Good evening! Mostly cloudy and 70 degrees in Delmar. Calm wind. The dew point is 64 degrees. Feels more like summer this evening then the middle of summer. Despite the warm weather, its still pretty cloudy, and the sun sets early. The skies will clear tomorrow around 10 pm.

Tonight will be scattered showers and thunderstorms before 1am, then isolated showers between 1am and 4am. Patchy fog after midnight. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a low of 61 degrees at 5am. Nine degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 65 at 10pm. Muggy!  Calm wind. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. In 2016, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 48 degrees. The record low of 33 occurred back in 1975.

Tonight will have a Waning Crescent Moon with 19% illuminated. The moon will rise tomorrow at 2:26 am. The New Moon is on Tuesday night with partly cloudy skies. The Hunter Moon is in 3 weeks. The sun will rise at 6:35 am with the first light at 6:07 am, which is one minute and 4 seconds later than yesterday. Tonight will have 11 hours and 30 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 51 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a slight chance of showers between 9am and 11am, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly cloudy, with a high of 79 degrees at 3pm. Six degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 66 at 12pm. Calm wind. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A year ago, we had mostly cloudy skies. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 71 degrees. The record high of 92 was set in 1915.

Still the forecast looks super nice for the weekend. Saturday, a chance of showers, mainly after 2pm. Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 81. Calm wind. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Maximum dew point of 67 at 4pm. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 82. Maximum dew point of 65 at 4pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 72 degrees.

So the kayak is on the roof of my truck, and the dry goods are packed in the truck. Still working on packing the clothes and getting some of the other gear ready, but a lot of that can be done in the morning. The truck is all gassed up but I will need to stop either in the morning or on the way up to camp to buy firewood as I expect to be setting up close to dusk or maybe even after dark. I just rain to Stewart’s for milk but didn’t buy firewood because I didn’t want to have to carry it home. I do need to load the persishables, sweep the floor and take out the garbage before I go. That’s fine though, as I will have the electric cords up where I can quickly plug them in and light the campsite once I find a site to camp at.

I am very excited about exploring Moss Island on Saturday. I confirmed that the canal will still be open so I won’t have to worry about low water levels. I probably will hike Moss Island first then put in at the boat launch, and paddle around it. I’m undecided if I am going to go through a lock or not. My feeling is based on how short the days are, I probably won’t, but I might paddle downstream a short distance from Little Falls down by Finks Basin, and then up towards the falls. I hope to get some interesting video and picutres, especially now that I found my big camera once again.

Up on Piseco-Powley Road I’m hoping to get either the bridge site or better yet the site up in the plains. I am thinking with hunting season not really under way and with summer over, there will be a lot less people up there, but who knows with the nice weather. I mean, how often do you have 85 degree weather in mid-September? I’m glad we are finally going to get summer, now that September has rolled around, and that I have my kayak paddle so I can get back out on the water.

I do need to get back to Albany relatively early on Sunday, so I won’t have a lot of time to dilly dally around at the potholers. But if I get an early start, I should have enough time to enjoy my day, and enjoy those wonderful cold waters before winter fully kicks in and it’s too cold and the road is closed due to snow.

I wonder how much fall color I will see while I am up there. I heard on Facebook that there is already quite a bit of color, even if the maps put out by the state tourism bureau suggest elsewise. It turns out with the cool nights, that colors are popping out, even if this weekend is expected to be quite warm. I might go to Moose River Plains next weekend if the colors are nice. It will depend on the weather and what kind of family obligations I have. I might go the following week, otherwise. I probably will take off a day or two for a long weekend up at Moose River Plains.

I picked up a little Bluetooth Keyboard to use with my cellphone for typing longer blogposts. At first it took a while to get used to, and I’m not sure it really saves that much time over using the on screen keyboard, but it was only $20. I had originally planned on using my wireless keyboard with the dongle and the usb on the go adapter I bought, but I found that didn’t work right with my phone. But the Bluetooth keyboard works fine.I probably could have ordered the same thing for a bit cheaper online, but I wasn’t sure if it would work with my phone, for I figured with Walmart I could always return it if I couldn’t get it to work right. Works fine, but the keyboard layout is slightly different form my laptop, so it took a while to master. It is a bit lagging at times with the screen but I may be able to fix that by playing with the the settings a bit more.

Filled up the windshield Reservior and topped off the oil I my truck. I have plenty of gas now, so I should be ready for a good weekend adventure. I think I will take my contacts out shortly and retire to bed.

In four weeks on October 12 the sun will be setting at 6:16 pm, which is 48 minutes and 51 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had partly cloudy skies and temperatures between 67 and 47 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 61 and 41 degrees. The record high of 85 degrees was set back in 1954.

Looking ahead, Autumn Begins is Next Friday and Average High is 40 is in 2 months.