Good evening! Clear and 48 degrees at the Allegheny National Forest. There is a east breeze at 7 mph. 🍃.

Today was a nice quiet day. 🚶 I did a nice hike from Kinzua Beach to Rimrock and walked on the Cornplanter Bridge. 🌉 After the hike I sat down by the reservoir for a while with the third book of vacation, this one on the National Security State. I got back to camp, cooked dinner and built a big fire 🔥 before laying back in the hammock. The ample sun today meant the solar panel put out 192 watt hours while I was parked down there – not bad figuring its a 100 watt panel and its the October sun. 🔋 That extra battery helps a lot at camp.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 41 degrees at 4am. One degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around October 10th. East wind 5 to 7 mph. In 2018, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It became humid as the night progressed. It got down to 62 degrees. The record low of 27 occurred back in 2001.

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous Moon 🌔 with 87% illuminated. The moon will set at 2:37 am. The 🌕 is on Saturday night with mostly clear skies. The sun will rise at 7:19 am with the first light at 6:51 am, which is one minute and 6 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 12 hours and 34 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 46 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 65 degrees at 4pm. Two degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 4th. East wind 5 to 7 mph. A year ago, we had light drizzle in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 81 degrees. The record high of 83 was set in 1949. There was a dusting of snow in 2000.❄

Whats the next step I ask myself? I was thinking I really do crave the scenic beauty of West Virginia and I don’t need to have a fire down there. I have the heater and electric lights which are working well. 🗻 Tomorrow I morning I could break camp early, take US 219 to Thomas WV and camp there through Sunday. I would stop at Mount Davis tomorrow and then hike Hoyes Crest on Thursday or Friday and the opposite day do a day trip and hike at Dolly Sods and maybe Cannan Valley Refuge. Come back on Sunday, overnight at County Bridge Campground outside of Troy Penna.

The alternative which is probably more sensible is to tomorrow drive down to the Southern portion of the Allegheny National Forest. ⛺ There is this big open campsite outside of Marietta on Loleta Grade that is remote yet has an open canopy for solar and looking at the stars ✨. Good wood supply and I could drive over to the Buzzard Swamp one day. I’d have to get ice and more milk and cheese tomorrow in Warren then maybe take US 62 south. Maybe visit the Tionesta Vista and Nebraska Bridge which is probably not underwater right now. Sunday visit the Elk Center in Benzette and drive the Elk Route along the very scenic West Branch of the Susquehanna River and drive up to Hyner View. Overnight at County Bridge, get home on Columbus Day. That would be a lot less miles and much quieter option but it means no West Virginia until November 2020 or later.

I think I’ll choose the later but I’ll sure be disappointed 😥 about not making it to West Virginia. But the leaves by Sunday might be much better in Elk County and they’re really cool 😎 to watch graze. I ‘ll see come the morning. The Elk Drive is a lot of fun and maybe quite beautiful but the rest of the week is kind of bland compared to the alternative.

In four weeks on November 5 the sun will be setting at 5:05 pm (Standard Time),🌄 which is one hour, 40 minutes and 42 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had rain showers, partly sunny and temperatures between 48 and 31 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 52 and 34 degrees. The record high of 75 degrees was set back in 1994.

Looking ahead, Election Day 2019 🗳️ is in 4 weeks, 7:15 AM Sunrise ⌛️ is in 9 weeks, Christmas Eve 🎅 is in 11 weeks, New Years Eve 🎆 is in 12 weeks, Coldest Week of the Year 🌬 is in 14 weeks and Martin Luther King Day 🖤 is in 15 weeks.

I set my alarm for 6:30 am well before dawn here so I can take down camp and move onto whatever the next step is. ⏰

Good evening! Nice evening laying back in the hammock. A barn owl is hooting in the distance, and I hear from crickets. The moon is obscured by the clouds but it’s still not super dark in the woods. Rain has been gone since midday 🕛 and now the woods is fairly dry with a dropping dew point. There is a group of bow hunters 🙇 a quarter mile down the road – they’re the group with the big jacked up 3/4 ton truck with the pick up camper. Far enough way that the only way I know there down there is occasionally a I hear their coon dog 🐶 howling or an occasional hoot or holler from their camp – that an I drove past their camp earlier. Coyotes are loud tonight.

Mostly cloudy and 53 degrees at the Allegheny National Forest. ☁ There is a west-northwest breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 47 degrees. The skies will clear around 11 pm.

Today as expected was kind of a damp and somewhat rainy day ☔ although the rain ended much earlier than in Albany but the first sign of any real clearing was not until around sunset. I sat out and read outside for a while but started to feel cold and damp and decided to hot tent with the book. 📖 I got through my second book of vacation – as I noted earlier – Andrew Revkins book on Weather. Nice picture book, sometimes adults like books with lots of graphics. Second book I’ve read on vacation. 📚 Very warm at times in the tent – that heater kicks out a lot of heat and with temperatures in the mid 50s I kept having to turn it off.

I drove over to Jakes Rocks for a while this afternoon to top off the batteries but ended up disconnecting the accessory batteries from the alternator when I started smelling ozone. 🔋 I don’t want to accidentally fry the alternator while I’m on vacation or even just burn up a wire or a fuse. It’s fine – after today the sun will be shining and I’ll rely entirely on the solar for the accessory loads as the sun will out. ☀

Walking around Jakes Rocks was nice although it was rather cloudy and dark ☁. But other than that a fine afternoon. I’ll admit today was a quiet day but my expectations were pretty low.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 42 degrees at 6am. Typical for tonight. Northwest wind 3 to 6 mph. In 2018, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became light drizzle by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 50 degrees. The record low of 21 occurred back in 1964.

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous Moon 🌔 with 80% illuminated. The moon will set at 1:38 am. The 🌕 is on Saturday night with mostly clear skies. The sun will rise at 7:19 am with the first light at 6:51 am, which is one minute and 5 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 12 hours and 32 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 46 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 62 degrees at 4pm. One degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 10th. Northeast wind 5 to 7 mph. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 63 degrees. The record high of 80 was set in 2017.

I’ve decided to stay at this campsite one more day. ⛺ I just don’t feel like taking down camp with a week’s worth of gear and a tent to put away that is still a bit damp. Going to be a nice day tomorrow, so I definitely want to go hiking and park the truck somewhere to fully charge the accessory batteries. I might go to Titusville as I didn’t visit the museum last time I was there in 2012 or might just go for a walk along the reservoir, parking down at the swimming beach and maybe hiking up Rim Rock. 🚶

Wednesday who knows. 💭 West Virginia is still a possibility. The US 219 isn’t that far away and if I get up well before dawn and leave by eight I can probably do both Mount Davis State Park and Hoye Crest in Maryland before setting up camping in Cannan Heights. It looks as of the last time I checked the burn ban is still on but I don’t have to have a campfire. I always have the lights and the heater. And good music to listen to. I would probably stay until Sunday there and then come back through Pennsylvania and stay at the County Bridge Campground on Sunday into Columbus Day. Going to be mild and sunny the rest of the week.

Alternatively, I could drive up through Allegany State Park and camp, hike and hunt squirrel in Cattaraugus County or fish and hike in the Zoar Valley. 🐠 I’ve always wanted to check out the Eternal Flame Falls in Orchard Park – I read about it a lot now that I work with several Buffalo clients thee days. ⛲ Maybe the leaves are better up north in New York? 🍂

I could also move to somewhere farther south in the National Forest, check out Nebraska Bridge and that wildlife refuge down that way. Saturday or Sunday visit the Elk center and do the Elk Scenic Drive🐯 along with visiting Hyner View Park which might have good color by then. I would also overnight at the County Bridge campground. Or honestly, I could stay at the same site all week. At any rate, wherever I camp that final night, I don’t want to be more than four driving 🚘 hours away from Albany so I can get back relatively early and have time to stop for lunch, visit some parks, take back roads and get back early enough to unpack.💼 It was too long of a drive for my sanity all the way out to Allegheny National Forest on the way it here.🌲🌲

The damn camp lantern I bought mantles for remains real smokey with yellow flames and tons of soot 🏮. Not sure what the issue is. I was thinking that that the generator tube is clogged with dirt but the filter on it seems fine as does the gas pressure. I checked that I installed the proper mantles. Yeap. Everything seems fine but the inside of the lantern is filled with oily soot, the glass keeps on getting sooty and the top is dripping with soot. Fortunately I have plenty of electricity power off the truck, the lantern is just a backup in case of undervoltage and for extra light. Wouldn’t want to have it alone.

In four weeks on November 4 the sun will be setting at 5:07 pm (Standard Time),🌄 which is one hour, 41 minutes and 7 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had partly cloudy, rain showers and temperatures between 51 and 36 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 53 and 34 degrees. The record high of 76 degrees was set back in 1994.

I do really like that green Don’t Tread On Me – Live Free or Die shirt 👚 I bought online. I would want to get caught dead wearing it in Albany but it’s fun here in the wilderness. I’m no fan of Donald Trump – he’s a racist moron with generally bad ideas 👺but I do think government should be downsized and stay out of people’s business. That’s why I’m eventually thinking of moving to a state like Missouri when I own my off grid property with solar on the roof, composting for the toilet and a burn pit out back for the trash. An an AR-15 because they sound like a lot of fun to shoot.

Looking ahead, Average High is 55 🍂 is in 3 weeks, Veterans Day 🇺🇸 is in 5 weeks, Cyber Monday 🛍️ is in 8 weeks, First Sunday of Advent ✝️ is in 8 weeks, Earliest Sunset of the Year ⌛️ is in 9 weeks and Festivus 🍖 is in 11 weeks.

Good evening! Rain and 61 degrees at the Allegheny National Forest. ☔ There is a southwest breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 59 degrees. Despite the rain, it’s a fairly mild evening. It looks like West Virginia is getting hit by a lot of rain tonight – even more than here and thats a good thing – they need it badly. The skies will clear Tuesday around 1 am.

Today I mostly stayed around camp ⛺, reading a book about agriculture in America. 📖 I don’t remember the name of the book and I’m not interested in going out in the rain to look at it. Read it cover to cover, it was an interesting book.

Later in the evening I went for a walk 🚶 along the Elijah Bike Trail up to Coal Knob. While the Coal Knob tower 🗼 is long gone it is pretty with the Pitch Pine on the summit. It turned out to be a five plus mile walk, through a variety of forests.

Rain held off for the most part until 8:30 💦 and I laid back in the hammock for a while before having to take it down for the rain. A mild evening, I am now sitting tarp although I let the fire go down 🔥 to save wood for tomorrow and because I don’t know how much longer I’ll stay up. I might start up the truck a bit to top off the batteries before bed. 😴

Tonight will rain. Patchy fog after 4am. 🌧 Low of 53 degrees at 6am. Six degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 23rd. Southwest wind around 6 mph becoming northwest after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible. In 2018, we had cloudy skies. It became humid as the night progressed. It got down to 52 degrees. The record low of 27 occurred back in 1986.

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous Moon 🌔 with 72% illuminated with the moon setting at 12:39 am. The moon will set at 1:00 am. The 🌕 is on Saturday night with mostly clear skies. The sun will rise at 7:18 am with the first light at 6:50 am, which is one minute and 6 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 12 hours and 29 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 46 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will rain, mainly before 10am. Patchy fog before 10am. 🌧 High of 56 degrees at 2pm. Six degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 22nd. Maximum dew point of 51 at 6am. 🏖️ Calm wind becoming west 5 to 8 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning, which became light rain by afternoon. The high last year was 72 degrees. The record high of 89 was set in 1963.

If it’s too cold and wet in the morning, I’ll head into the tent next to the heater with a book and hang out there maybe with a cup of coffee. ☕

In four weeks on November 3 the sun will be setting at 5:08 pm (Standard Time),🌄 which is one hour, 41 minutes and 35 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had rain and temperatures between 57 and 41 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 53 and 35 degrees. The record high of 75 degrees was set back in 1990.

Looking ahead, Average High is 60 🍂 is in 1 week, Daylight Savings Time Ends 🛥️ is in 4 weeks, Day After Election Day 🛀 is a month away, Average High is 50 🍂 is in 5 weeks, December 🎄 is in 8 weeks, Saint Nicholas Day 🎅 is in 2 months, Bill of Rights Day 📜 is in 10 weeks, Days are Getting Longer ☀️ is in 11 weeks, National Pie Day 🍰 is in 15 weeks, and the 5:30 PM Dusk 🌆 returns in 16 weeks.