Camping

Camping. Spending time in the woods. Having a fire. What can go wrong?

Why I’m dimming the lights earlier

Increasingly on clear nights I’ve been killing the lights earlier after dusk then the past in favor of being able to see the stars better and enjoying the laser lightening bug light show that I have that puts pretty ever shifting green dots on the trees.

 Lights

The truth is when I got the laser lightening bug show I was concerned about pointing it up towards the tree branches with all those sensational news stories about the laser Christmas lights blinding pilots. So I did some of my own fact based research on the topic and also tried shining the lights at distant hill tops and I found very little light traveled beyond 500 feet. Maybe problematic next to an airport but not to a plane thousands of feet in the air. I also tend to angle things no more than 30 to 40 degrees.

Artificial fireflies

With the stars up above and the lights elegantly illuminating the tree branches it really is nice. Both the natural beauty above and the artificial beauty looking ahead. It makes for some nice quiet time in the wilderness.

What I Like To Do Around Camp

People sometimes ask what I like to do while campingβ›Ί Besides sitting by the fire and listening to the spring peepers and the birds,🐸 I also will often put on some music or a podcast, especially in the evening.

In the day time I like to cook – I actually like camp cooking better than at home as I’m not distracted by all the other things going on at home. 🍳I also spend a lot of time reading as camping often is a long distraction free time for me. Lately I’ve been spending more time writing, 📚as I’m trying to capture more of my thoughts and experiences in words.

 Camping At Camp Run

Camping in the wilderness is a chance to get away from all the noise and problems that are inherent in living in the city.

These past few weekends have been major bummers πŸ•

These past few weekends have been major bummers πŸ•

I’ve been hoping for a nice weekend to get up into the wilderness before black fly season got underway, but every weekend this April since the Easter holiday has been worse — and each weekend seems to get cloudier, cooler and rainer. Two weekends ago, I could have gotten out of town, and it would have been fine, but the forecast was wet. Last weekend was okay, until Saturday night when it absolutely poured. And then this weekend’s forecast.

At some point my luck will change. Indeed, Mothers Day Weekend might be a good one, as my parents aren’t going to be in town, and maybe depending when they get the state budget done, I can take off that Friday with just credited time. Black flies, if I decide to go up north might be bad. But maybe I’ll do Schoharie, especially if I get my bike working, it could be a lot of fun to ride some of the roads out there.