Bolt Hole Report, November 17, 2009

A glorious day here at the Bolt Hole. It was 20 degrees with not a breath of wind to disturb the few remaining leaves on the trees when I woke this morning at 5:30 AM. Everything was covered in a thick layer of frost. It was interesting to see the sun come up over the mountain to the east and melt that frost away. It started at the tops of the trees ad worked its way down to the lawn and then across the lawn from thee west to the east changing the white to green.

That's about all there was to watch. Nothing moved through the field behind the cabin. Even the birds seemed to have taken it on the lam. No blue jays, chickadees, juncos or even ravens. One lonely red squirrel complained about my sitting on the deck for a few moments before even it shut up and went about finding a warm spot. It didn't seem to be searching the pines for any remaining cones.

I did take a brief walk through the woods around noon when the temperature under the sun had risen to 40 degrees. Even with the rise in temperature, there was still frost in the shaded areas and ice heaved the earth in the really muddy zones. No signs of deer anywhere I walked, but I did kick up three grouse and get the attention of two ravens who came to investigate what I was doing.

The knee got quite the workout with my little walk. Slow motion walking puts a good bit of stress on the leg muscles. You may not get any cardio from taking one step every 5-10 seconds, but, believe me, your balance is tested as are the quads and hams. That balance puts your joints to the test. Ankle, knee, hip--they all take the strain. I avoided all the rocks and roots this time around and got back to the cabin after going just about half a mile in an hour and a half.

Nothing happening in the late afternoon either. There air was still as witnessed by the lazy moving smoke out of the chimney. And the sky still contained no clouds. Not even the contrails of jets could be found--and that is really unusual as the Bolt Hole seems to be on a regular hourly route to points west. (I've actually seen six or seven contrails at once formed by these flights. All hanging in the air like so many lines on a music score waiting for some ethereal hand to mark in the notes.)

With the still air and lack of clouds I expect tonight will be a cold one. It's already down to 26 degrees outside at 8 PM. It would be a two dog night for sure--if I had any dogs. Instead, I'll just have to stoke up the fires and make sure to stay under the comforters.

Early to bed and early to rise for tomorrow I'll be heading back to the Aerie for dinner with the Tiadaghton Audubon Society and then my PT/evaluation on Thursday morning. (At least this year the TAS won't have a speaker propagandizing Global Warming! The topic will be Endangered Species, instead.) I'll probably come back to the 'Dacks on Thursday afternoon just to be present over the weekend. There's a 40% chance of showers Friday according to weather.com. With any luck that might become snow at my slightly higher elevation (1800 feet). I don't know where they get their readings from, but we are usually 5 to 10 degrees cooler than they are. For example, they are currently saying the temp is 33 degrees while my digital thermometer says 26.6 degrees.

There's a weather underground station at a farm about 5 miles west of the cabin as the raven flies. It's station is under some trees 20-25 yards from the house and at just over 1400 feet in elevation and the temperature there is usually 3-5 degrees lower than here. (Currently 29.6 degrees there, 26.7 degrees here.) I like to check their info to see what's happening from time to time. Much more local and personal than the big guys.