Good evening! Partly clear and 72 degrees at Foster Pond. There is a west breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 64 degrees. Nice starry night 🌃 at least at times. Crickets are cricketing, cows are mooing with occasional hoots of an owl and the blood curling sound of a coyote. 🦉

Didn’t get kayaking 🛶 today but that’s fine, I ended up doing a lot of reading 📖 and hiking, taking in the vast landscapes of the grass lands known as the Finger Lakes National Forest. 🖼 Sometimes I like days when I don’t have to drive or take things down or secured for heading out of camp. Read a bunch of Gebe Brown’s book 📙 on Regentative Agriculture. While he is a shameless promoter of doing things his “new way” on his farm, he does have some interesting insights into the land much like Joel Saltin. Do I agree hundred 💯 percent with both of them? No but it’s interesting to hear their voice – same reason for trying to listen and be an informed person.

Hiking a bunch of Interloken Trail today was nice 🚶 and it’s been dry enough lately that the trail wasn’t too mucky. Often the shallow soils of the Hector Backbone mean lots of mud. 👢 Saw and heard lots of cows 🐮 and the ponds are small but nice. One of these days I’m going to have to do some fishing in some of them. 🎣

I have a bunch more pictures to upload to the blog ⤴️ but they’ll have to wait until tomorrow 📸 when I have a more reliable internet connection down in the village. My uploader works poorly on a bad connection. It’s quite pretty in the Finger Lakes and I’m really digging my new camera phone and being able to post more things close to live. 📱

This evening I hiked down to Foster Pond which is about a mile from camp 🚶 but I was a nice walk. Really didn’t need my flashlight much 🔦, I know the area pretty well and I always enjoy a good night hike. I did carry a flashlight mostly for safety on the road so any approaching cars could spot me early on. I am surprised how many people are camping 🏕 up by Foster Pond, usually it’s quiet on weeknights. I wonder if the folks frogging 🐸 got some to eat this evening. Certainly a lot of frogs on the lake but none real big. I’m actually glad I’m a bit farther away from Foster Pond than usual with it being so busy this week.

Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌃 , with a low of 67 degrees at 5am. Six degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 64 at 10pm. West wind around 7 mph. In 2019, we had light rain in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 57 degrees. The record low of 48 occurred back in 1955.

Tonight will have a Last Quarter 🌗 Moon with 64% illuminated. The moon will rise at 11:25 pm. The darkest hour is at 1:13 am, followed by dawn at 5:38 am, and sun starting to rise at 6:09 am in the east-northeast (68°) and last for 3 minutes and 7 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 3 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 6:48 am with sun in the east-northeast (74°). Tonight will have 9 hours and 52 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 25 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Sunny 🌞, with a high of 87 degrees at 3pm. Six degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 67 at 10am. Southwest wind around 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 76 degrees. The record high of 96 was set in 1949.

The plan for tomorrow is get a relatively early start ☕ and do some hiking in the Upper Gorge Trail above the main park and then swim 🏊 at the Watkins Glen Park Pool. Also need to buy some food and ice – I’m very low, and then maybe fish 🎣 and take in the sunset 🌇 or at least the evening at Clute Park.

In four weeks on September 6 the sun will be setting in the west (279°) at 7:32 pm,🌄 which is 44 minutes and 21 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 72 and 52 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 76 and 55 degrees. The record high of 91 degrees was set back in 2018.

Looking ahead, Average High 70 🎑 is in 6 weeks, More Night then Day 🌌 is in 7 weeks, Last Sunset After 6:30 PM 🌆 is in 8 weeks, November 🥧 is in 12 weeks, First Sunday of Advent ✝️ is in 17 weeks, Saint Nicholas Day 🎅 is in 17 weeks, Earliest Sunset of the Year ⌛️ is in 4 months, Latest Sunrise of the Winter 🌄️ is in 21 weeks, Static Electric Shock Day 🧼 is in 5 months and Valentines Day ❤️ is in 27 weeks.