Good evening. It’s 70 degrees and mostly clear at the 9 PM hour, as the holiday weekend comes to a conclusion. Tomorrow will be a hot one, with temperatures expected to reach 88 degrees with plenty of sunshine. It won’t be too humid though, as the dewpoint is only expected to reach 61 in daytime, and maybe 62 by evening. It should be delightful if you don’t have to go back to work tomorrow, like most of us mere mortals have to. Oppressive heat comes in on Tuesday, at 86 degrees with dewpoints creeping up to 68 degrees, creating a heat index in the low 90s. Hazy-hot-and-humid summer will be here on Tuesday.

After such a cool and busy June, it’s easy to forget it’s already July. I know yesterday was independence Day, but I keep saying to myself it’s June. I’m hoping the hot weather continues into the weekend, as if it’s nice, I’d love to spend some quality time at the potholers.

Yesterday after hiking up Rocky Mountain I went to Limekiln Lake State Campground to use the beach, head out on the lake kayaking, do some fishing, and then take a hot shower. I accomplished hed all those things. With my Empire Passport, day use of the campground was free. Unfortunately, it was like 45 minutes away from where I was camping on rough dirt roads, so certainly it wouldn’t be practical to take a shower camping at least from where I was at Moose River Plains. It was my first time at Limekiln – it’s both a massive campground and a big lake. Beautiful country too. Didn’t catch anything besides a pan fish, but I honestly didn’t spend that much time fishing. The hot shower was nice but the shower facilities were old and sketchy.

I was really happy to see Moose River Plains campsites largely filed. A handful remained open but most closest to Inlet were filled by Independence Day. It’s important to have a constituency for our public lands. Hopefully the young children will have lifelong memories of Moose River Plains and will come back with their kids – and be a vocal advocate for their protection. Developed campgrounds and designated wilderness areas are all the rage today, and I feel like roadside camping in a largely wild area are all but forgotten. Many National Forests have dispersed camping along many of their roads but few are as big and wild as Moose River Plains. The 150 or so roadside campsites are spread out over an area larger than Manhattan.

Got back to camp and started cooking dinner. I saw the sky starting to get really dark, but I thought the thunderstorms was going to stay north. It didn’t. In the middle of cooking dinner it started to pour. A bucket sitting out in the rain got a half inch in five minutes. I raced to get the campfire started as my kindling supply was limited and I didn’t want to try to start a fire with limited kindling. I got the fire started just in time, as the sky opened up. I through some boards and logs over the struggling fire, and that seemed to keep it dry enough until things caught. The firewood was good and dry, so it burnt easily. Despite kicking off a ton of smoke, the fire somehow survived the rain. At the same time, I was racing around with pork chops on one stove and rice on the other stove. The rain was so heavy the tarp was sagging. I had to grab the poles to support the tarp. Somehow I managed to stay fairly dry, get a roaring fire, not burn dinner too badly, and keep the tarp. After five minutes of intense rain, it let up but continued all evening.

Honestly I didn’t care that much about the rain. I had a feeling that last night was the nicest evening of the weekend – not too chilly and dry. So I made the most of it. My lights worked perfectly and the tarp kept me dry – although I had wished the tarp was closer to the fire so I could warm by the fire. But I had to feel for the families camping up here. I’m sure many struggled in the heavy rain, especially those without electric and only a tent for shelter. If they were lucky enough to keep a fire going and had a dry and warm place to sit probably not so bad. Even those with an RV missed out on having a fire or lighting off fireworks. I guess that’s the risk with thunderstorms. You can’t stop them from happening at a bad time. By 10:30, the rain slowed to sprinkles and I could actually sit by the fire. I heard some people in the distance lighting off fireworks and firecrackers later in the evening, so I guess it is what it is. I ended up staying up until a little after midnight, enjoying the music and watching the campfire.

Today I broke down camp, put everything away, and headed over to Cedar River Flow to do some fishing, kayaking, and a swim. Everything was fine until I couldn’t find my bug spray. The black flies were still out fierce, so i really needed the spray. I searched and searched my truck with no luck. Finally, gave up, and then found it. In the process I lost my cellphone. I eventually found it in the grass near where my truck was parked. After wasting over a half hour looking for shit, I finally get out on the water, and my fishing pole is tied in a knot. I said the heck with it, and put the kayak back on the roof of my truck. Hoped into the Cedar River Flow to cool off for a bit, then finally headed back home. My stupidity or tiredness after staying up so many nights late, apparently made me do stupid things. All and all it was a good trip except this one short momentary lapse of judgement. Some sleep is necessary after all the fun.