Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Four weeks to Election Day 2019 🗳️. The fog has burned off and it’s now sunny ☀ and 52 degrees at the Allegheny National Forest. There is a east-northeast breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. Surprisingly damp this morning in the woods, it was a really foggy morning at first. 🌁 I slept in, looking forward to seeing the sun.

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 62 degrees at 4pm. Big smile. 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 light drizzle in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 63 degrees. The record high of 80 was set in 2017.

Today I am going to park at Kinzua Beach, walk down to the Reservoir, 🚶 and maybe cross the Cornplanter Bridge 🌉 on foot and then hike up the trail to Rimrock. The parking lot 🅿 should have a lot of sun for charging the accessories battery. 🔋I don’t feel really ambitious today as I’m on vacation and I see no reason to rush anywhere. 😀 Time goes by so quickly as it is, why rush it? ⏳

The sun will set at 6:46 pm with dusk around 7:14 pm, which is one minute and 40 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 55 degrees. There will be a east-northeast breeze at 7 mph. Today will have 11 hours and 26 minutes of daytime, an decrease of 2 minutes and 46 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 40 degrees at 6am. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around October 13th. East wind around 6 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.

Ever since buying the axe 🌲I’ve gotten quite efficient at processing firewood, which is good especially on these long nights – although I’ve often kept the fires small as it’s been fairly mild and why waste wood you don’t have to waste?

Everything is kind of wet and soaked at camp today 💦so I’m going to wait until tomorrow to break camp but I think this evening I will probably take down the tent and tarp once things dry out. I’m leaning towards camping in the southern part of the National Forest for the second half of the week and doing the elk route and Hyner View on Sunday. Although I wish there was more color but I like the quiet of the National Forest 🌲and not having to rush to take down and set back camp every day.

That an I kind of like the Pennsylvania countryside, 🐮 especially seeing the farms and homesteads with burning trash and debris out back because I’m a pyro. 🔥 I’ll be totally open on that. Plus I like seeing the farm operations 🚜 and the cabins in the woods 🌲and scenic vistas. 📷

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Election Day 2019 🗳️ when the sun will be setting at 5:06 pm with dusk at 5:35 pm (Standard Time). I plan to early vote before then ❎ but I might also volunteer on some local campaigns. On that day in 2018, we had rain showers, partly sunny and temperatures between 48 and 31 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 52 degrees. We hit a record high of 75 back in 1994.

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 morning! Monday’s come back around again. Next Monday is Columbus Day 🛥️. Alas at some point I’ll have to go back to Albany to make more money. Rain showers and 50 degrees at the Allegheny National Forest. ☔ Calm wind.The skies will clear around 10 pm.

It rained fairly hard at times last night it I’m not sure how much rain we actually got. 💦 It was definitely loud on the fiberglass roof of the truck cap. The rain is supposed to pull out fairly early today, not going to be the all day long rain here. Looks like West Virginia got a decent amount of rain last night but I’m not sure if the fire ban will be over yet. Regardless I might go down there, it’s to be decided tomorrow. I’d love 😍 to see West Virginia again, it’s been two years since I was last there. That said I’m quite content to be camping in the Allegheny National Forest and might still want to see more of Western NY.

I pitched the tent to have a place to escape the rain next to the heater 🎪 but so far it’s been warm and relatively dry enough that I’ve not used it. I’m hoping by morning the tent dries out, especially if I decide to break camp tomorrow to move on to other places.

So far the mosquitoes haven’t been bad this morning like they were yesterday. 🐜 Still raining here a bit and cold but I know yesterday I was glad I brought DEET with me.

One of the things I finally figured out is its best to cook eggs 🍳 on the camp stove in a frying pan on top of the griddle rather than directly on it. This keeps the eggs from sliding off on to the stove and is better for controlling the level of heat.

Today will rain, mainly before 10am. Patchy fog before 10am. 🌧 High of 55 degrees at 3pm. Seven degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 25th. Maximum dew point of 49 at 10am. 🏖️ Calm wind becoming west 5 to 7 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 72 degrees. The record high of 89 was set in 1963.

Definitely could use some sun and if the weather is decent later on I plan to go for a drive to the Allegheny Reservoir and Rimrock 📷 in part because I really should top off the batteries 🔋. There is enough shade and the sun angle is low enough ☀ that I’m really not getting much solar.

The sun will set at 6:48 pm with dusk around 7:16 pm, which is one minute and 40 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and temperatures around 53 degrees. The dew point will be 46 degrees. There will be a west breeze at 7 mph. Today will have 11 hours and 29 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 45 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 42 degrees at 5am. Typical for tonight. West 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.

I was watching the camp garbage burn in the fire last night – especially the black smoke Styrofoam tray the meat 🍖 came in last night and a little Greta Thornburg came into my head saying “How Dare You”. I had to laugh a little. I’m not hauling back to Albany anything that I can burn to be landfilled🚮 in the Pine Bush forever for two dollars 💵 a bag at the transfer station.

But then again I remember the comstirnation that I caused on Facebook when I said I thought biodegradable camp soap was stupid. 💭 I understand the surficants in detergent aren’t as biodegradable as ordinary soap but they do break down eventually and are pretty harmless to the environment is disposed away from water. 🌊 Most old houses and farms dispose of gray water to pipes away from the house. Yeah, they’re is a stinky gray area where the pipe comes out from the soaps and detergents but if they are far away enough from creeks ain’t harming nothing. 🚰

I also hunt with lead ammunition 🔫 and use lead sinkers for fishing 🎣 at least the larger ones that are still legal. I also use lead solder for electronics projects at home. 🔬 I totally get banning the small sinkers and not using lead shot when duck hunting or having lead in commercial electronics. But that’s a thing of scale and real harm – waterfowl get easily poisoned by lead shot. Lead poisoning is bad – I know people who have accidentally gotten shot and suffer from lead poisoning. But where it makes sense, use the right technology, even if Greta Thornburg does not approve. And I do pick up litter 🚮 I find in the woods, recycle cans and glass ♻, and make sure my poop and toilet paper is well buried. 💩

As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until Average High is 55 🍂 when the sun will be setting at 6:16 pm with dusk at 6:44 pm. On that day in 2018, we had mostly cloudy, rain showers and temperatures between 51 and 41 degrees. We hit a record high of 78 back in 1971.

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.