Apparently I brought the snow back with me. Literally in some cases, I was sweeping snow out of my truck and off my gear as I unpacked. And now it’s snowing more this morning, or at least will be shortly if the forecast is to be believed. I decided against driving my big jacked up truck to work or riding my mountain bike.
Every single warning sign was on the way driving back from Boreas Ponds reading, “Snow Expected Tomorrow – Visibility Likely Reduced” or as I headed farther south and out of Adirondacks, “Snow Expected Tomorrow – Avoid Travel”. Sounds dramatic, though maybe we’ll get a half foot of snow, maybe more. It seems like its all over the map. I would ride in but I don’t love bringing my laptop on the bike, plus this afternoon it will be snowy by 5 PM. Tonight assuming that the meeting isn’t cancelled, there is a Save the Pine Bush Meeting to attend.
I got home around 6 PM last night, but with the snow coming, being low on groceries after camping and my truck encrusted with salt, I headed over to the car wash and gave Big Red a bath, and stocked up at Wally World. That is after I got unpacked, had some dinner and took a quick shower, and then by the time I kneaded the bread and got to bed it was 9:30 – 10 PM. This morning, baking bread and acorn squash was a bit of a rush, as I wanted to catch the earlier bus downtown, so I could be in the office and catch up on work from the past week. It was a nice trip, but I have so much catching up to do. The snow isn”t helping.
I spent four days camping off NY 28N at Boreas River Campsite 1. Friday was cold up north and so was Saturday morning.But as the day progressed, the sun came out and the wind died down. I wasn’t really sure if this trip was going to be more than a one night trip but after reviewing the weather forecast I headed back down to the Boreas River and NY 28 to camp for two more nights. It was so nice to be away from it all, rode some trail, had some fires, cooked some good meals, smoked some grass and drunk some beer, wandered around the wilderness with a camera.
Driving up on Friday wasn’t bad until I got north of Saratoga and had to slog through icy snow on the Northway until I got off at South Glens Falls to fuel up with my tank nearly empty. It’s been a while since I’ve done much winter driving. Back on the Northway a few more miles of icy driving then slush and I stopped at Stewart’s for milk. Then the rest of the way north I was beyond the snow squall and it was smooth driving. I was up to camp by 10:30 AM and spent the midday setting up camp then riding up the hill on NY 28N to the Standard Lead Railroad tracks, realizing that driveway on the top of the hill I went past was the entrance to the unmarked Roosevelt Truck Trail. I rode the Roosevelt Truck Trail for two miles are so, basically to where the Vanderwhacker Brook crosses it. The Roosevelt Truck Trail is great on the mountain bike, and there wasn’t too much snow on it. That said, into the evening, it was still pretty cold with the wind whipping around. Had a nice fire, though the wood was wet, the burnables help get that fire burning hot. As predicted, the battery in the broke smoke detector that was driving me nuts, made a nice bang when it burnt up. And burned with a brilliant bright flame.
Saturday also started out cool but as the day progressed the sun came out, and the wind died down. I hiked back to Hewitt Eddy Loop Trail then drove up to Newcomb and was going to ride from Camp Santoni back to Newcomb Lake, but as I got about 4 miles out there, I got a flat tire on the rear, and had to swap the tube. I wasn’t going to risk being broke down, and the snow was getting deeper, so I rode back to the Main Farm at Santoni, poked around the historic buildings, and rode back to my truck. Stopped for a while at Newcomb Overlook but as the day progressed the wind only picked up and was kind of unpleasant. I decided based on the forecast Sunday would be okay to camp, so I would stay through Monday. For a while, I wasn’t sure, as they were calling for high winds and blowing snow, possibly a foot or more. Fortunately, none of that came to a pass.
Instead, Sunday was snowy but in a nice kind of way without a lot of wind. Hiked back along Moose Club Way to the Vanderwhacker Brook and the railroad tracks, which I followed south along the Vanderwhacker Brook and then along the Boreas River. It was a nice quiet afternoon walk, probably went about 10 miles round trip, though with the insulated overalls and hunting boots, my pace was not quick. But it was enjoyable watchingt he snow come down. Came back to camp, made a big pot of chicken noodle – rice soup with lots of vegtables, mostly canned but also some frozen I brought from home, beans, and the last of the onions I had. Made a big old fire up, smoked some grass, and enjoyed watching the snow fall as I read Power on the Hudson: Storm King Mountain and the Emergence of Modern American Environmentalism by Robert D. Lifset on Libby. I am glad I had that book electronically, free from the library, as the print book is $72. I much prefer Libby and Hoopla, as they are much more convenient then getting books in person, and you don’t have to haul around books or worry about them getting wet. I can bring like 5 or 10 books, plus audio books on my phone, and it doesn’t weight anything. And at least time both my Libby and Hoopla books worked well without cell reception, though Libby traditionally has been finicky off-the-network, though making sure I had network access turned off on my phone may have helped stopped corruption of the files. I liked being away from the Internet and social media for four days, even though at times I could get signal when I was out hiking or on Saturday when I went up to Newcomb to check out the weather.
Monday I took down camp pretty early, and drove over snow-covered Blue Ridges Road slowly, and hiked back to Boreas Pond, which took most of the day, because it’s about 13 miles round trip from the outer lot. I could have driven all the way to the parking lot at LeBeir Flow, but there was 3-4 inches of snow, and a bit of ice, and being an unfamiiar road, I wasn’t going to try it and lest my big jacked up truck slip off the road. 🛻 It was a nice hike, didn’t see anybody except one deer hunter who was out driving the roads listening and watching for deer sign. Boreas Pond is very scenic but I cringe at the though of being there on a beautiful summer or autumn day, with the crowds. They only allow parking in number spaces, and no road-side parking, and I can only imagine the crowds and enforcement on a summer day. Hell, you couldn’t pay me to go there on a day with the drooling woke granola eaters, with their Honda SUVs and Subarus and Sierra Club backpacks. Most of it would be a good bike ride, but without the tube patched, though the first part of the hill is a bit steep.
Ah yes, that Carly Simon song. You probably think this blog post is about me.
Being vain refers to having an excessive or exaggerated pride in one’s own appearance, abilities, achievements, or qualities. It often involves a preoccupation with one’s physical appearance, a desire for admiration, and a tendency to prioritize oneself over others. Vanity is associated with an inflated sense of self-importance and a constant need for validation and admiration from others. People who are considered vain may focus excessively on their looks, status, or accomplishments, often at the expense of developing genuine connections with others.
I often think society is too vain, but what do I know, I don’t have a color television. I do think that in my younger years, I was to concerned about others, saving our world, or doing what appears to be right, without taking care of myself or working to better myself. I was taught that the only real heroes in the world are people like Martin Luther King, and that one can’t be a hero without some grandiose public act that gets world renown. But as I frequently say, “if you can’t save the world, you should at least try to save yourself.”
I have frequently written about the high cost of political activity. Many people give of their lives up and liberty to be involved in politics and work for societal or even community change. Often their reward is a jail cell or a bullet in their back. Ask the late Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King. Or the January 6th rioters and Black Lives Matter activists spending decades behind bars. By entering the public sphere, and not being merely a private citizen means you give up a lot. You can do a lot of good, but that life isn’t for everyone. I don’t think you have to be saving the world to do well for yourself.
I don’t embrace the extreme consumerism and marketing of pop culture. I don’t reject all purchases, but I do try to be frugal and protect my own interest. It’s foolish to be ignorant of all the institutions and people trying to tear you down, enslave or imprison you in a million different ways. I always try to be respectful and helpful, but I also make it a priority to protect myself first and foremost from all the evil that is going on currently in society. I will help people when I can, hold open a door and be a friend, but I won’t lay down my life to save another. I have only one life, and I am not going to die on a cross if I can all avoid it. Caring about yourself while also being understanding of the world around you doesn’t mean you’re so vain.
The world needs people like Martin Luther King. People who protest, raise their voices, stand out on the freeway or railway track. People who are willing to take a bullet in their back or spend decades behind bars in the fight for what is right. But we don’t have to all die for what is right. You can still be a good person, live a good life with taking a bullet in your back. Some have to die for what is right for the world, but you don’t have to.
Lately I just feel more and more confused – about everything. You’re either a right-wing extremist, an ignorant son-of-a-bitch who ignores all evidence and human suffering. Or you’re woke – you live with your heart on your sleeve and you spend your money on do-gooders’ organic products with cardboard and plastic labels that brag about sustainability but are soon hauled off to the local dumping grounds on the outskirts of town.
The thing is I don’t think wokerism has all the answers. I don’t think the solution – at least for me – is to buy a house out in the suburbs made out of vinyl siding and with an asphalt shingle roof with grid tied electricity, high speed internet and weekly garbage pickup. But I’m told that’s a good investment, but I don’t want to be forever tied to one place where I don’t have the opportunity to walk away when necessary. Not that I’m planning to leave tomorrow, but I don’t see any future at least for me in my community.
Maybe it’s a mid-life crisis. But if anything, I don’t really want to spend-spend-spend, as I find consumerism to be so oft-putting, knowing soon I’ll be throwing away whatever I buy. I am glad I don’t have a computer or internet at home, much less a television. I rarely even bring my laptop home. I do want to replace Big Red so I can travel, and get my eyes permanently fixed, so maybe that’s a sign of wanting to spend the money I have. Yet, I have very little interest in a performance cars or fancy houses.
The truth is it’s the simple things that fascinate me that most these days. The wildflowers, the clouds. Just sitting there and staring at them. Or the flicker of the flames of campfire or watching that piece of debris burn on up. Good bye plastic syrup bottle! The truth is I want to travel, once I have reliable transportation that can take me thousands of miles to forests and wilderness es far away with minimal problems. Lately I’ve just become so fascinated by the trippy nature of so much in this world, the colors, even if I don’t really enjoy that much grass except up at camp.
Often confusion is seen as a psychological problem, something profoundly bad. “See what you is need Better Help!” the advertisers scream at me! I’m not sure my confusion is that kind of confusion, it’s more trying to figure out the next decade and half before I decide to toss in my hat at work to focus on my off-grid homestead. It’s askewing the conventional wisdom, not because I want to forever live a life of poverty and be blocked from owning my own land out in the country, but because I’m not convinced that toxic vinyl siding and big-screen televisions are right for me. I don’t agree with the advertising.
Indeed, I am not sure if confusion is opposite of clarity of thought. Maybe it’s more profound thing, a questioning of conventional wisdom. Now I do wish I had more clarity, but I am not sure my confusion is coming from lack of understanding of reality.
Probably the top reason for smoking pot in my mind is to find more inspiration about the world around me. To help me find clarity in ways that reading and thinking has yet to provide in my own life. I think or at least have been told that smoking cannabis can let you focus on the moment and while making you forgetful, can provide a sense of calm that is too often lacking in my life as too many things break down and wear out as I refuse to engauge in all the consumerism trends of the day. I don’t own a television, but I am damn aware of all the evil in society, and how all of us are one bad day from having our entire lives destroyed.
So far on that front I’ve been disappointed, mostly getting hungry and sleepy after getting stoned. Most of the various pre-rolls I got when I went to Northern Lights a little over a month ago have been more on the indica rather then sativia side of things, probably because the prior is less expensive and something too strong on sativia side of things runs a risk of paranoia, and just a bad experience if not enjoyed in moderation. I asked for more sativia, but at least some of the stuff on summer vacation made me more couchlocked in hammock then anything else. I am going to probably need to get more cannabis prior to camping in woods over Labor Day Weekend, so I’m continuing to research strains, methods of smoking and enjoying cannabis. It’s fun to ride a mountain bike through the wilderness after dark, stoned because of how it makes your eyes wide open.
I get smoking pot or doing any kind of drug, be it alcohol or caffine or some kind of “illegal” drug won’t get you all the answers. Mostly it will get you stoned or drunk or awake. But sometimes taking a look at things and being focused more on the now, in an altered state of mind, when your away from it all can be beneficial. Certainly many creative people over the years have smoked a little weed, for the better. The more sativia leaning hybrids I’ve smoked, in moderation are better but I still need to figure out what I want to ask for and have a better idea the next time I visit the the local budmaster. He after all can’t be much guidance if I can’t give him the direction I am looking for over my next high in the wilderness.
I do want to get a pipe and probably will want a grinder so I can buy flower, rather then get pre-roll which is unneccessarily wasteful. I especially dislike the pre-roll I have that is packaged in glass that has to be seperated out of the trash for recycling. It’s a good commitment, not that expensive, and will save money in the long run, once I figure out what I like to smoke. That White Wedding ain’t bad, but I’m not sure that’s my best option for the experience I seek. There are so many options out there, and I just want to see and think clearer but not get paranoid. Not that cannabis has made me any more paranoid — if anything my paranoia over my someday faltering pickup truck and housing situaton has gone down since I’ve started to smoke. I’ve never been afraid of monsters in closets, it’s more what happens if things spin wildly out of control in the long run or that ball joint or the roof joist in my rundown apartment that finally goes ko-put.
Truth is I don’t smoke all that much one way or another. Nor do I plan to make it habit outside of sitting around a campfire in the wilderness or laying back in the hammock staring at the clouds or floating in the tube during the summer months. There are real health consequences to smoking too much. Much like eating too much bacon or ice cream — both are a treat. Smoking cannabis should be something you do that’s special and not ordinary. Plus I like it because it’s kind dirty and smelly, not socially acceptable (your doing drugs!), somewhat illegal. Not unlike dairy or hog farming! Or having a burn barrel and bonfires for trash. But I get a kick out of people turning up their noses at me, and saying I’m just a dirty hick. And some what of an outlaw!
Benford's law, also called the Newcomb–Benford law, the law of anomalous numbers, or the first-digit law, is an observation about the frequency distribution of leading digits in many real-life sets of numerical data. The law states that in many naturally occurring collections of numbers, the leading digit is likely to be small.In sets that obey the law, the number 1 appears as the leading significant digit about 30% of the time, while 9 appears as the leading significant digit less than 5% of the time. If the digits were distributed uniformly, they would each occur about 11.1% of the time. Benford's law also makes predictions about the distribution of second digits, third digits, digit combinations, and so on.
or as I headed farther south and out of Adirondacks, “Snow Expected Tomorrow – Avoid Travel”. Sounds dramatic, though maybe we’ll get a half foot of snow, maybe more. It seems like its all over the map. I would ride in but I don’t love bringing my laptop on the bike, plus this afternoon it will be snowy by 5 PM. Tonight assuming that the meeting isn’t cancelled, there is a Save the Pine Bush Meeting to attend. 
but with the snow coming, being low on groceries after camping and my truck encrusted with salt, I headed over to the car wash 
and gave Big Red a bath, and stocked up at Wally World. That is after I got unpacked, had some dinner and took a quick shower, and then by the time I kneaded the bread 
and got to bed it was 9:30 – 10 PM. This morning, baking bread and acorn squash was a bit of a rush, as I wanted to catch the earlier bus downtown, so I could be in the office and catch up on work from the past week. It was a nice trip, but I have so much catching up to do. The snow isn”t helping.
Friday was cold up north and so was Saturday morning. But as the day progressed, the sun came out and the wind died down. I wasn’t really sure if this trip was going to be more than a one night trip but after reviewing the weather forecast I headed back down to the Boreas River and NY 28 to camp for two more nights. It was so nice to be away from it all, rode some trail, had some fires, cooked some good meals, smoked some grass and drunk some beer, wandered around the wilderness with a camera. 
with my tank nearly empty. It’s been a while since I’ve done much winter driving. Back on the Northway a few more miles of icy driving then slush and I stopped at Stewart’s for milk. 
Then the rest of the way north I was beyond the snow squall and it was smooth driving. I was up to camp by 10:30 AM and spent the midday 
setting up camp 
then riding up the hill on NY 28N to the Standard Lead Railroad tracks, realizing that driveway on the top of the hill I went past was the entrance to the unmarked Roosevelt Truck Trail. I rode the Roosevelt Truck Trail for two miles are so, basically to where the Vanderwhacker Brook crosses it. The Roosevelt Truck Trail is great on the mountain bike, and there wasn’t too much snow on it. 
That said, into the evening, it was still pretty cold with the wind whipping around. Had a nice fire, 
though the wood was wet, the burnables help get that fire burning hot. 
As predicted, the battery in the broke smoke detector that was driving me nuts, made a nice bang when it burnt up. And burned with a brilliant bright flame.
and the wind died down. I hiked back to Hewitt Eddy Loop Trail 
then drove up to Newcomb and was going to ride from Camp Santoni back to Newcomb Lake, but as I got about 4 miles out there, I got a flat tire on the rear, and had to swap the tube. 
I wasn’t going to risk being broke down, and the snow was getting deeper, so I rode back to the Main Farm at Santoni, poked around the historic buildings, 
and rode back to my truck. Stopped for a while at Newcomb Overlook 
but as the day progressed the wind only picked up 
and was kind of unpleasant. I decided based on the forecast Sunday would be okay to camp, so I would stay through Monday. For a while, I wasn’t sure, as they were calling for high winds and blowing snow, possibly a foot or more. Fortunately, none of that came to a pass.
It was a nice quiet afternoon walk, probably went about 10 miles round trip, though with the insulated overalls and hunting boots, my pace was not quick. But it was enjoyable watchingt he snow come down. Came back to camp, made a big pot of chicken noodle – rice soup with lots of vegtables, mostly canned but also some frozen I brought from home, beans, and the last of the onions I had. Made a big old fire up, smoked some grass, and enjoyed watching the snow fall as I read Power on the Hudson: Storm King Mountain and the Emergence of Modern American Environmentalism by Robert D. Lifset on Libby. I am glad I had that book electronically, free from the library, as the print book is $72. I much prefer Libby and Hoopla, as they are much more convenient then getting books in person, and you don’t have to haul around books or worry about them getting wet. 
I can bring like 5 or 10 books, plus audio books on my phone, and it doesn’t weight anything. And at least time both my Libby and Hoopla books worked well without cell reception, though Libby traditionally has been finicky off-the-network, though making sure I had network access turned off on my phone may have helped stopped corruption of the files. 
I liked being away from the Internet and social media for four days, even though at times I could get signal when I was out hiking or on Saturday when I went up to Newcomb to check out the weather.
who was out driving the roads listening and watching for deer sign. 
Boreas Pond is very scenic but I cringe at the though of being there on a beautiful summer or autumn day, with the crowds. They only allow parking in number spaces, and no road-side parking, and I can only imagine the crowds and enforcement on a summer day. Hell, you couldn’t pay me to go there on a day with the drooling woke granola eaters, 
with their Honda SUVs and Subarus and Sierra Club backpacks. Most of it would be a good bike ride, but without the tube patched, though the first part of the hill is a bit steep.
