Good afternoon! Sunny and 86 degrees in Stratford. There is a south breeze at 9 mph. The dew point is 57 degrees. It needs to be 10 to 20 degrees warmer to be the perfect temperature for the Potholers. I would rank the weather as an 8 out of ten for the Potholers. I could have spent the rest of the afternoon at the Potholers if I didn’t have to head home unpack and clean up my truck.

I know as I head home, I’ll eventually close the windows then turn on the air conditioning. As I drive into the city, the air conditioner will automatically start ramping up and will be absurdly hot in the city.

This afternoon will be mostly sunny, with a high near 87. Six degrees above normal. Southwest wind 8 to 10 mph. The record high of 99 was set in 1952.

Tonight the sun will set at 8:42 pm with dusk around 9:17 pm, which is exactly the same as than yesterday. Today will have 15 hours and 21 minutes of daylight, a decrease of 25 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low around 60. Typical for tonight. South wind around 7 mph. The record low of 45 occured back in 1970.

On this day in 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, underlining the support of the United States for democratic West Germany shortly after Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall. Also, The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time in 1974 to sell a package of Wrigley’s chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio.

There are 11 weeks until September 11th when the sun will be setting at 7:14 pm with dusk at 7:42 pm. The average high temperature is 74 degrees, with a record high of 98 in 1931.

At the point you’re reading this, I’m on my way back to Albany. I have to get home fairly early today, so I can get unpacked and the inside of my truck cleaned in preparation for the work trip on Monday. And leaving Friday morning for Moose River Plains for Independence Day Weekend. Hah! Life sure is rough for me. Racking up the miles. But winter will soon be  here, and I’ll be driving only 30 miles a week, and bitching about the road salt. God, that is depressing. Maybe with global warming, it won’t ever get below freezing this winter. Last winter was nice, I was in a t-shirt camping on Christmas Day at Charles Baker State Forest in Madison County.

Last night I was lighting off fireworks at my campsite. Those $10 fountain packages at Shop-rite are kind of lame as the crappy fountains that are legal in New York. I think I’m going to have to buy some real fireworks like Roman Candles the next time I’m in Pennsylvania, and save them for some place like Moose River Plains or Powley Place, where I can light them off with nobody caring, and still have a good view of them. Haha. Hopefully it won’t be so dry that I accidentally burn down the area, although things are still pretty charred at Powley Place.

I’m shocked to see all that charred ground along the old East Branch of the Sacanadaga River at Powley Place, but I can imagine all those grasses get pretty dry in the spring. I think I vaguely remember reading about the wildfire in the newspapers a while back but I want to read up again after seeing the charred ground. It’s kind of shocking to see the black ground where normally tall green marsh grass. If the fire occurred before the road opened in late May, I wonder if anyone noticed the fire before it burned itself out. Probably wasn’t human caused with the road closed in the spring and three miles from the gate. I took some pic and will post them later.

Camping out on the sand plains means excellent views of the stars, especially when I dim the lights, as I  did as the evening progressed. With the low humidity and the remote location I’m in, I think the stars were about as beautiful as I ever remember them being in New York. The colors from my various light strings are pretty but so are the stars and they aren’t like that at home.  Somebody slowed down quite a bit when they saw the colorful blinking lights. A lot of time that surprises people although it shouldn’t with all the time I’ve camped here over the years. Spring peepers were singing their songs last night and an owl was doing a lot of hooting.

The evenings were fairly cool or maybe just pleasant but the overnights I had to really climb under the covers. Maybe not heater weather, but gawd, it’s only a week to Independence Day. You expect to be sleeping above the covers and not dealing with temperatures dropping down to the mid 40s each night. But with crystal clear skies and low humid the mercury dropped pretty low. The days were pretty nice – warm but not humid so very comfortable. Black flies were pretty bad around dusk each day. When I was sitting at Stewart Landing beach a horse fly got my back, and I was dripping in blood bad enough that some random person asked if I was okay. Later in the evening I went to the Potholers and those bubbly waters ensured I was quite clean.

The Potholers were as enjoyable as ever. The water was fairly warm but cold enough to be refreshing. The water levels in the potholes were just perfect. Enough water to give you a good scrubbing but not dangerously or obnoxiously high. Warmer weather would have been nice for the Potholers but it was cool enough in the days for paddling Stewart Landing to West Canada Lake. I should have hiked somewheres like back to House Pond.

Saw lots of wildlife. Sitting in camp, a ruffled grouse kind of flew through camp, as grouse often do. I saw a bunch of turkeys driving through but didn’t get a good look to see if they were bearded. A doe was in the road on Saturday and I watched as a trooper almost hit it. I had to hit my brakes too.
It was a good weekend but it’s coming to an end much too quickly. But next weekend is a long one…