First, for those who just want to look at the pictures, check out the photo gallery. All in all it was a great trip. There were a couple of minor bummers and one major one which I’ll get to at the end, but they didn’t take away from a great trip, the best part of which had to be the camping spot perched on a cliff’s edge at least a couple hundred feet above the largest waterfall I found, nestled in a pine forest. It was awesome.

This was bushwhack hiking – mostly on unmarked, almost, or completely nonexistent trails used mostly by seasonal fisherman. It was obvious I was the first person this season to make my way back into the woods by the state of the fire pits and the complete lack of tracks. I’d tried this hike once before with Andrew but we made the mistake of following the trails and ended up far from our goal, causing us to abandon our goal. This time I found my way though I still stumbled about a bit. Next time I’ll know better to stay up along the ridgeline instead of making my way up and down it in a continual hope that it would remain a stable trail at the base of it. Some positional information for folks interested in making this hike:

I’m heading here for the weekend. I’ve failed to find the 5 waterfalls on the west branch of the Sacandaga once before. This time I’m determined to find them. I should be back Monday.

There’s a small chance I will instead head to Pharoah Mountain because of the possibility that a bridge I need to access the Sacandaga trailhead is out. If that’s the case, my goal is here as an alternative.

Well, sort of. First, a confession. As I’ve written in the past, I have a mild obsession with Absinthe. I’ve sampled it once though its provenance was unclear, and I’ve debated myself on the wisdom of importing a bottle from Europe, which one can do with relative impunity. As of next month, according to this article in the New York Times, I should be able to buy a bottle from the local liquor store. A US company worked with the Louisiana chemist who’s been almost single handedly reviving the drink to formulate an Absinthe that would pass regulatory issues here, and they’ve succeeded. A bottle will run about $60. Guess what I’m bringing to AGCW this year boys 🙂

Ok so these aren’t technically podcasts, but for an absolute treasure trove of spoken word content, head on over to the Project Gutenberg Wiki, and use their filtering tools to find spoken word content. You can look at the full view, or filter on numerous criteria, so for example the Sci fi content (look for the speaker symbol adjacent to the title). The John Carter Warlord of Mars series for free? Count me in! Do note one issue however – this is all fan produced material and the quality can vary. Some readers are fantastic, others less so, and a couple of times I’ve run into folks who do a decent job but have one of those voices that just grates on you. Preview what you plan on grabbing before grabbing the whole thing is my advice.

So I’m not generally in the habit of making household cleaning recomendations, and anyone who has visited me over the years knows that I’m a bachelor and my house reflects that in the grand sense of the word, but man, the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is awesome. I was first clued into them because of the issue of hand grease accumulating on laptops and being difficult to remove. The Magic sponge does work wonders on that, but I’ve also discovered it’s great for other things, like cleaning off a greasy stovetop, scouring soap scum off of a bathtup, removing marks off of walls, and generally it can clean anything that I used to scrub and curse at. They’re not that expensive and they seem to work wonders – well worth trying the next time you have to clean up your stove if for no other reason.

Despite being skeptical that these sorts of things actually amount to much, I signed this ACLU petition that will be delivered to the signers’ respective congressional reps on June 26th as…call it a symbolic gesture. The way the neocons have been running roughshod over the constitution is appalling and anything to try and make it clear how unhappy this makes me seems worth trying. Consider doing so yourself, it takes only a moment.