I’m just sitting down at Lost Pond wondering when I’ll see the sun rise. A quiet, serene morning, planning to stay up in the state forest, ride mostly road and explore. Cooked breakfast in the darkness, ran some label jobs for work, had a nice long toke, and some coffee and thinking about the day ahead.

Not a real cold morning compared to recent days. ☕ Going to be a real beautiful day, almost better than yesterday which is hard to believe. As the time hasn’t changed yet, the sun is moving slowly over tree lines but it’s certainly not as dark as it was. Sunrise officially was at 7:21 am but it was longer than that when the sun rose over the horizon. Still a pretty sunrise. Not as frosty as yesterday and things are warming up quick with the heat from the sun. That said, I’m heading back to camp to sit by the heater a bit.

I would like to spend the day riding and exploring. 🚲 Days are so dark and short this time of year. I’m thinking of not just riding in the forest but maybe on some of the back roads down below. I know they are narrow and there is a good chance I’ll get chased by a pitbull or two but I like seeing rural homesteads and farmsteads up close like you can only see them on a bicycle. 🐄 Nothing too ambitious today, tomorrow is a work day and I’ll be driving 🚘 home. I think I’ll work the balance of the day from Glimmerglass State Park, I’m hoping they’ll have electricity I can plug my laptop into 💻 and I might find time for a quick paddle on Otsego Lake 🛶 plus it would help with the solar on the truck if I didn’t have the kayak on the roof. I want to be home tomorrow early enough to avoid driving in the dark plus I have all the GOTV jobs to request from down in the library 📚 in the evening.

Yesterday I went down to Nine Mile Swamp 🛶 and kayaked for much longer than I expected but alas I went slowly except towards the end when I had to pee. 🚹 The new stone wall there as part of the new boat launch was perfect for such purposes. Drove down to Rogers Center and hiked around the Farm Tower trail and some of the wildlife ponds until around six when I headed back to camp. 🍦 Didn’t get ice cream but I made some excellent chicken 🐔 soup when I got back to camp. 🍲