Personal
Surrounded by the stoned cattle 🐮
I’m just trying to enjoy the sunset from the No-Nan-Tanko Trail when I look down and I’m surrounded by holsteins on all four sides their rough tongues licking my legs and smelling my mountain bike which obviously picked up some cow shit from the other pasture. And I say, God Bless the Grass.
Those beef cows didn’t really find me quite interesting 🐂 but the holsteins certainly did. There are some nice views from the top of the backbone and this point with my mountain bike 🚲 being a year old I don’t care how much manure I sling with it riding the No-Nan-Tanko Trail. The sunset 🌇 was kind of muted from the wildfire smoke but it made for a firery sunset and sunrise. Spent some time down by Teeter Pond and then rode back to camp 🏕 in the dark before heading up to Foster Pond hoping to see some shooting stars ✨ though it was in vein. Didn’t stay a long time though as it was cold with the breeze and low humidity so I headed back to camp and had a fire 🔥 before falling asleep in the hammock om the hill after giggling 🤭 for a bit after listening to the news. 📰 The world may be going to shit but I’m enjoying this week slinging cow manure with my mountain bike.
Today I’m heading out on Seneca Lake in kayak 🛶 up to Hector Point most likely or at least under the cliffs then I will swim 🏊 at the Watkins Glen Pool, the ride Rock Cabin Road observing nature and poking around the Bad Indian Swamp. 🐸 Get ice cream 🍦 at the Glen Dairy Bar and watch the sunset 🌇 from Seneca Pier before heading back to camp for an early bed 🛏 before heading to Pennsylvania to ride the Pine Creek Gorge trail most of Sunday. But first Walmart for some supplies. 🛒 Going to be a hot one great day, figure maximize this weekend when the weather seems particularly nice.
Fifth Dimension Lyrics
Oh how is it that I could come out to here
And be still floating
And never hit bottom and keep falling through
Just relaxed and paying attention
All my two dimensional boundaries were gone
I had lost to them badly
I saw the world crumble and thought I was dead
But I found my senses still working
And as I continued to drop through the hole
I found all the surrounding
To show me the joy that innocently is
Just be quiet and feel it around you
And I opened my heart to the whole universe
And I found it was loving
And I saw the great blunder my teachers had made
Scientific delirium madness
I will keep falling as long as I live
All without ending
And I will remember the place that is now
That has ended before the beginning
Oh how is it that I could come out to here
And be still floating
And never hit bottom and keep falling through
Just relaxed and paying attention
Camping at the Finger Lakes National Forest, July 26, 2024
Never camped at this site before on old Chicken Coop Road. Small but nice. Just set up camp!
Pretty much set up in the Finger Lakes National Forest 🏕
Got here around a little after eleven o’clock which isn’t bad from Albany figuring a stop to get bacon, gas, farm stand items and a pee break and getting off a few exits early on 88 in favor of NY 7, plus stopping at the Ulysses library a bit to work.
It’s nice to be out in the Finger Lakes. 🏕 It’s great to look around camp, knowing this place is going to be home for the next 9 nights. Today is June 26th and my vacation ends August 4th. Seems like a long time but it will most certainly be over in the blink of an eye 👁🗨.
That said, it’s nice to set up camp and know it will be home for the next 9 nights. 🏡 Really have a lot of reason to set up perfectly. It’s not a site I’ve camped on before but it’s a nice site if not a bit small. I like where the hammock sits on a hill overlooking the campsite with broken views of the pasture. Not a lot of room for a tent unless you set it up father back in the woods.
The woods is so pretty and colorful. 🌲 Some of it was from the smoke 🚬 but it was as much that as it’s exceptionally beautiful day with deep blue skies but a little bit of distant haze to the west from wildfires. Almost a bit cool, might want to put on jeans before I go out star gazing in the evening. ✨ Going to ride a bit of Interloken Trail this evening, 🚲, maybe watch the sunset and then head back to camp 🏕. Also want to have a fire and listen to some podcasts tonight and maybe stay up late. Tomorrow I’ll probably spend in Watkins Glen, kayaking 🛶 on Seneca Lake then maybe a swim at Watkins Glen, ride along Stone Cabin Road and then get ice cream. 🍦 Then back to camp as I want to get up early Sunday to head to Pennsylvania to ride the Pine Creek Gorge Trail.
Up with the teat strippers 🌅
Before the sun rises, having a quick breakfast and showering. Just milled oats and banana and a five hour energy shot to avoid the need to go while driving out to the Finger Lakes.
The idea is to be on the road by around 6:45 am. 🛻 Get bacon 🥓 and gas ⛽ and not stop until the first pee break. 🚻 And then it’s off to the farm stands. 🌽 And the Finger Lakes. 🐮
Just doing some wash and then final packing tonight 🛣️
Vacation will be here before you know it. I really plan to head right to sleep after I finish packing, and will set my alarm for 4:45 AM or maybe 5 AM for an extra early start. I want to be on the road by no later then 6:30 AM.
The idea is that For the Love of Bacon opens at 7 AM 
and while it’s no bacon emergency on vacation — I plan a leisurely but direct drive out there so I can set up camp before having to log-on tomorrow for work. I also need to gas up, 
but I should have enough food and money through Monday, except for essential stopping at farm stands on the way out. 
It’s early enough I’m just going to wait at laundromat for my clothes to finish up 
and then head home after that. Most of the clothes I’m washing at any rate is for next week, though I might pack at least one of the pairs of shorts in the wash so I have extra in case I need them. That said, I have quite a bit of clothes and I shouldn’t have to wash until the following week. 
I guess it depends how dirty I get and how much I change. It’s nine nights camping, ten days when you consider the trip out there and back.
Of course I’m realizing now I forgot to run a few data jobs before leaving work, 
and have fallen behind on my time sheets and approving staff time sheets, but I am getting that done on the VPN and I have to work tomorrow remotely in the afternoon, so ultimately it doesn’t matter one way or another.
Tomorrow at this time I should be also set up, 
be able to crack open a beer and maybe have a smoke. 
Then relax, get a good roaring fire going 
— although maybe I’ll ride my mountain bike to somewhere along the ridge where I can enjoy the stars. Or maybe I’ll wait a while for the fire until I’m done with enjoying the stars.