest outside of developed recreation area. While some blazing of trails and signage are helpful along with some trail maintenance and outhouses in popular areas, often parks agencies try to make things as comfortable and regulated as a suburban backyard.
Cows! 🐄
I’ve certainly spent a lot of my summer vacation studying them up at the National Forest and reading about them and their behavior in Temple Grandin’s book Handling Livestock on Small Farms which I read on vacation.
The thing about cows is that they are big, expensive and have a lot meat. Certainly not the first animal I would want on a homestead, though after goats clean up a woodland and it transforms back to field, they’re one of the best grazers after sheep. And arguably more tasty in what they transform grass in. But certainly not the first animal you want to raise much less butcher before you have the skills and the equipment to do such things.
But they are also beautiful to watch how they act and how they rip grass and chew it down. Unlike mechanical cutting of grass, cows with their siliva actually stimulate more growth of the grass as their plate and teeth rip it off in their mouths. There is something quite delightful about the smell of grazing and with good management they can really help keep grasslands healthy for a diverse number of wildlife species. They do take a fair amount of land to raise and you still need to buy or make hay for the season grass is not growing.
Plains of Nebrasky-o – YouTube
"Is there anybody left to walk a muddy mile,
Is courage a word that's only said,
Is it true them dusty days are days that never really were,
But are only tales in books to be read?"
A very stoned walk through the woods 🌲🌳🧟🐞
It was the last day of 13 I planned to stay in the National Forest without driving. So I had a good hit and took off for a walk down a trail, into a gully, on a cloudy damp day. More than lightly toasted but soon more clarity reappeared. But it was better than the anxious suburban life. These high times in the drizzle and the rain.
It’s been a long time in the woods but I’ve enjoyed it rain or shine. Just studying the wildflowers, the bees and the birds. The occasional doe or grouse I flush out the bushes. At this point I hardly care if I step in a pile of horse shit or cow plop, it comes with the territory.
It’s good to be away for such a long time. Even if it’s mind bendingly short. But it’s a reminder that step by step I’m getting closer to owning my own land, a woods far away from the suburbanite life I live most Mondays through Friday.