Don’t delay, time is limited! So it would seem as tomorrow at this point I’ll be heading back north again. Days go by too quickly it seems.

Good morning! Already Friday! Emotions are very different on vacation then when doing the work week thing. Mostly cloudy and 53 degrees in Canaan Heights, West Virginia. There is a southwest breeze at 12 mph. 🍃. This morning reminds me of a cool summer morning.

I am not as sore as I expected this morning from riding Canyon Ridge Jeep Trail 🚙 on my mountain bike 🚵 yesterday. That road was so rough! And I was going relatively fast as time was going by so quickly with dusk 🌆 approaching.

Yesterday was a fun but busy one. 🚵 Rode the old rail line 7 miles and 1,110 ft deep into the Blackwater River Gorge from Coketon outside of Thomas, then mostly carried my mountain bike over several waterfalls and cliff edges up the 4 ½ miles 🚶 to Canyon Road Jeep Trail via Limerock Trail, a badly eroded old logging road.

Had a bone jarring ride to the Olson Firetower, and even more so on way back to Coketon. 🙇Canyon Road is definitely a jeep trail with several washes, lots of mud wallows and a very rocky surface. Fun on a mountain bike but very bone jarring. Olson Firetower is an 100 ft Aeromotor tower, it’s quite tall as Firetower 🗼 go and has good views from Parsons to Davis to parts of Western Maryland. Made it back to my truck at 6:20 pm a little bit before sunset.

In total, rode 22.6 miles plus carried the bike the 4.5 miles up the Limerock Trail for a total of 27.1 miles for the day. Busy tiring day. 🥱 I got tuckered in Tucker County WV!

If I wasn’t so dang muddy and sweaty I thought about getting dinner 🌯 at either Hellbenders Burritos or the Purple Café but time was getting late and the prior was packed. After stopping at Shop and Save I went back to camp ⛺ and cooked up chicken and vegetables. Maybe today I’ll do Hellbenders if I end up back in Davis.

Today will have a chance of rain showers 🌧️ especially in the morning and otherwise mostly cloudy ⛅ with a high of 67 degrees at 3pm. 8 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 30th. Might see a few breaks of sun. Maximum dew point of 60 at 5pm. Breezy with a southwest wind of 12 to 17 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 61 degrees. The record high of 79 was set in 1963. 1.7 inches of snow fell back in 2016.❄

Heading to the Canaan Wildlife Refuge today 🐦 and maybe hike up to the Ridge Trail at Dolly Sods. 🚶 The thing about accessing Dolly Sods from the refuge is it closes at dusk with a risk of getting towed 🚧 so I need to be back to the truck by then. Can’t delay. Some depends on whether it rains. It’s raining a little ways north in Maryland and Southern Pennsylvania. ☔ If it becomes really wet I could see going back to Davis and getting lunch at Hellbenders Burritos 🌯 then spending the afternoon at the Tucker County library 💻 looking at an uploading some photos. 📸 And maybe some of the mountain bike trails in the rain. 😂

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:40 pm with sun having an altitude of 34.7° from the due south horizon (-36.2° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 8.7 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 5:17 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (247°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (253°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 6:25 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 2 seconds with dusk around 6:54 pm, which is one minute and 25 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Full 🌝 Moon in the east (88°) at an altitude of 11° from the horizon, 230,268 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:59 pm. At sunset, look for cloudy skies and temperatures around 57 degrees. The dew point will be 60 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 6 mph. Tomorrow will have 10 hours and 32 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 37 seconds over today.

Tonight will be cloudy ☁️, with a low of 49 degrees at 4am. 12 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around September th. Maximum dew point of 60 at 6pm. South wind around 6 mph. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 35 degrees. The record low of 18 occurred back in 1974.

Governor Ronald Reagan in 1964 delivers a speech on behalf of the Republican candidate for president, Barry Goldwater. The speech launches his political career and comes to be known as “A Time for Choosing”. 🎙️ Extremism is no vice seems to be the rallying call of both political parties these days probably because all most party candidates fear in gerrymandered districts is primaries. 🗳

Tomorrow will have chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 64. West wind 8 to 12 mph. 🌧️ Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts less than a tenth of an inch possible. 18 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 16th. Maximum dew point of 63 at 11am. South wind 6 to 13 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 55 degrees. The record high of 78 was set in 1971. 2.0 inches of snow fell back in 1952.❄

I’m now thinking 💭 about heading up to Paw Paw tomorrow to check out the Paw Paw Canal Tunnel 🚣 where the C&O Canal goes through a mountain in a tunnel. It’s a bit out of the way – further east than I planned on going but it would replace going to Seneca Rocks which I’ve done a couple of times but was considering alternative trails up that way. There is a National Park campground ⛺ in Paw Paw but despite being an hour closer to home, that still leaves a long trip back to the Albany. That’s why I might explore then head north to County Bridge or Asaph Run campgrounds in northern central Pennsylvania. Asaph Run is right on the Pine Creek Rail Trail so I could ride that Sunday if not too wet.

Looking ahead to Sunday, a chance of showers before 11am, then rain, mainly after 11am. ☔ High near 50. North wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. Typical average high for the weekend is 57 degrees.

So if I end up at Asaph Run come Sunday, 🚲 the plan is to ride as much of the Trail through the Pine Creek Gorge as time and weather allows. I don’t mind riding in drizzle, I have one set of dry clothes left by then but not pouring rain. ☔ Want to leave by 2 pm so I can be pretty close to home by sunset 🌇 or at least pitch blackness driving 🚘 in the rain. Maybe stop at Annuto’s in Oneonta and get more apples 🍏, they were good. Doughnuts 🍩 too but I think I’ll skip them this time for health reasons, lol 😂.

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Buy Nothing Day 🛍️ when the sun will be setting at 4:27 pm with dusk at 4:57 pm (Standard Time). After all the money 💵 I’ve spent on vacation, I won’t have any money to buy shit but I might go up to the Adirondacks that weekend to burn Thanksgiving calories 🦃 and have a big fire 🔥 and maybe do some hiking. 🚶 On that day in 2022, we had partly sunny and temperatures between 49 and 24 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 46 degrees. We hit a record high of 70 back in 2014.