Day: August 22, 2025

That’s what the package of caffeine pills said. Indeed, caffeine is a werid drug – it’s widely accepted especially in the form of coffee but it’s also both chemically and habitually addictive and can have a terrible impact on sleep and feeling and performance the next day of you take too much of it.

I popped a few caffeine pills with the grass yesterday hoping for a europhoric experience without being drousey. In many ways it was europhoric when I was riding my mountain bike but it also left me with a terrible night’s sleep and feeling anxious and awful all day despite being a pretty nice day all things considered. I mean I was a bit annoyed that they’ve eliminated the Terrance Garden Adirondack Chairs at the Watkins Glen Pool or that half the showers did not work until I found one that did – and I really wanted to get the cow manure, sweat, beer, cannabis, wood smoke and boiled clams smell off my body. It was stunningly beautiful on Seneca Lake though the two stroke jet ski event on the lake at Clute Park was annoying both on the kayak and seeking serenity in the evening.

I couldn’t help but once again focus on every noise, every creak and grone my truck made on the road even if all are the norm since lifting it and a ton of shit is nearing the end of life on the truck and probably preventative maintance would dictate replacing if I wasn’t planning on trading in Red at the end of winter to build my next rig to take out to Michigan and Northern Wisconsin – and in the out years maybe out west.

Honestly my mind would be in a better place if I cut way back on the caffeine. But strong coffee is always free in the office. And being sleepy and sleeping off my afternoons at camp wasn’t the experience I was looking for on Thursday. But my mind was at times in a terrible place today, even with all the beauty of Seneca Lake and the Catherine Creek Marsh from a placid lake to beautiful hole to a great sunset. It felt good showering and with practice I’m picking up efficient swimming but that water sure was cold in the Watkins Glen Pool.

I was going to go down to Pennsylvania and the Pine Creek Gorge tomorrow and see if I could accidentally step on a rattle snake on the trail and smell some of that hillbilly incense of rednecks burning their garbage but also the beauty. But I’m not mentally ready to do such a drive. I know everything will be okay but I need some more time staying local, close enough to camp and the many services of Ithaca should things go terribly wrong not that I have any such evidence.

Robert Treman seems like a good option as it’s potentially the last warm to hot day of summer vacation, though once we get beyond the front coming through on Sunday and the afternoon thunderstorms I see nothing but sunshine but an early autumn like cool through Labor Day. Maybe Pennsylvania and or Elmira next week. Cooler but sunny weather is better for riding. Rednecks gotta work in Pennsylvania so less stinky too. Left the kayak on the roof of my truck – thinking get an early start but not as early as a Pine Creek Gorge trip would require – get a good spot in the parking lot, maybe hike the full gorge trail then swim in the famous falls there. In the evening paddle around Falls Creek and Cayuga Lake near Stewart Park.

I don’t know. I’m tired and I just got to stop living my life in fear when most of the time it all works out in the end and I’m always looking for a good and novel adventure.