And yes, those are my Christmas lights, hung behind my mud covered truck. It was a great night, not so cold out. I stayed up to see the moon rise, which occurred around 12:30 AM.
Taken on Saturday May 21, 2011 at Lester Flow and Cheney Pond.One thing that everybody should experience at least once in their lifetime, is to walk across Wakley Dam at a Full Moon. Wakley Dam, located at the Cedar River Flow, crosses the river and provides access to 5 of the primative campsites at Cedar River Flow portion of Moose River Plains.
When you across the moonlit lake, across the lake towards Little Moose Mountain in the distance, and towards Sturges Hills, you’ll take in a deep breath, as you try to comphrend what moonlit beauty you are looking at. You’ll look up towards the sky, with millions of stars, uncompromised by distance city lights. There are no cities nearby, indeed, the nearest town is the Hamlet of Indian Lake, 12 miles away on a rough dirt road.
… Cedar River Flow is amazing in the day time.
It’s even more amazing at night …
The Cedar River Flow at Moose River Plains has 10 roadside campsites along with an Assembly-area. It is popular for kayaking, camping, and exploring nearby mountains and trails such as Wakely Mountain. There are also about 20 campsites that you can paddle in along the lake, and over 150 campsites located up in Moose River Plains, a 30-60 minute drive up a rough dirt road from here.
You enter via Cedar River Road.
Half of the campsites at Cedar River Flow are located across the Wakley Dam.
Wakley Dam Bridge. It looks fairly secure. Heck, people drag their big fifth-wheel RVs across this bridge all the time, so it has to be pretty sturdy.
I camped out at Campsite No 9.
At Cedar River Flow is the Entrance to Moose River Plains, where you have to register your vehicle in case you get lost or your car or truck is otherwise found abandoned.
Sitting back and having a beer at Moose River Plains in the afternoon.
A big ass Campfire. Sigh!
One of the neat things is walking out on Wakely dam at night and looking up at the stars. Here is moonlight on Cedar River Flow.
Here is a map of the Cedar River Flow. The camping area is located on the Northern End by the dam.
The other night around quarter to midnight, I walked out across Wakely Dam at the Cedar River Flow in the Moose River Plains of Adirondack Mountains. With a new moon, I expected to see very dark skies with good views of the stars, and little light pollution in the distance.
While the stars were clear compared to any place around Albany, their was in the distance, across the Moose River Plains and mountains of the West Canada Wilderness, a very distinct warm color light, from the street lights along the hamlets that dot the Fulton Chain of Lakes — Old Forge, Eagle Bay, Inlet, etc. All of these hamlets are 30 to 50 miles away, and due to Wilderness and Forest Preserve, it’s unlikely to be from any source nearer.
Most of the light I saw in the sky probably was from street lights, parking lot lights, exterior building lights on lodges and businesses alike along the Fulton Chain of Lakes. It probably would not have been noticable in a more urbanized area, but due to the fact I was in wilderness and almost complete darkness, it shown brightly across the sky.
It’s unfortunate that it disturbs the views of the stars, despite my remoteness. It is much more unfortunate to think of the energy waste it represents. All those lights are supposed to be lighting a section of street, parking lots, deck, or some specific other purpose. They are not intended to be lighting sky or sending light 50 miles away to an observer standing on the Wakely Dam.
That light did not come from some free source. It came from a power plant that fed electricity in our state-wide electrical grid and sent a small fraction all the way up to the hamelts along the Fulton Chain of Lakes.
While some will argue that their is excess electricity in grid at night or that most of the power locally is generated by hydropower, the reality is electricity on the grid is fungible, and one unit of hydropower here could be used elsewheres to offset the use of coal or natural gas. Even in low energy use times, the grid still relies on a lot of dirty and polluting fossil fuels.
So I ask myself, why is a hamlet 50 miles away, sending energy in the form of light into wilderness? A lot has to do with technological inefficency that wastes energy, even more has to do with energy being so cheap, that it’s affordable to light up lands 50 miles away with wasted energy. Yet, it seems like such a waste.
I think there is a good chance I’ll be able to ride to work today, five days in a row. Not too bad. I was on the fence about the weekend, but evidently it seems unlikely I’ll head ot to Schoharie for just an overnight. I’d prefer to do two or three nights camping, after all the work to set up and take down camp. Maybe next weekend, or Memorial Day Weekend. That’s coming quickly.
Good morning! Cloudy, the rain has stopped briefly and 52 degrees in Delmar. ☁ There is a southeast breeze at 5 mph. 🍃 with gusts up to 7 mph 💨💨💨. The dew point is 44 degrees.
To ride in or not to ride in. 🚵 That’s the question on my mind. I really don’t feel like busing it to work, 🚍️ it’s such a pain with the transfer to the shuttle ↔️ and I enjoy the ride and not paying the $2.60 in bus fare for the day. Plus I like the exercise and how I feel getting all pumped up 🦾 but I also don’t want to get soaked. 💦 It’s a risk to ride in this morning as there is showers all around.
Didn’t get a real early start this morning, 🛌 as I’ve been staying up a bit later with the additional daylight in the evening, and it was a kind of dark morning and I don’t want to become too sleep deprived and cranky. 🥹 I was having trouble with the food processor chopping up the carrots and bananas for the pancakes, but it turns out things were just kind of plugged up and when I cleaned it out things were good again. 🥕 Carrot pancakes again this morning, pretty good. Only one cup of coffee ☕️ not because I was being good but because I didn’t have milk and coffee with plain Kefier isn’t the same as real coffee.
Today will have a chance of showers, mainly after 5pm. Cloudy 🌦, with a high of 62 degrees at 2pm. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 21st. East wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 77 degrees. The record high of 92 was set in 1970. 5.0 inches of snow fell back in 1945.❄
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:53 pm with sun having an altitude of 65.2° from the due south horizon (-5.7° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.8 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:26 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (289°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (296°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:06 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 12 seconds with dusk around 8:37 pm, which is one minute and 5 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the west-northwest (283°) at an altitude of 29° from the horizon, 238,831 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:18 pm. At sunset, look for rain showers 🌧 and temperatures around 62 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 14 hours and 31 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 14 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will have a chance of showers, mainly before 9pm. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 44 degrees at 9pm. Three degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 4th. South wind 3 to 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2023, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 40 degrees. The record low of 29 occurred back in 2010.
Tomorrow will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 64 degrees at 9am. Six degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 26th. Maximum dew point of 56 at 9am. Southeast wind 3 to 7 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 82 degrees. The record high of 90 was set in 1911. 0.5 inches of snow fell back in 1907.❄
Looking ahead to Sunday, showers likely, mainly before 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 61. Southeast wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Maximum dew point of 43 at 8am. Typical average high for the weekend is 70 degrees.
As previously noted, next Friday is Pack Rat Day 🐀 when the sun will be setting at 8:14 pm with dusk at 8:45 pm. On that day in 2023, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 67 and 50 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 72 degrees. We hit a record high of 92 back in 2017.
Tell that to the people trying to turn winter wheat and early spring grasses into cow chow. Maybe it will grow intensely when it finally turns hot after all this rain as is most certain to happen the second half of the month.
Good morning! Happy Thursday. It’s not raining this morning, but the heavy rain returns for Friday. That might actually be the only day I don’t ride to work – – and that was the day I was planning to take off to head out to Schoharie. Mostly cloudy around 56 degrees here in Delmar. 🌥 Light breeze from the west.
It seems funny to be thinking about the second half of May already, 🗓 but I actually rain the label job for work for the second half of the month on Tuesday and sent it along to the print shop. I am trying to plan out the second half of the month now for weekends – – the first half as been shit with the rain each weekend, but things might improve come next weekend. Hell of it is Saturdays have been quite nice, ☀ it’s just by Sunday it turns to rain. Same thing this upcoming weekend.
Today will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a high of 67 degrees at 6am. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around May 3rd. North wind 9 to 11 mph. Not much rain expected though, which is good for a break before the rain comes back on Friday. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with sunny skies in the afternoon. The high last year was 75 degrees. The record high of 93 was set in 1979. 1.6 inches of snow fell back in 1977.❄
Breakfast this morning was home fries 🥔 with eggs 🥚 and lots of veggies. Including a big sweet onion, 🧅some garlic, broccoli 🥦 and spinach. I know that yellow potatoes are mostly a starch but they’re good for a treat. Plus I might ride in the long way to work to burn off some extra energy, 🚲 as it’s not a terrible morning and last night it poured and then rained on and and off so I didn’t get out after the Save the Pine Bush conference call.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:53 pm with sun having an altitude of 64.9° from the due south horizon (-5.9° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.8 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:25 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (289°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (295°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:05 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 11 seconds with dusk around 8:36 pm, which is one minute and 5 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the west-northwest (290°) at an altitude of 18° from the horizon, 235,905 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 9:16 pm. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 14 hours and 29 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 15 seconds over yesterday.
Last night broke my record of getting out to Five Rivers each night 🐸 but I had that conference call, 📞 and despite the weather man’s promises of better weather for the evening, it actually started to rain shortly after I got home – – I had to run out during the conference call and grab my bike, lest it get soaked with my backpack and junk mail sitting into the back. 🔥 Now if the weather could only get nice enough to have a fire to burn that all up, lol. 😂
Tonight will have showers likely, mainly after 2am. Cloudy 🌧, with a low of 48 degrees at 6am. Two degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 14th. North wind around 9 mph becoming east after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. In 2023, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 39 degrees. The record low of 28 occurred back in 1958.
Not a particularly nice weekend on tap. 😞 Saturday, a chance of showers, mainly after 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 61. Southeast wind around 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Maximum dew point of at 6am. Sunday, a chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 59. Chance of precipitation is 50%. Typical average high for the weekend is 70 degrees.
Doesn’t seem like a complete wash out – – much like last weekend, ☔ but both ends of the weekend look like they will be touched by clouds, cold and rain. I think I will stay in town, I have some coding and other projects to work on at home. 🖥 Bike is running well, I could go out to Voorheesville and or Altamont on Saturday, especially if they are still banging at the unit next door. 🚪
One month 📅 from now will be the start of the Gas Up 🚜 when the sun will be setting at 8:33 pm with dusk at 9:06 pm. I will probably go one weekend with Dad, and possibly the other weekend hammock camp up in Schoharie and spend the day myself, when I can spend more time exploring and enjoying the festival myself. 🥕 Maybe stop by the Carrot Barn and get some fresh produce and carrots too.
