Good morning! Happy Saturday. Today I Head North! Cloudy ⛅ and 67 degrees in Canaan Heights, WV. Super mild! There is a south-southeast breeze at 13 mph with gusts up to 25 mph. 🌬️ That wind is roaring around, unstable weather coming. But I’m heading off the Appalachian Front shortly.
Up at six o’clock taking camp down. 🕔 Still quite dark out. To get a jump start on the day and limit pee breaks, 🚽 I hard boiled eggs 🥚 last night and will have two eggs for protein with a banana 🍌 for sugar and some peppers maybe later on. ☕ If I decide I really need coffee I can get some in Keyser this morning. Took the tent down last night ⛺ and packed and organized as much as I could last night, including writing much of this blog post last night. 📝
Today will likely rain ☔ , mainly after 3pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 67 at six AM. Southwest wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 55 degrees. The record high of 78 was set in 1971. 2.0 inches of snow fell back in 1952.❄
Today it’s off to Paw Paw Tunnel and ultimately Maryland then onward Pennsylvania. 🚲 The tunnel, part of the C – I Canal National Park Trailway looks neat, it’s a canal through a mountain. Sunday’s forecast looks very wet, so I don’t know if I’ll bother to go to Asaph Run in hoping to bike the Pine Creek Rail Trail after a quick overnight camp. ⛺
It’s possible that I’ll decide to either do my overnight at County Bridge Campground or maybe if time allows, Long Pond State Forest in New York State. 🛣️ The later is free 🆓 and probably more on the route home, plus come Sunday it’s less than 2 hours home from there. If I do the later, I would probably take Interstate 80 from I 99 to I 81.
Or I could possibly overnight at the Paw Paw Campground, I’m just worried about of the drive in one day. 🚘 We’ll over six hours driving Interstate 81 which goes through several big cities like Harrisburg and Scranton versus the relatively quiet I-99. Really don’t want to drive more than four hours a day, with one hour play time and four hours to hike, bicycle or visit parks. 🏞
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:40 pm with sun having an altitude of 34.3° from the due south horizon (-36.5° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 8.8 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 5:16 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (246°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (253°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:55 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 2 seconds with dusk around 6:23 pm, which is one minute and 24 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Full 🌝 Moon in the east-northeast (75°) at an altitude of 6° from the horizon, 232,615 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:58 pm. At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 63 degrees. The dew point will be 51 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 13 mph. Tomorrow will have 10 hours and 30 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 37 seconds over today.
Yesterday, I hiked 15 miles in Dolly Sods. 🚶 Not a bad day but most of the day was grayer then I would have hoped. 🌥 Lot of haze too. Hiked in from the Canaan Valley Wildlife Refuge and along much of the ridge overlooking the wildlife refuge. It was good, I visited some of the more remote places in the wilderness, though still a lot of people exploring there. Sort of hoped to make it across to the top of the Allegheny Front and maybe Bears Rocks 🐻 but time was tight with the early sunset 🌇, no overnight parking 🅿 signs where I was parked and simply the trail I planned to cross the Red Creek with – Dobbins Grade is low water crossng not the case this week. 🐸 Plus the beaver dam. In the evening around sunset walked the new boardwalk in the wildlife refuge off Freeman Drive. Headed back to camp, had a nice dinner and some beer 🍻, took down the tent and organized my gear.
I haven’t posted many pictures 📸 to either Facebook or the blog due to connection issues here but also because I’m trying to maximize my remaining time here in West Virginia. Time is precious. ⌛ I figure all next week I can go through my photos and start sharing them, bringing back memories of what was on my trip.
Tonight will have mostly cloudy ☁, with a low of 41 degrees at 6am. Six degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around October 11th. Northwest wind 8 to 13 mph. In 2022, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 29 degrees. The record low of 19 occurred back in 1969.
Sunday will rain starting around dawn. 🌧️High near 45. Northeast wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
I’m expecting a wet ending to my vacation both Saturday night and definitely Sunday for the last leg of the trip home. 🏡 It’s fine, it rained ☔ on the way down here too at least through New York. The colors probably are pretty much gone for the return trip home I would assume. Then it looks to be cold next week once I’m home. Hoping to ride to work a few more times both ways before the time change but I’m not holding out my breath for too many days next week. 🚲 Might even need to turn the heat back on in my apartment. In contrast, it’s been so warm in West Virginia that I only used the propane heater on Sunday evening and Monday morning ♨️, the rest of the week it’s been shut off and locked 🔒 up.
In 1956, Elvis Presley receives a polio vaccination on national TV. 💉This single event is credited with raising immunization levels in the United States from 0.6% to over 80% in just six months.
Then next Saturday is Daylight Savings Time Ends 🛥️ when the sun will be setting at 5:46 pm with dusk at 6:14 pm. On that day in 2022, we had sunny, warm and temperatures between 71 and 46 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 54 degrees. We hit a record high of 76 back in 1994.
Already thinking next week about potentially a four day trip out to Madison County. 🐮 Probably Stoney Pond and peddle around Cazenovia and the Cazenovia – Chittenango Rail Trail and possibly some of the single track mountain bike trails at Alfred Woodford and Tassel Hill. 🚲 Maybe take off the Monday before Election Day for a four day weekend as far away from politics as possible. Or the following Friday is Armstice Day aka Veterans Day Observed, so if I took off either Thursday or the following Monday, it’s another four day weekend. I want to get away one more time before rifle season 🦌.
There is a north breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 53 degrees. I am not complaining, it’s October out there. Mornings could be a lot cooler and wetter, as we experienced yesterday. I couldn’t believe how long we got stuck in that rainy pattern yesterday. But it was good to stay home and indulge in too much 15 bean soup 
and slightly stale whole-wheat homemade bread. 
The rumblings of my stomach tell me that the bean soup and bread are done. 
But it was good. Apparently I don’t have enough gas currently, I am cooking up more red kidney beans up this morning. 
It finally cleared late, and I got down to the library and ended up returning home at 5 PM with a stack of nine books. Lots of good reading material. 
Of course, the book I had to open first was one about food and health and nutrition. I don’t know why I am so into cooking and eating healthy these day, but it’s just fascinating to learn new things. I like good fuel for my body as it keeps me going to when I go out for bike rides and hiking.
and then around the neighborhood doing about 14 1/2 miles for the day, which wasn’t bad before it started to get dark out, when I sat out back and had some cottage cheese with mango, strawberries and pineapple and some ginger. 
I really have been into ginger lately, I like the zing, and the fact that it makes you at less achy at least in one’s mind. Not sure if that’s completely scientific, but it’s way to give boring foods a lot more taste, like most spices, without adding a lot of sugar, salt or fat. Other then that, it was a pretty lazy day, eating way too much bean soup with a rumbling stomach from all those beans. But between the bean soup and eggs this morning 
with some help from the food processor, I got rid of a lot of vegetables that would otherwise become compost. 
which is good as opens up more vacation options, including heading down to Table Rock / Blackwater Falls area of West Virginia. 
Kind of a long trip though, and gas prices are going up through the roof once again 
and I know it puts a lot of load on my old truck 
but it might be a fun trip. I could still change my mind, I figure I will start out in Pennsylvania doing the rail trail, and if the weather or anything else changes my mind I can always go to the Allegheny National Forest or back north to New York State like the Southern Tier and the Finger Lakes. 
and I’m above the minimum balance, though I don’t get paid until a week from Tuesday, aka the day after Columbus Day, and soon after that my credit card bill is due. 
You know, rent, car insurance, retirement, and investing. I guess technically the last two things aren’t expenses, but they are money gone for now. I might have to dip into the rainy day fund, especially if I decide to retire some extra credit card debt early prior to vacation, especially as the web hosting bill goes out next Sunday. 
That said, it looks like I will be close to $16 for the first week of running ads, and it looks like there is ways I can further optimize the blog for additional revenue. It won’t make me rich 
but it should cover the cost of blog hosting, allowing me to continue to tell my story and have fun posting maps and other useful information. 
I’ll have to look on Amazon and Ebay. I want to have good lights before going on vacation, as while I don’t plan to ride after dark, it gets dark so early this time of year, and it’s important for safety to be seen with dusk coming so early. Also need to top off the windshield washer fluid in my truck, and then I might go up to Wolf Hill to ride this afternoon on the bike trails up there. Hopefully not get my bike too muddy in the process, but worse comes to worse, I can watch it off.
topped with frozen strawberries. 
Yum!
in Colonie over a proposal solar facility in the Albany Pine Bush, next to a known butterfly site. 
While they didn’t take scoping comment at this meeting, and I had to leave early to catch the bus home 
around 7 PM due to the next bus not being another hour, and it wouldn’t have worked with the connecting bus back home. I honestly didn’t want to drive up there, as I don’t have parking downtown, and Lynne was out of town so I couldn’t get a ride there, but it was important for as many Save the Pine Bush members as possible to be there.
This is the week after Columbus Day Weekend, probably somewhat beyond peak color, though I expect it to be late this year due to the mild weather. 
That said, it will very a lot depending on my elevation, and I’m not necessarily set on going all the way to WV — it’s such a long multi-day drive in my old truck. I could do a trip to Allegheny National Forest as an alternative, or maybe the Tug Hill Plateau and North Country. That’s a trip I will explore this afternoon most likely as a blog post.
