After five nights of camping, three nights here at Charles Baker State Forest I’m taking down camp and finishing up packing my truck. I want to get home fairly early so I can do my wash at the laundromat and possibly wash my truck though that gives me pause as come Friday I might be heading back out to the wilderness for a NYE trip though the start of 2024 on Monday morning.

Good morning! Mostly cloudy and 38 degrees at the Moscow Hill Camping Area. ☁ There is a south breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. Temperatures will drop below freezing at Friday around 9 pm. ☃️

Last night was pleasant and not too cold under the full moon 🌕 as I sat by the campfire until around 9:30 pm. It didn’t get below freezing until well into the night 🌃. It followed a nice but rather muddy day 🚲 riding truck trails on my mountain bike at Charles Baker. The roads were muddy with all the melting ice on them.

Today will have a chance of rain, mainly after 4pm. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a high of 46 degrees at 2pm. 11 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 24th. South wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. The high last year was 30 degrees. The record high of 59 was set in 1895. 13.9 inches of snow fell back in 1969.❄

Laundromat and unpacking first when I get home 👚 and then I’ll also shower 🚿 as I’m quite dirty and then go to the grocery store 🛒. Pretty low on groceries at this point. 🍏 Fortunately it’s just a short work week. Undecided about going to the car wash 🛻, I should get the salt off my truck but if I’m planning on heading out of town on Friday or Saturday for NYE washing my truck at this point would be silly. 🧼

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:03 pm with sun having an altitude of 23.8° from the due south horizon (-46.8° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 13.6 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:48 pm with the sun in the southwest (230°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (238°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:34 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 26 seconds with dusk around 5:05 pm, which is 38 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Full 🌝 Moon in the east-northeast (60°) at an altitude of 9° from the horizon, 243,682 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:42 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 44 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 9 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 5 minutes of daytime, an increase of 17 seconds over yesterday.

Ad revenue has really dried up lately on the blog 💸 but that’s to be expected this time of year with less traffic. I guess I could do more aggressive ads but I feel like it’s enough advertising as it is for my taste. Traffic will come back come next summer when people are looking for maps and stories about camping. That $164 check I got last Friday was kind of nice, but with the drop of revenue this time of year I doubt I’ll get another payment until the third week of March, and that will probably only be slightly more then that check. But I do expect looking at historical blog traffic things should pick up.

Tonight will rain likely, mainly after 3am. Cloudy 🌧, with a low of 41 degrees at 6am. 21 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around October 17th. South wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. In 2022, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 22 degrees. The record low of -18 occurred back in 1914.

Cloudy with snow showers likely in Madison County for NYE weekend in Madison County. 🌨 Maybe more sun and somewhat warmer back in the Albany area. Saturday, a chance of snow showers before 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 30. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New Years Eve, mostly cloudy, with a high near 34. New Years Day, party sunny and 35. Typical average high for the weekend is 35 degrees.