Herkimer, NY

I managed to set up my tent and uneventfully fall asleep in it last night in a White Mountains National Forest campground. I awoke at the crack of dawn (cursing myself for not taking Dave and Melissa's advice about bringing a pad!), packed up the tent and hit the road for Mt Washington. It IMMEDIATELY started pouring-- the kind of rain that's so hard you can't really go more than 30 mph if you want to see anything. I was psyched to have not been rained on in my tent, but there went my hiking plans. There may be some destinations on my trip that I'd hike in a downpour, but not Mt Washington, where it'll be easy to return to someday on a planned trip. (Paul, thanks for all the tips-- next time you can guide me personally.)

Anyway, when I was in sixth grade, I had a science teacher who would talk of his trips to the Herkimer Diamond Mine, where you can go and hammer rocks all day hoping to find Herkimer Diamonds (which are actually quartz, not diamonds.) Sounded like fun to me at the time, and it still does, so that's where I went today. I didn't get there until 2:45, and they closed at 5:00, but I managed to get some mining in and actually found a few "diamonds" (I'd post pictures but they're pitifully small!)

I'm at the Seneca rest stop on the NY State Thruway right now. Free wi-fi... woot! I expect to get to Cuyahoga Valley National Park tomorrow. It's one of the newest and smallest National Parks, and I'm not really expecting too much, but it's on the way. (Cuyahoga might be more famously known as the river that was so polluted it caught fire in 1969.)

Oh, and feel free to start a pool on how long it took before I hit myself with the hammer while breaking rocks!