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85 miles on 44 miles of range
Monday, July 15 2024
location: 940 feet west of Woodworth Lake, Fulton County, NY
This morning we didn't just drink coffee, but we also collaboratively played Spelling Bee, this time sitting at the round dining table out in the screened-in porch while looking at letters I'd written in black sharpie on the underside of the lid of the pizza box from Squatcho's Pizza.
Later this morning, the three of us humans and two of us dogs hiked the Lake Edward Trail to where it ends on the southeast Lake Edward lakeshore near its center. The morning was sunny but kind of cool, which made the mostly-downhill hike pleasant. But by the time we got to the lake, I felt the need to soak myself in it. I waded out across the mud near the shore (which was firmer than expected, probably from decades of beavers stashing sticks) and through some patches of floating vegetation that looked like ideal leech habitat until there was enough water for me to kneel down in and have it come up to the my shoulders. The only other entity in our party who took advantage of the water was Neville, who had been behind the rest of us some distance on the trail. He immediately switched to baby hippopotamus mode, dunking his body and face in the mud and then wading into deeper water, which washed it all away. Then he lay in the soft moss on the shoreline until we began our hike back to the cabin. That hike is a bit more difficult, since it required us to ascend about 320 feet vertically over the course of 4000 feet (an average grade of 1:12, though most of the walk is fairly flat, with only two steep grades near the beginning and end). This time Neville had no trouble keeping up with Gilly, though Gretchen and I stopped and waited for her occasionally so she wouldn't fall too far behind and possibly lose sense of where the trail was going. Meanwhile Charlotte was all over the place having her own adventures, checking in with only two or three times.
We weren't back at the cabin long before Gretchen, Gilly, and Charlotte headed down to Woodworth Lake for a proper swim. For his part, Neville was all tuckered out and happy to just lounge around the cabin. I did a little work on my SolArk Copilot and then fixed myself another gin & SPORTea cocktail and went down to the dock, where I joined Gilly in the lake (she was on the "water hammock" and I was on the black innertube). Gretchen was out in the lake at the time, but she soon swam back in and prepared a modest picnic of snacks on the dock (the only things I ate were a few slices of cucumber and a number of blueberries). Eventually Gretchen checked her watch and noticed that it was time to set the wheels in motion for taking Gilly back to the airport for her flight to Portland. Fortunately, the airport she'd flown into and would be leaving from was the one in Albany, only an hour away.
Since the Bolt didn't claim to have quite enough of a charge for a drive home via Albany, Gretchen and Gilly left in the Forester (and I was careful to make sure they left me with the keys to the Bolt before they did). I didn't stay much longer at the cabin after that.
Strangely, the Bolt's mileage algorithm must've been confused, as it initially told me I only had about 144 miles of range. But I'd nearly made it to Saugerties before it told me my range was less than 100. That means I'd traveled about 85 miles while only using 44 miles of range. And I'd been running the air conditioning too!
When I pulled into the driveway, I saw Oscar the Cat lying in it, either asleep or catnapping. I carefully drove around him and he didn't notice me at all. But then when he saw a big black vehicle moving in his field of view, he jumped to his feet and ran towards the house. I gave him his 3:00pm wetfood about two and a half hours late.
Meanwhile Gretchen had driven back from Albany and met her friend Lisa P. to see a movie somewhere. She got back about 9:00pm with many bottles of tart cherry juice she'd bought at Trader Joe's and some leftovers from a new vegan restaurant she'd discovered in Schenectady.
Lake Edward from the west end of the Lake Edward Trail.
Click to enlarge.
Gretchen took this photo of a wallowing Neville with my Nikon camera while I was out wading in the lake.
Click to enlarge.
Neville and me wading in Lake Edward.
Click to enlarge.
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