This evening would be best described as muggy. It is 66 degrees with a muggy dewpoint of 66 degrees. Officially humidity is 96%, so there is about as much humidity in the air as possible without rain. Despite the muggy conditions, at this point there are no thunderstorms heading towards the greater Ithaca / Watkins Glen area. Possibly later?

Still it’s an improvement over earlier with a high of 89 degrees and a tropical dewpoint of 72. It doesn’t get much hotter then that in the Finger Lakes. The weather was so hot that Cayuga Lake even felt more frigid then usual.

This morning was foggy at Long Pond State Forest but cleared out later. Headed over to Whitney Point Reservoir for a brief stop for a picture then on to Ithaca. Went to Buttermilk Falls State Park briefly, mostly to see how wild the falls were after the heavy rain. I knew that the beach would be closed, and no surprise there, the water was turbid.

I always hate going through Ithaca. The traffic is always bad there, it crawls through the city. Half of the roads downtown are multi-lane affairs and the hills are steep and the brakes groan, despite using low gear.

I’m totally paranoid that my truck will break down and leave me stranded somewhere. It would be one thing if I had evidence of my brakes going or something else. But I don’t. Somehow I decided at 40,000 miles I need brakes even though the truck stops fine and is making no noise except a slight squeal at a hard stop. And that might just be the suspension. Then yesterday, I decided I smelled something burning in my truck. I pulled over and checked. Nothing was hot, no smell under the hood. Probably some farmer or redneck burning garbage. The truck doesn’t have the balls it once had before the lift kit and I miss the lower gears but it gets around fine and doesn’t really burn much more gas then before. Regearing is so expensive. I swear at times the engine is noisier then normal, but it just a belt or the fan. The loaner truck I had last year a was the same with noises. I’m just a nervous nilly, listening to every noise, regardless if it’s relevant. I could spend a lot of time fixing imaginary problems.

I was glad to get out of Ithaca traffic…

Made it down to Taughannock State Park and was glad to see the beach on Cayuga Lake was open. Never been to that beach as it’s famous for being frigid. It lived up to the legend. Cold but refreshing. Swam and sat on the beach for about two hours and hiked up into the gorge to the falls. Heading back to Taughannock later in the week to once again explore the upper gorge and for a swim.

Headed up to the Finger Lakes National Forest to camp. Got my favorite campsite. The relay was working fine today, so I had plenty of power to camp. The site while having some litter scattered about also had a decent pile of firewood. I also gathered some more. Made burgers on my new camp grill which worked pretty good, except for failing to make the burgers big enough and not giving the charcoal enough time to get fully up to temperature. Nice evening, everything else went smoothly, although quite sticky. The cows came by a few times to say hi.

Tommorow it’s off to Watkins Glen. Plan to spend the morning hiking the gorge and the afternoon in the very nice Olympic-sized swimming pool. There is a small chance I will also head down and explore Connecticut Hill WMA and Upper Enfield Glen but I think that will have to wait for another day. Thunderstorms could change plans. I don’t plan to leave this part of the Finger Lakes until Wednesday or Thursday.

Everybody, sleep well!