Good evening! Mostly clear and 69 degrees in Speculator, NY. 🌃 Calm wind. The dew point is 61 degrees.

I think I made the right choice to stay up north as it’s a very pleasant evening. Not going to stay up beyond ten but I’m hopeful to see the comet 🌟 tonight. So far I’ve only seen Vega. Some high clouds but I’m hoping for a very starry night from this open sky campsite. A little fire tonight, cooled off a bit after dark. Kept the lights simple tonight – just the flag light, campfire and lantern 🏮 on low to allow me to better enjoy the site. No screen tent 🎪 tonight as the bugs ain’t bad and I didn’t want to deal with wet gear.

This evening I hiked back to Fly Creek Road and down to the Sacandaga River to wash the sand off my itchy feet. 👣 I checked out the area where Robert Garrow murdered those campers nearly 50 years ago. 🔪 I couldn’t find the exact site, I may not have walked down far enough. 😕 Pretty area though but very overgrown. I was surprised, the old road is poured concrete with asphalt coat – hasn’t been paved in probably 70 years and still in passable shape. I was glad to get that sand off my feet, they were itchy enough to make me think I might have gotten athletes foot from the beach, like last time. I’ve been wearing my sandals a lot more lately to try to keep my feet drier. Athletes foot doesn’t bother me but jock itch is bad when you have itchy balls 🍆.

Tonight will have a chance of showers, mainly after 4am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 63 degrees at 4am. One degree above normal. Maximum dew point of 64 at 11pm. Calm wind. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Seems like it will stay to the south. In 2019, we had light rain in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 65 degrees. The record low of 45 occurred back in 1981.

Today wasn’t a bad, worked from the town park ⛲ and then went during the beach during lunch to swim 🏊 then spent the balance of the day working at the library 📚. All day was rain free which was nice, well except for a brief shower when I was working from my truck. It’s nice being only five minutes away from Speculator – makes it easy with work. Library parking 🅿 lot was packed midday with people using the Wi-Fi – a lot of children 🚸 – must be doing the – lessons. Internet was slow for a while. 🐢

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon with 6% illuminated. At 9 PM, the moon was in the west (281°) at an altitude of 12° from the horizon, some 230,253 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. 🚀 At the state speed limit of 55 mph, you’ll make it there by January 13^th. Buckle up for safety! 💺 The moon will set in the west-northwest (292°) at 10:11 pm. The Strugeon 🐡 Moon is on Monday, August 3. The darkest hour is at 1:04 am, followed by dawn at 5:04 am, and sun starting to rise at 5:38 am in the east-northeast (61°) and last for 3 minutes and 21 seconds. Sunrise is 58 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 6:19 am with sun in the east-northeast (68°). Tonight will have 9 hours and 7 minutes of darkness, an increase of one minute and 54 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have scattered showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 1pm. Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 78 degrees at 2pm. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around August 28th. Maximum dew point of 66 at 8am. Southwest wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning, which became light rain by afternoon. It was humid. The high last year was 79 degrees. The record high of 96 was set in 1955.

Tomorrow will be similar to today, 🏬 although I’ll need to run to the store for ice and food 🍲. It should be another nice evening tomorrow and then Friday after work I’m heading back to Piseco Powley Road for the weekend, probably camp farther north, maybe at a site I’ve never camped at before. Probably visit the Potholers Saturday and then head home relatively early come Sunday.

In four weeks on August 19 the sun will be setting in the west-northwest (288°) at 7:54 pm,🌄 which is 36 minutes and 14 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had humid, partly cloudy, mist and temperatures between 86 and 69 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 80 and 60 degrees. The record high of 92 degrees was set back in 1899.