It was nice to get away for four days, restoring my sleep and my santity. You know watching all that crap go up into flames, smoking weed and drinking beer, wandering around the wilderness and getting through 4 audio books plus a few other e-books was great!
I had such a big grin on my face driving home after the weekend in the wilderness. It was amazing or maybe it just was the THC remaining on my brain enhancing the colors of the world for the first time since January. So great to be back home in the wilderness. Someday I’ll move to the woods, a ways from a small town not unlike Amsterdam and the other towns I rode my mountain bike through after my trip to the wilderness.
So I’m back from the East Branch of the Scandaga River, which like usual is my first trip of the year. Well, I mean first summer trip of the year. No black flies yet, and it was remarkably mild, which usually brings out the black flies, and I’m sure they’ll be out by next weekend. But I have the Pine Bush Hike I’m leading then so I’m sticking back in town.
Got home at 8:45 PM after doing a three a half hour ride along the Erie Canalway Trail from the Rotterdam Park and Ride on Van Burean Lane at the end of Interstate 890 all the way west to Yankee Hill Lock which is between Fort Hunter and South Amsterdam. Checked out the new Amsterdam Pedestrian Bridge – it’s really nice. Earlier in the day, I walked around the Sacandaga River Campground, not some place I’d stay but was fun to explore. Earlier in the day I hiked around Auger Falls, then rode up along NY 8 & 30 to Old Route 18B past Austin Falls then Robbs Creek – nice new bridge there – and then up to Campsite 17 which is all torn up after recent logging but I’m sure by the end of summer will grow back up to wildflowers.
I’m up and going, with carrot pancakes, made my lunch up and are going to ride in on this most beautiful spring morning. Then it’s off to work, I have a pile of things that came in on Friday to look over . Then back home. Then I probably need to get to the laundromat though I could wait until tomorrow, when the weather is crappier. Should be a great day even if I wish I still was up in the wilderness. Hopefully my vest doesn’t stink too much like cannabis and wood smoke or burnt garbage for wearing it into work today, lol.
I opened up a quick can of sardines for lunch before heading riding. A great, filling source of omega 3 fats and protein, I had forgotten how pungent they truly are. But often the healthiest and most delicious foods out there are the most pungent!
Nobody questions going out to the bar or dinner with a glass of wine. It’s fine to reflect back on an evening of drinking and the fun times, as long as no damage was done and you got home safely. But still despite being legal, discussing your cannabis use still remains taboo.
A lot of people still think cannabis use is a mental health disorder or an addiction. A sad thing, a person’s life spinning wildly out of control. For some it is, just like some are addicted to alcohol. But still something about cannabis use is seen as more sinister, like you’re breaking the law or frying your brain, though these days as an adult with current laws none of those things are true anymore.
I guess technically its federally illegal and admitting your use opens up the possibility of federal charges though rarely does the federal government prosecute you. But that’s silly. When is the last time you actually saw a federal police officer? Why is smoking pot still considered something so taboo?
While the starting batterystate of charge was good, I still started Big Red up this morning to bring the engine up to temperature to be safe in the remote wilderness where I am as this morning was relatively cold and damp after the front came through yesterday.
Actually while the sun is coming out, it’s just a cold and damp morning with the breeze. Decided I wanted a hardy breakfast with spinach, and lots of veggies and onions, and a few eggs and cottage cheese. You know like a high roller. Big Red’s DIC said it was forty this morning but with the dampness and wind feels much colder.
Hey but at least there is no snow up there this year and while there was showers around it was mild until last night – and only then did the wind pick up and get real cold. One wind gust was so strong I was worried about how far it was pushing the campfire, fortunately though things were were wet and the sparks and fire brands were quickly extinguished.
Today I plan to first head down to Griffin Falls in the truck and then hike back there, then maybe drive to Auger Falls and ride along NY 30 and then up Old Route 8B past Auger Flats to Austin Falls. Of course it all depends on the weather and how much it will rain . Mid afternoon drive down to Kiwanis Park in Rotterdam Junction and ride the Erie Canalway to dusk. Then head home and get unpacked and ready for work tomorrow.
Your the Director. You make good money, you’ve saved and invested, you could buy a house with cash or get it at a good interest rate if you wanted the tax advantages of letting your money grow in the markets.
Don’t you know it’s foolish to pay rent. You’re just making your landlord rich, paying his mortgage. Renting is a temporary thing you do or what you do when you have no other options because you’re poor. Did I mention it’s foolish? Think of all the money you would be saving, paying the bank and establishing equity in your own home.
You’re in your mid forties but you’re still riding your mountain bike to work most days, except when you take the bus and transfer over to the shuttle. You know like the drunkards and the poor who don’t own cars. You’re spending your weekends in the wilderness, smoking pot, drinking beer and burning shit. Listening to shitty old music. Even when it’s cold and snowy as you hate living in the city.
But I really don’t want a suburban house. I hate lawns, I hate carpeting and vinyl siding. It would be such a waste of money to buy a structure I hate, costs a ton to heat and light and I wouldn’t bother even making the most minimal of repairs because I hate it and it’s all just garbage to me.
I want a small cabin up in the wilderness wherey I can shoot and own whatever hand and long guns I want without special government permission, burn whatever garbage I want and not waste my time washing out plastic bottles and tins cans for fake recycling, have pigs, goats and any other livestock I want, grow cannabis and other feed stuffs. I don’t mind shitting in a bucket, chopping wood or fiddling around with batteries and solar as that’s that I do half the year when I’m not back in my cesspool apartment in the city!
It will happen some day. Not that far in the future. I can see my net worth increasing and my years of experience paying off at work. After all, not everybody becomes a director. The financial experts say I am a fool but they are not me. They don’t understand my love of the wilderness and the small towns, the freedom to live the life I want to live. The houses I see on Zillow are so distasteful as is everything New York State and the liberalism it all involves.
That was the words I uttered under my breath as I looked at this one house that popped up on Zillow outside of Coeymans for $250,000. Just a few meetings with a realtor, a lawyer, inspector, selling some stock and cutting a check. Ten acres, on a back road I used to explore a lot when I was in my younger years, looking at homesteads with their burn barrels and horses and cattle.
But I really don’t want it. I don’t want to have to drive to work, the commute through all those speed traps. Being trapped in a house and homestead, having goats and pigs to feed, leaky roofs and floors to replace, dealing with broken appliances and scheduling septic tank pumps, so they can haul away the shit to the local landfill.
Yet it had the acreage I was interested in and a woodstove. It would be a commute but it would be mangable. Yet it also was New York State. It was rural, so I could have livestock, I could have fires, though I’d have to a bit careful what I tossed into the fires lest neighbors start complaining about the smoke. I could build my dream homestead, add solar, get a quad to ride trail and a tractor to work the land. But it’s also kind of rocky, marginal ground, though if I brought in some organic matter like food scraps and grain and hay to feed livestock, I could build the soil up.
And the thing is buying now would block future plans. It’s true you can sell property, and that property gains value over time, but there is also the cost of commuting, maintaince of property, taxes. As an asset class it’s not very deversified. It’s not clear if I bought land today, if I could easily sell it and move out west eventually where there is more freedom to own guns and burn debris. I’m not sure if even want a grid tied property, O r all that technical equipment modern houses require.
I would definitely use such hillshade data when considering to buy a piece of land, to get a better idea of what its like then what just an aerial photo or map shows. LiDAR see through trees and bushes, it gives a lot more information then you might get without a very detailed survey of a property.
on my face driving 
home after the weekend in the wilderness. It was amazing or maybe it just was the THC remaining on my brain 
enhancing the colors of the world for the first time since January. So great to be back home in the wilderness. 
Someday I’ll move to the woods, a ways from a small town not unlike Amsterdam and the other towns I rode my mountain bike through after my trip to the wilderness. 
Well, I mean first summer trip of the year. No black flies yet, and it was remarkably mild, which usually brings out the black flies, and I’m sure they’ll be out by next weekend. But I have the Pine Bush Hike I’m leading then so I’m sticking back in town. 
from the Rotterdam Park and Ride on Van Burean Lane at the end of Interstate 890 all the way west to Yankee Hill Lock which is between Fort Hunter and South Amsterdam. Checked out the new Amsterdam Pedestrian Bridge – it’s really nice. Earlier in the day, I walked around the Sacandaga River Campground, not some place I’d stay but was fun to explore. 
Earlier in the day I hiked around Auger Falls, then rode up along NY 8 & 30 to Old Route 18B past Austin Falls then Robbs Creek – nice new bridge there – and then up to Campsite 17 which is all torn up after recent logging but I’m sure by the end of summer will grow back up to wildflowers. 
pancakes 
, made my lunch up and are going to ride in on this most beautiful spring morning. 
Then it’s off to work, I have a pile of things that came in on Friday to look over 
. Then back home. Then I probably need to get to the laundromat though I could wait until tomorrow, when the weather is crappier. Should be a great day even if I wish I still was up in the wilderness. Hopefully my vest doesn’t stink too much like cannabis and wood smoke or burnt garbage for wearing it into work today, lol. 
is coming out, it’s just a cold and damp morning with the breeze. Decided I wanted a hardy breakfast with spinach, and lots of veggies and onions, 
and a few eggs 
and cottage cheese. You know like a high roller. Big Red’s DIC said it was forty this morning but with the dampness and wind feels much colder.
up there this year and while there was showers around it was mild until last night – and only then did the wind pick up and get real cold. One wind gust was so strong I was worried about how far it was pushing the campfire, fortunately though things were were wet and the sparks and fire brands were quickly extinguished.
and then hike back there, then maybe drive to Auger Falls and ride along NY 30 and then up Old Route 8B past Auger Flats to Austin Falls. 
. Mid afternoon drive down to Kiwanis Park in Rotterdam Junction and ride the Erie Canalway to dusk. Then head home 
and get unpacked and ready for work tomorrow. 
