Good evening! Mostly cloudy to and 65 degrees in Westerlo, NY. There is a north-northeast breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 47 degrees. Another weekend comes to a close. It was a nice weekend but it sure went by quickly. Camped up at Pumpkin Hollow Road west of Willis Lake, hiked back to Wilcox Lake and on Sunday fished at Woods Lake in Benson.

Tonight will be partly cloudy ☁, with a low of 50 degrees at 4am. Four degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 47it\’s a safe option where I can play on my phone while I wait – at 7pm. North wind around 5 mph. In 2017, we had partly cloudy skies. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 67 degrees. The record low of 36 occurred back in 1980.

Tonight will have a Waning Crescent Moon 🌘 with 10% illuminated. The moon will rise at 3:54 am. The New Moon is on Tuesday night with a chance of showers. The Strawberry Moon 🌝 is on Wednesday, June 27th. The sun will rise at 5:17 am with the first light at 4:42 am, which is 9 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 8 hours and 44 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 39 seconds over last night.

It wasn’t a half bad weekend camping at Pumpkin Hollow Road in the Adirondacks. 🎃 I haven’t camped up there in two years but it’s nice and quiet up there. Saw only one hiker while ca was quite surprised I didn’t see anybody at Wilcox Lake today,mping up there and maybe a few cars passing by to the hunting camp up there.

On Saturday I hiked back to Wilcox Lake via the Willis-Wilcox Lake trail. The hike from Pumpkin Hollow Road was nice in the sense that’s its very quiet and the trail is relatively flat and not-muddy. 🏃But there isn’t an awful lot to see besides a few glimpses of the marshy, flatwater stretch of Wilcox Outlet and the part where the bridge crosses Wilcox Outlet. Plus a handful of rather large old growth trees — some pines and some ash trees. A few of them are quite massive and probably date back to before the Industrial Revolution, if not before the Civil War.

I checked out the other lean-to at Wilcox Lake that I hadn’t seen before. Looks well used and abused, not a whole lot of wood left around there. That lean-to got a new roof put on it this past year. Unlike lean-tos in other parts of the state where they use wooden shingles, most of the Adirondack ones use asphalt, ⛺which I think is quite tacky, and shorter lasting, but I guess it’s difficult to get heavy wooden shingles into the remote back country, and of course the hollier then holly Forest Preserve can never have a tree cut, even for enhancing recreational use.

I was quite surprised I didn’t see anybody at Wilcox Lake when I was there, although I was less surprised about passing nobody on Willis-Wilcox Lake Trail. While the trail gets enough use that it’s easy to follow, it’s obvious it’s not a popular hiking route. 🐻While Pumpkin Hollow Road is a still a designated snowmobile corridor, I don’t know if the Willis-Wilcox Lake Trail is used anymore for snomwobiling — I’d have to look at my map that I have on the blog. Pretty overgrown for that, although I don’t think it ever was a high speed corridoor.

I did like being able to camp in the same location for two days, keeping my truck off but keeping the accessory battery charged via the solar panel. The solar panel worked fine in the partial sun and hazy skies, after a full day outdoors, although I doubt it ever got enough sun to go over-voltage, but the charge controller was in float mode by the time I got back to my truck. 🔋As I leave the dome light turned off while I camp, I usually leave the doors open all of the time when I am at camp, to keep the computer from booting up and putting wear on the starting battery, to ensure I don’t have to start it up until I break camp — although I keep a careful eye on it to make sure it remains above 12.6 volts while parked — which so far it has. For safety I did start it briefly on Sunday morning as the resting voltage had dropped to 12.55 but I’m not sure it was necessary. 🚘It will start most likely at a much lower voltage, but I like to ensure the starting battery is as close as possible to 100% the whole time I’m at camp.

Both days I cooked up Eggs and Sausage over charcoal on the fire. 🍳 I forgot how good things taste when you cook over a fire. Nice smokey flavor. Hamburgers one night, Macoroni and Cheese the other night. Pretty good eating in the wilderness.

Both nights I was pretty tired, 💤and went to bed early after a short campfire. Been having more problems with migraines lately, and just a lot of exhaustion in the evening.

Sunday I hiked back to Woods Lake and fished there for a while. 🎣Kept catching pumpkin seed or whatever their called boney as shit pan fish and tossing them back in. Not surprising, it was a waste of time. But I hadn’t been back to that lake in a few years so I thought I might visit it but I really should have fished for trout in the Sacandaga River below the Lake Algonquin dam like I often do. 🐋 Totally my fault but I didn’t feel like back tracking to Wells.

Had Sunday dinner at my parents house, and now I’m sleeping out there in my truck.😴 A bit of a cool evening but it should make for good sleeping.

Tomorrow will be sunny 🌞 , with a high of 75 degrees at 4pm. Two degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 50 at 6pm. North wind around 6 mph becoming light and variable in the afternoon. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 92 degrees. The record high of 94 was set in 1947.

Going to be a nice night tomorrow for the work picnic, which this year I’m going to take public transportation to get there rather than drive. 🚌 That way I can have a drink or two with dinner, as I no longer drive after having any alcohol as my vision is kind of poor, especially after dark.😎 I got to find a better I doctor when I get my eyes checked this summer. Plus I hate driving in the city, as I always worry that I will get in a wreck or a red light camera ticket.🚦 The bus may not be real fast but it’s a safe option where I can play on my phone while I wait – although I best make sure my phone is charged as the battery seems to be wearing out. 🔋

But other than that picnic, 🍔 I figure it will be a pretty ordinary week at work. Lots of memos to write, more mail to package and get out the door📩. I’m hoping that the week will go by quickly and will be followed by another fairly nice weekend. I will have to stare more at the countdown clock I built in the office.

In August my rent is going up $25 a month to $675 a month, another $300 yearly hit on my budget. 💸But then again it’s the first rent increase in five years and rent increases have been well below the rate of inflation over the past going on eleven years I’ve lived there. Landlord is a businessman, he has to make a little profit and inflation can’t eat it all away even if I do always pay my rent on time.

Sure I’d like to have the money to spend or invest but still I think my sometimes moldy, always grubby apartment is a good deal, especially being on the bus line and near the park and library where I can walk to and get on the internet for free. If I had to drive to work, pay for internet or any of the other costs of home ownership, 🏡especially in a high tax state like New York I’d probably come out behind compared to renting a cheap apartment plus investing and saving every month. Plus who would upkeep the building when I travel for work. Money is always tight for me but a lot is because I’m saving and investing a lot towards a better tomorrow.

Paying now for a big fancy house in the Albany area that I don’t really want, wouldn’t necessarily gain me much when you figure in all the interest and bank fees,🏪 especially because I don’t want to live in a suburb on New York State the whole rest of my life.

On this day in 1964, United States Senate breaks a 75-day filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, leading to the bill’s passage. That was a pretty big deal back then. 🏫

Next weekend looks like it might be perfect weather-wise. 😎 Next Saturday, sunny, with a high near 80. Maximum dew point of 54 at 7pm. Next Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 84. Maximum dew point of 57 at 1pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 78 degrees.

If that weather forecast remains true I will probably go to the Gas Up on Saturday and camp overnight in Schoharie County, do some fishing⛺ and hike the cliffs of Middleburgh.🗻 That I think would be a nice weekend 🐠and will enable me to be places where I have my phone in case I have to do work related tasks.

In four weeks on July 8 the sun will be setting at 8:34 pm,🌄 which is 2 minutes and one second later then today. In 2017 on that day, we had thunderstorm, thunderstorm rain, rain, drizzle, patches of fog, mist, in the vicinity there was thunderstorm, mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 80 and 63 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 82 and 61 degrees. The record high of 100 degrees was set back in 1936.

Looking ahead, Fathers Day 👨 is in 1 week, Daylight Savings Time Ends 🛥️ is in 21 weeks, Veterans Day (Sunday) 🇺🇸 is in 22 weeks and First Sunday of Advent ✝️ is in 25 weeks.