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Winter Time.

Winter is a long cold time here in the frigid Northeastern United States. After you few years spent in the winter here, you can see why people are moving out of New York left and right – it’s the winters plus the unfriendly enforcement-first culture that dominates politics. Many cold blustery days, road salt encrusting everything, high heating bills, and slippery sidewalks for months on end. Fortunately, climate change has made the winters a bit less severe but they aren’t going away tomorrow.

I plan to tough it through another winter. I have warm gear, and I don’t mind winter camping, but the snow makes it hard to be back to the remote campsites I like to camp in the winter. Colder temperatures are tough on all the gear, and the the many gray and short days of winter aren’t much fun. It’s not too bad in the sense that it’s often one of the busiest times of year at work for me, so I can focus on the long days at work, and then relax on the weekends at home, just going for short walks down to the library or other places.

Staying close to home, I tend to save more money in the winter then the summer, despite the higher heating bills. I try to get keep the heat down low in the winter, so it really only adds $40-50 to my utility bills, which is easily offset by not taking trips and burning through gasoline, food and supplies. I try to live fairly modestly in the winter, so I can have enough money saved up for trips come the summer. Nothing beats a hot weekend out at the potholers or other Adirondack swimming hole.

The cold and blowing snow will certainly come to an end. They’ll stop spreading salt on the roads, the ice will melt. And maybe it will it be an early spring. One can hope.

Winter Camping Advice

Somebody asked me for some tips for making winter camping more enjoyable ☃ …

Bring a snow shovel and rock salt. 🥄 Both in case your vehicle gets stuck, if your campsite is icy, and to shovel out things.
Be careful not to burn the tips off your boot on the fire, 🔥as when your feet are cold you might be tempted to stick them too close to the fire.
Put a tarp under your tent to make it more waterproof, 💧and shovel out around the tent.
Dry boots are important. 👢 Waterproof your boots. Consider wearing plastic bags in your boots.
Wool socks 🧦 are very worthwhile
Long johns and dress in layers, 🩳 it’s easy to get hot in woods while working, especially chopping wood.
A plastic kids sled can be handy for dragging gear back, 🛷 but try to get any heavy loads in the center and low to ground to keep it from flopping around.
I really love my Big Buddy Heater hooked to the 20 gallon tank. ♨18,000 BTU of heat on a cold morning or evening is wonderful just sitting out next to it with a hot meal or coffee.
The heater is nice and toasty in the tent too. ⛺I do keep a hunting knife on me in case of emergencies, along with a carbon monoxide detector. I usually only need it for a few mintes on in the tent to make it very comfortable, and it’s always off before I go bed.
I really enjoy something baked with soup or macaroni cheese in cold weather, 🧀 along with lots of hot coca.
Colorful Christmas lights, candles, and decorations 🎄 adds color to a campsite on a long winters night.
Good heavy sleeping bags, stacked makes it quite comfortable sleeping 🛏 in the tent even in a very cold night.

The Weekend that Was

Saturday was an action packed day but a good one. I started the day pretty early with the Save the Pine Bush Bird Hike and Neil Reilly did not disappoint. I wish I had some better glass. I got to invest in some binoculars. And a good bird book. 🐦Neil helped me learn a lot of birds but will I remember them all? I really need to learn more about the flora and fauna I’m observing in the wilderness. It would help with hunting too, especially if I eventually get into big game when I own my own land. 🔭

I bought a spatula at the Hannaford in Esperance. Forgot mine at home. $10 with tax seemed pricey but I figured hopefully this all metal one will hold up. 🍴 Then I can keep the big camp spatula for my camping supply box and use the other one at home. Unlike some of the spatulas I’ve previously owned this one is a single piece of metal so it’s less likely to break at the weld like some of the other I own. I burn a lot of food so I break a lot of spatulas scraping pans. 🍳 But now I have a camp and a home one and hopefully the home one lasts a long time.

Moss Island was fun but the colors were just changing and it’s the third time I’ve been there so it’s less interesting now. Still a nice hike, as was doing some of the Erie Canal Trail through the deep railroad cut. 🚶 Japanese Knotweed is really taking over part of the gorge though. That invasive species is everywhere these days it seems. 🌾Went out for a short paddle on the Mohawk River from Little Falls past Moss Island to the old Fink Basin Bridge foundation. 🌉 It’s hard to spot the foundation at this point because the Japanese Knotweed is all over it. Needless to say, I’m very concerned about the Japanese Knotweed taking over everything. When they were pumping out the lock, the water Goya bit choppy but I was far enough away not to be real impacted. That Lock 17 drops 40 feet so it’s a pretty big lock with a lot of water to move downstream.

Leaving the Pine Bush hike I was a bit concerned about the squeak that was coming from the rear wheel of my truck. 🚚 It sounded like a brake noise because it changed when I applied the brakes. But they’re working fine and after a few good hard applies of the brakes they’ve mostly gone away. Think it’s either mud or maybe just glaze that’s built up from last week overheating the brakes heading down through Durham. Should have used a lower gear heading down the hill. Heading towards Stratford I smelled somebody burning their garbage and thought it might be the brakes but the smell went away after driving past their farm. Hillbilly incense getting me all upset. If y’all going to burn your plastic garbage, at least burn it in a hot fire so it don’t stink. 🔥 I checked, rotators aren’t warm and aren’t dragging – and after a few hard braking the noise is mostly gone. But it’s concerning enough I scheduled an appointment to have it looked at. Pretty sure it’s just the drum brake mechanism is acting up.

Driving up to Pisceo-Powley Road from Little Falls I stopped and got some sweet corn 🌽 and tomatoes. 🍅 I then stopped at Green Acres Drive In and got Pumpkin Ice Cream 🍦🎃 which I swear the cream was a bit rancid. It was okay but I don’t think I’d get end of the season ice cream again from them.

I ended up camping at campsite five at Pisceo-Powley Road. ⛺ They cut up the tree that fell during that severe thunderstorm that came through ⚡ that mid August long weekend that I delayed my entry to avoid. I’m glad I missed that storm a lot of branches came down around this campsite but the DEC did a nice job cleaning up around the site. I like that campsite a lot because it’s remote and I can listen to music, 🎶 shoot guns 🔫 and burn whatever I want without bothering folks. 🔥Just like when I own my own land. No neighbors, no rules. 📐 But that doesn’t mean I’ll trash my own land. That said finding burnt out of aluminum cans wasn’t cool. I flattened them and will take home for recycling. It your going to burn stuff in the woods at least pack out what doesn’t burn completely. 🚯♻ Outhouse seat also seemed like somebody broke it. A shame, the outhouse is only a year old. Still works but the wood in the seat is cracked. 💺

The storm in August meant there was quite a bit of dead and down wood around camp. I had plenty for the fire. I always try to get wood a bit farther away from camp to save the close-by wood for other campers who get here late or myself for that matter. 🌲

Setting up camp went well but I discovered that I spilled bleach and water in my truck bed. Ruined another pair of jeans 👖. Ducks but I needed more jeans to wear on casual days to work. I can wear the bleached pair of jeans at home. Made some sweet sausage 🍣and mashed potatoes for dinner – along with sweet corn 🌽. I wanted to make angel hair pasta 😇 with dinner but I forgot to pack butter.

Sun sets early this time of year but I had the mess cleaned up in my truck, dinner cooked and the lights strung by dark which occurred relatively late in the woods on this very clear day. 🌇 Still it was pitch black before 7:30 which made for a long night but with the two batteries powering the lights it wasn’t a big deal. I got things done that needed to be done by then including getting a fire going. 🔥 Got cold and put the hoodie and long pants on. Even with the warm weather it gets cold at night. With the long night, I was shocked 😲 how quickly I drank the six pack I brought. 🍻 I wasn’t trying to get drunk but I made a lot of beer dissappear quickly. Oh well, I must have been thirsty and I slept it off. Minor hang over this morning.

This morning was quite nice I had eggs 🍳 and sausage along with coffee. ☕ It was a cold start but it warmed up relatively quickly. I ended up hanging out in the warm sun for a while, listening to the radio 📻 for a while and then swinging in the hammock while working on some blog posts.

Midday I went for a kayak paddle down the East Canada Creek 🚤 and it was quite colorful and quiet out on the creek. Water levels were pretty low. But I made it over the beaver dam and the leaves were nice. 🍁 Didn’t bother with the fishing pole as I’ve never had much luck fishing there. Spent a little time at the potholers but it was quite cold and the sky had clouded up and it was getting late.

I got home, unpacked and scheduled an appointment for next week to have my truck looked at.🔧 The noise seems to come and go but I think it’s getting worse so I should get it fixed. I’ll probably stay in town next week because I need to save money 💵 and I also I don’t want something to break while I am out of town.

I’ll post more photos 📷 and videos 🎥 throughout the week.

Moose River Plains Upgrades

A decade ago Moose River Plains was a lot more diapolated than it is now it seems. While the state had invested in some of the accessible features like the new improved accessible trails to Helldiver, Icehouse, and Mitchells Pond, and the accessible campsites most of the other campsites had fallen into disrepair with outhouses and picnic tables falling apart if they existed at all.

In more recent years the situation has improved enormously. Most of the drive in campsites have new outhouses, fire places have largely been replaced as have picnic tables. While the original infrastructure of the Plains held up well for fifty years – much of it from the late 1960s and early 1970s, use and abuse meant it needed to be upgraded.

I’ve heard that many of the upgrades were in part done by volunteers and not the Division of Operations. But regardless, they still make for a nice area to visit and enjoy. Having a picnic table and outhouse at nearly every site is a good improvement for sure.

The Weekend that Was At Moose River Plains

This past long independence Day Weekend I went up to Moose River Plains. Some observations and notable things from the weekend that was — I’m going to post additional pictures and stories later.

Wednesday

I got to leave work early on Wednesday around 3 PM, so I was home by 3:30 PM on the road by 4 PM.
Deciding that the traffic would be bad at that hour on all expressways, I decided to shun the main roads for the blue highway.
I took State Farm Road (NY 155) to US 20 West to Duanesburg Church Road past Mariaville Farm to NY 30 to Indian Lake then out to Cedar River Road.
Driving past the Mariaville Farm, I was noticing how many hogs they had in a barnyard near their home. And I saw a hog taking a piss — they pee like cows. Farming is great but I think I’d want more distance my house and livestock.
I still need to visit For the Love of Bacon. It’s just off of the first exit of Interstate 88, I have no excuse not to.
Google Maps estimates that the trip via the Northway at normal traffic would take 2 hours and 20 minutes, my shun-pike way took about 3 1/2 hours, although the Northway with delays was looking closer to 3 hours when I checked on Wednesday evening.
That said it was worth it because I really hate driving on the expressway.
I thought I heard a noise driving up to Moose River Plains that had me a bit worried, turned out just to be strap on the kayak flapping around.
Made it to Cedar River Flow by 7:30, took some pictures at the flow and signed in.
There are new entrance signs. They say you should call for a camping permit for all stays over three nights even if you plan to camp at a different part of the plains. I think that’s silly and not consistent with the regulations – I stayed four nights but at two different sites.
I wouldn’t object to getting a camping permit but it’s a pain to play phone tag with the ranger when you should be able to do it online.
As soon as I stepped out of the truck I realized what a buggy weekend it was going to be with a shit ton of horse flies
The first night I camped at campsite 26 which is a little ways up from the Silver Run. Nice night, but buggy until it got dark.
It was nice to leave work early and not have to set up in the dark. Kept my campsite simple as I planned to break camp early and get a site I really liked around the Moose River so I could walk to a swimming hole from camps.
I bought some wood at Quinzal’s on Cedar River Road on the way up and had a good fire with that plus some wood I found in the woods.
Stayed up late until around midnight, drank a lot of beer, listened to some podcasts and music until around midnight.

Independence Day

The next morning I got up probably too early, stumbled around and took down camp. Headed straight toward the Big T, hoping to find a campsite near water in the plains where I could swim.
I ended up choosing campsite 94 which was a short walk to the Moose River Bridge which at the time I set up had no near neighbors
It was a nice site, open and airy but well screened and set back from the road. Had a nice new outhouse and picnic table although the fire place was in rough shape.
Deer flies were nasty.
I tried sitting and reading in my hammock and despite being covered from head to toe in a mixture of Picardin, DEET and PMD it only limited them a bit.
Another family on Independence Day took the campsite across the way – a good working class family and they had a pretty wild party up at Moose River Plains on independence Day with lots of country music, fireworks and alcohol.
Independence Day was hot and buggy, the deer fly were so bad for a while I left hammock and took a nap in my truck with the fan blowing.
Despite napping in my truck a deer fly got inside and bit my lip while napping. It hurt like a mother. I almost thought about taking down camp and heading home.
I eventually strapped on my bathing suit and went down to the Moose River to cool off for a few hours.
Finished one book started another one. Very pleasant laying in the hammock after dark .
Did a night hike to Icehouse Pond and it was nice but buggy.
Had a decent size fire, lit off some small fireworks

Friday

Friday I hiked back to the Beaver Lake. Been a long time since I’ve been back there. Not many fish biting with the heat.
Beaver Pond at least had a steady breeze that limited the horse flies but it was hot.
That said while I was down by the lake I got bit by a horse fly and my ear got swollen.
I forgot how enormous that
Hiked back to camp then back into the Moose River to cool down.
In the evening I hiked down Otter Brook Road to the Sly Pond Trailhead.
Laid out on the Moose River Bridge for about an hour looking at the stars
It was pretty laying back in the hammock watching the stars and my laser light show on the trees above how the light scattered and was beautiful.

Saturday

Saturday was a bit more stormy with lots of clouds but only a few showers
I had plenty of electricity despite the lack of sun for most the day
I did more reading, laid in the hammock, wrote some blog posts and listened to podcasts
Disassembled my camp stove and determined it was the burner unit is where the leak is and needs to be replaced.
I went to Moose River to swim for a few hours, listening to podcasts.
Didn’t gets lot of rain but most of the day was cloudy. Certainly not the heavy rains of Albany.
Went back to Icehouse Pond to fish around dusk
Sat out on the Moose River Bridge watching the stars into the wee hours of the morning. Much clearer tonight no light pollution

Sunday

Sunday I broke camp modestly early although I proscastinated a bit as I wanted to top off the starting battery with solar so it would be healthy to start the truck.
Ended up deciding Stillwater was too far away to hike the Fire Tower so decided to paddle Moss Lake.
Not a really big late, lots of noise pollution from Big Moose Road and crowds, wouldn’t paddle again and caught nothing.
I wish I had done something different but I felt like I should use the kayak having brought it.
Headed home shunning the interstates again, taking NY 28 through Old Forge to Remsen then Middleville and NY 169 to Little Falls to NY 5S and then decided to take NY 152 through Rural Grove down to NY 20 and home. Slower than the Thruway but I like seeing all the farms along it.

A Third Battery for Big Red?

I’ve been thinking a bit about adding a second accessory battery, in the bed of my truck to double the battery reserve while camping. This would provide additional power for camping, especially camping multiple days during the winter when there is little solar radiation, or even camping at campsites with a lot of shade. I want to be able to camp multiple days with ample power.

I would probably get another matching Group 24 battery, stick it in the bed of my truck in a marine battery box, and just tap it into the system via the bus bar I have mounted in the shelf on my truck cap.

I could probably do it for around $120, as I have the wire and fuse, but would need the battery, a marine battery box, and a fuse holder.

A few things that give me pause …

A Group 24 battery weights 45 lb. While that’s not a lot of weight for a 7,000 lb pickup truck, it does add some weight, and could make things a bit further out of balance and require moving around the weight in the bed.
The third battery would be mounted in the bed and take up space. While I have a fair of space, and things could put on top the battery box, it still more space taken up by the battery, plus additional wires, fuses, etc.
Different age batteries could fight. I don’t really want to replace the other accessory battery, so fighting batteries could reduce the charge that they both would take. But I tend to think the advantage of the additional battery would be greater then losses from fighting.
Batteries produces hydrogen when the they charge. I don’t want to be smelling hydrogen sulfide when I sleep, or have it be burning me. While I think the bed is fairly well ventilated, I don’t want hydrogen to build up in the cap and go bang like the Hindenburg blimp.
The second accessory battery would be beyond the low voltage shut-off, as it would be connected directly to bus bar that powers the accessories in the truck cap. That means I wouldn’t have under-voltage protection for that battery, but with the two batteries for reserve, my very modest load, and the solar, I doubt I would have too many under-voltage conditions.
It’s additional load on alternator and solar panel, which means it will take longer to charge two batteries even if it takes longer to discharge, and discharge cycles will be less deep.
Plus it’s $120 bucks that wouldn’t be in my wallet anymore. While I would get a lot of use out of it, and I could use the battery box for other projects, batteries don’t last forever.

I want to give this a bit more thought, but if I do set this up, I’d like to have it all working and fully tested before my Independence Weekend trip up to Moose River Plains.

Features of My Spring Camping Trip.

While I haven’t packed my truck yet, I am continuing to think through my long-weekend coming up in the Adirondacks.

A few general things I’m thinking about:

Four Nights, Five Days

Based on the current forecast I would leave on Wednesday after work, set up camp that evening, then move camp sometime mid-week, so not be at any one campsite more then 3 nights per DEC regulation. I thought about heading up through the Adirondacks for the park of the week to the St. Regis Canoe Area or even as far north as Deer River and Massena, but that would mean I would end up spending a lot of my trip driving, rather then enjoying the wilderness.

A Few Day Hikes

I would like to do some day hikes. Probably one of the hikes would be back to Auger Falls which is often really raging this time of year, most likely from the backside of the falls. I am also thinking of hiking back the East Branch Gorge Trail, which hopefully this year won’t be icy, or if it does I should bring my ice crapons. I’m also thinking of maybe hiking back along the Oregon Trail which follows the Stewart Creek or maybe hike back to Pine Orchard from NY 8. It would be nice to do at least one hike, where I can walk right from my campsite — so no driving at least or two days. The solar panel should keep the camping battery well charged, especially if it’s sunny.

A Day Around Camp

If I had a nice sunny day, it would be nice to stick around camp for a day, just to sit back, read, study nature. No rush to go anywhere, no camp to take apart or secure. Just relax with a book in the hammock, listening to music. Assuming it’s sunny, I won’t have to worry about the battery, as the panel will continue to charge throughout hte day.

Some Fishing

I haven’t spent much time fishing this year, mainly because I don’t like driving anywhere and I’ve been busy, but it would be nice to see if I can get some good brookies or rainbow. For best result, I would probably be best off to Mill Creek outside of Garnet Lake, although the Sacandaga River might also work, but I doubt it’s been stocked at this point.

Andy Arthur.org

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