Things are looking up. Especially if we get some clear skies, because this is the week of the Perseid meteor shower. It's due to peak on Wednesday night/Thursday morning (August 11&12). Meteors are always best seen late night, but early evening is good for planet watching. Venus is bright in the west during twilight. Meanwhile, looking to the southeast you can see Saturn (dimmer but higher) and Jupiter (brighter but lower) as the sky darkens. Here's a link to an informative article on this year's Perseids.
If it's not meteors, it's mushrooms. Look down at the forest floor on your next hike and chances are you'll be rewarded with a nice variety of fungi. Usually fall is considered prime mushroom season but this year a wet summer has moved things up a bit. While I have an identification guide, I'm usually too lazy to use it. But you don't need to name them to enjoy them. I just marvel at the myriad shapes and colors. Such a nice bonus to time in the woods.
Finally, a few events from around the area:
* Whipple City 5 & 10K races plus a Kids Fun Run. Saturday, August 14 starting at 8 am in front of the Middle School on Gray Avenue in Greenwich.
* Vermont Public Radio stargazing party with Mark Breen to be broadcast Thursday, August 12 at 9 pm.
* Mushroom Id workshop with Sue VanHook at Merck Forest in Rupert, Vermont. Saturday, August 28 from 12 to 2 pm.
* Fungus and Fern walk at the Pember Museum's Hebron nature preserve. Sunday, September 12 at 10 am.
Hi Don, I was recently back in "Wash Wild" to visit my mom for her 89th birthday, and although a lot of time was spent being with her, I did manage to take a side exploring trip up to Huletts Landing on good ol' Pike Brook Road, which I know you are familiar with. It had been ages since I had been up there, and one of my reasons for going up there was to see what was with the Potsdam Sandtstone quarrying up there. Wow, Champlain Stone has been going to town excavating Potsdam up there. Have you ever been into their quarry(ies) there? I tried to see if I could get a look "inside" but there was no company guy there (this past Friday), so on I went. I am fascinated by this, as the Potsdam here, based on the Fisher (1985) map is in an isolated down-dropped fault-bounded graben. The first (older) quarry you come to as you drive up PBR looks to be just above the PC-Cambrian unconformity, as on the right side of the road there is PC gneiss in a low mound, and the Potsdam is just above that, up the hill to the left (with a covered area in between). It looks like from Google, that Champlain Stone is mining the Potsdam right up to the Adirondack Park boundary on the NW side of their quarry areas. I wondered if they ever let geologists in there to see what sed structures, etc., plus any exposures of the unconformity might be exposed there. I'd love to check them out some time (they're based out of Warrensburg; and have a gneiss quarry down near the entrance to Great Meadow). Without SUNY Adirondack having much of a geology program these days (Not sure if Don Minkel just does intro geo classes from time to time; unlike earlier times - and I was a geo major under Anson Piper), I'm not sure if there are any geologists around that are interested in this. I know I am, but I live out in Southern California, and am no academic. Anyhoo, I was wondering if you had any knowledge about this location, etc. I am at mhugginsATwpincDOTcom (I was wondering how I might get in touch with you). Thanks a lot, and all the best. - Mike Huggins (Irvine, CA)
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