Alabama - Rocket at the visitor center and New Years Eve

We crossed into Alabama in the dark and stopped to take some night time pictures of this huge rocket at the Welcome Center.

Pictures of the rocket

We finally made it down to Athens, Alabama around 9:30ish at Gareths cousin Shorty aka Matt place. We also met Shorty’s friends Tre and Sledge. The plan was to spend new years with them somewhere.

We headed over to a club called "The Horse" in Madison County which was on the otherside of Huntsville, Alabama just before midnight.

We passed by this huge nuclear power station and the NASA Space Camp and Rocket museum on the way.

It was a pretty cool experience as I have never really been to a club before. We left the club around 3am and headed off to another club. Nothing like getting checked out with a metal detector and not being at the airport when it was being done.

Link to New Years Eve Pictures

We finally made it back to Shorty’s place and crashed around 5:30 am. Man where we tired.

Kentucky - Mammoth Caves

Well we left Cincinati around noon and headed south towards Alabama.

Randy suggest we stop at the Mammoth Caves on our way through Kentucky.

http://www.nps.gov/maca

We decided to do the two hour historical tour. It was pretty amazing.

Not a trip for someone who does no like small dark spaces.

It was well worth the 12 bucks. I would definitely stop there again to do some of the other cave tours in the same area.

Here is a link to some pictures

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=79450&l=66b6c&id=679800461

Made it to Cincinati, Ohio

Well we hit the road around 6:30 pm on sunday and made it to Cincinati, Ohio by 1am.

We met up with Gareth's friend Randy. We then had to make a 15 minute side trip trough Kentucky in order to get back to a safer neighbourhood in Ohio to have a safe place to park the truck complete with a seadoo on the back.

We then headed back to Randy's for late night chit chat.

We will be heading down to Athens, Alabama for New Years Eve before heading over to Dallas.

Just think I in less than 14 hours I have been in two countries and five states.

New Years Road Trip

Well I am not one for last minute spur of the moment trips.

My friend Matthew from McMaster White Water club noticed I had no plans for New Years.

He suggested I come on a road trip with him in order to help move his friends stuff to Dallas, Texas.

I had to re-arrange my work schedule with my co-worker to make sure things would be covered.

I have made the trip down to Jameston, NY. We are leaving soon to head down to Cincinati, OH.

I hope to have pictures posted up as I go.

Sixteen Mile Creek

Well today Greg and I were going to paddle Sixteen Mile Creek in Oakville.

It would have been a interesting paddle as neither of us had ever been on it before. I was looking forward to documenting the trip in detail by taking alot of pictures.

We met up at the putin. Greg was down the hill checking out the water when I got there.

We decided to do the shuttle right away and I would just get changed into my paddling gear afterwards.

Luckily we did it that way as we found out that the takeout was all blocked up with construction barriers, etc.

We tried to search for alternate takeouts but the cemetery and other places were just too far away to haul boats around.

We decided to call off the trip. The Credit River would have been an alternate choice but due to time constraints it wasn't possible.

This road leads down to the creek:



I am not sure if this counts as paddling or not but I did managed to get my boat into some water.



So to sum it all up the paddling sucked big time.

But as always you have to have a plan B. I stopped and visited various friends that I have not seen in a while on the way home.

Xmas in Petawawa

This would be the first time ever spending Xmas with my dad and step-mom.

My son decided to come along for the roadtrip.

It was nice to have some downtime considering how busy I had been over the previous month.

The day was went by quickly as we opened presents, went for a walk down by the Petawawa and Ottawa rivers, played cards, pigged out at dinner, and watched movies.

Dad and Charlie:



Chris:



Chris and Charlie:

Credit River

22-Dec-2007

Credit River

Water Level: frickin low

Well it is officially the first day of winter. The snow and ice are here to stay. I really wanted to get my day of paddling in December. This would get me closer to being in the 12 month club which is 12 months of paddling outdoors in Ontario. I missed it last season by missing February,

Everything up my way is frozen over. The only place left to maybe paddle was the Credit River. Greg was quite certain that it was low but runnable and a trip was therefore planned for today. I ended up crashing at Greg’s on Friday night. There was no sense in wasting gas for a trip home Friday night just to come back down to the GTA Saturday morning.

We met at the put in at 11:30 in Streetsville. The open boat paddlers would be Greg, Neil, Rick, and myself. The kayakers would be Bill, Len, and Wayne. And then there was Dan who decided he would paddle for the first time in a C1.

Some of us decided to slide down the big hill in our boats where the kids were sledding. Greg went first as was down before I could take pictures. Dan did two runs. One by himself where he did spins down the hill. The second run beside me. We started off together. I thought he was going to hold onto my boat all the way down and then he let go. I started spinng and all I though of was $h1t I am going to hit the big friggin post and decided to swim out of my boat. Neil did a run down in Dan’s C1.

After that we went back to the parking lot to see if the others were ready yet. Now for the hard part. We had figure out where the open water was as the river was iced in. We had to go across the ice and put in below the dam.

Here is a short video looking at the ice http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=7X2iYXkS8L0

The trip down the river was pretty un-eventful. The water was low but according to Greg it was lower when he was paddling it a few weeks ago. There was lots of ice along the shoreline. There is nothing like avoiding concrete slabs and garbage while paddling.

My epic move of the day came when we had to get out of our boats in order to get around the ice that had formed underneath the bridge. Neil walked along the shoreline first and dragged his boat under the bridge. I think :en was next and then it was my turn. I paddled up to the ice and threw Len my painter line and he started pulling me up. I stood up to put my foot on what I that was thick ice near the shore to only have my foot go through it and I fell over. I had one hand on my boat and one on the ice. I ended up carving out a fair chunk of ice as I was shimmying above the ice. I then grabbed Len’s hand after letting go off my boat and got up on shore. Thanks Len and Neil. The area I carved out made it easier for the others to get up onto the ice.

We managed to see quite a bit of wildlife. We saw two hawks, six deer, and a whole bunch of stunned fisherman. The most scenic thing of the whole day was a picnic table in the river with a snowman on top of it.



The takeout was also interesting as the normal river right exit was iced in. We ended up having to get out on river left and scale the block walls and then all hell broke out. Neil and gang decided to have a snowball fight.

After that we dragged our boats back to the cars. I am pretty sure everyone had fun. I know I did. I just hope I can now get a day of paddling in January and February.

Here is a link to the pictures http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=76108&l=6fb72&id=679800461

No tumour in my spine

11-Dec-2007

I had to go see my neurosurgeon for my MRI results.

I was expecting to the the word "tumour" and "surgery" in the same sentence.

I was quite happy to hear that I do not have a tumour pushing against my spine.

He said it was a slipped disc.

He told me to keep paddling and skiing.

I will have a checkup in a year.

So life goes on!

Xmas party in the Burg

Friday 07-Dec-2007

I left for the Ottawa Valley after work on friday as i had been invited to a party at Lara and Shannon's place.

It seemed real strange and depressing to be heading to the Valley with no boat on my car. It would be the first time since May with just me and no paddling gear.

Can the paddling season really be over? Say it isn't so.

I kept peeking over the sides of the roads and bridges and to my dismay everything seems to be frozen solid covered in snow.

I finally reached my dads place in Pet. He asked me if I was paddling and I had to unfortunately "no". I spent some time with the folks and finally had to go to bed after falling asleep in the chair I don't know how many times.

Saturday 08-Dec-2007

I left Pet around 11am and headed into Pembroke to do some shopping and visiting some friends. I finally made it to the Burg mid afternoon and dropped off my goodies for the party. I caught up with Lara and met Shannon and her friend Tanya.

I left and headed out to visit some of my friends that were close by in the Valley. I even stopped to check out the river at the McKoy's putin. It was really saddening to see the amount of ice on the river. I can't belive that I might have to admit the paddling season is finally over.

I headed back to party central to help out with the last minute details and cleanup. The party was fun. It was nice to catch up with others in a relaxing social setting versus sitting in a eddy on the side of the river.

I spent the evening drinking eggnog with Malibu. Don't knock it until you try it. It is really good. I forget how many of those I had plus the number of shots that went along with it. The party died down around 2am and some people crashed early.

Shannon was like the energizer bunny. She went on a cleaning spree (broke my crockpot lid) and insisted that Tanya and I kept drinking with her. She kept making the drinks and I think they we getting stronger each time in between the shots. We finally packed it in arounf 4:30am.

People started stirring just before 9am. Shannon's parents came back to the house and made up a great breakfast. Shortly after goodbyes were exchanged and I had to hit the road back to Innisfil. I took a different road home and it had the same result. The ice and snow are here to say and the paddling season is finally over.

Time to get the skis out!

McMaster Whitewater Xmas Party

Neil and I were supposed to go paddling on the Washago Black today. We decided to cancel our trip as it was -19C with the wind chill. Way to cold for either of us and we decided to live and paddle another day.

This gave me some extra time to get some food cooked up for a potluck dinner party I was invited to. I made my curry and chickpea conconction in the crock pot. I also remembered that my sis-inlaw gave me a rice cooker and gave that a trial run.

I packed up the car and headed off to Hamilton mid afternoon in order to get ahead of the storm that was coming in.

I stopped and took some pictures at the Burlington waterfront of the xmas lights. It was frickin cold.

I arrived at Robbie's place around 6ish. I plugged in the crock pot and and started another batch of rice. We had to make a quick run to the grocery store for supplies.

Everyone else started showing up around 8:30ish. It wouldn't be a xmas party without a game of flip cup and a ginger bread house making competition.

The music was great. Steve and Jurek played a few songs on their guitars and the crowd sang along.

The festivities lasted until the wee hours of the morning. I left around 3am as the weather wasn't that bad. It ended up getting worse when I got close to getting on the hwy 400 and there were already a few accidents heading northbound. I decided to head over to work and just crash there for a few hours.

The trip up the 400 was fine. I just had to follow the snowplows once I was about a third of the way home. I was pleasantly suprised when I got home to find out my neighbour had blown the snow out of the driveway for me.

I am glad I made the trip there. It was great to catch up with some of the paddling gang from the summer.

Washago Black

25-Nov-2007

Washago Black

Water Level: 7.75 on Washago Black gauge

I woke up at 05:30am after spending a lovely evening hanging with friends in Ottawa Valley. After checking my email and weather report I decided to hit the road early and head back to the Barrie area. I stopped for a quick breakfast at the Irving Truck stop in Pembroke and planned my route. FYI they have free wireless internet there and the food is excellent.

I decided to go back through Algonquin Park in order to head down highway 11. I was quite surprised when I came around a corner and saw a huge moose on the road. It ran off into the woods before I could get the camera out. I also managed to see a deer.

I decided to meet the group that was paddling later on at the Washago Black. I got there at 10:45. Greg and Gary were quite surprised to see me there. It was basically a WTF. I told them that this was just a pit stop for a couple of hours to stretch my legs and paddle. I also said well who else would be doing the trip report and they laughed.

The others started showing up in dribs and drabs. The paddlers today were Dan, Derek, Greg, Neil, Gary, Peter, Sean, Stephen, Kelly, and myself. Gary and Kelly had never been on this particular river before.

Gary was the token kayaker out of the group. He replaced Val for the day … oh wait a minute no he didn’t as Gary actually wanted to run the river instead of park-n-play. Val was apparently too busy using some excuse about having to put xmas lights up and therefore not coming paddling.

Kelly was from the Complete Paddler (http://www.completepaddler.ca). He brought up a Evergreen Solito ( see http://www.evergreencanoe.com/canoe_solo.html). He graciously allowed others within the group to try the boat through out the trip. This also gave Kelly a chance to try out a wide range of other open boats.

The river was up about four inches from the previous weekend. We all headed down river. Neil, Derek, and I had fun breaking the ice flow with our boats. The ice was about an inch thick in some of the flatwater sections. The higher water did make a difference as it was not as bony as the previous weekend. Everyone seemed to have fun warming up on the first couple of sets.

A lot of time was spent surfing on the waves above the lunch rock. There was actually enough water running over the ledge before the bridge to allow people to run it.

We finally arrived at Bell Ringer after paddling the flat water section. I ran it first and I think Gary and Stephen were just behind me. We then headed up to the centre channel for a quick look. The ledge looked runnable in one spot. The left hand line still looked too boney. The three of us carried up our boats. I then came back to shoot video of them only to see Gary run the ledge. Stephen apparently just put in above and kept paddling. I did my run and ended up swimming after having a lean on my right side and not enough time for a low brace. I felt like an idiot considering I had zero swims paddling the Main Channel of the Ottawa River the day before.

Gary and I carried back up into the main channel. I found out later that Neil had a bonehead swim at Bell Ringer. He apparently went over at the top and swam the whole way down. He was however paddling the Solito and tried to use that as his excuse but a swim is a swim!

We headed down towards Pinkies. I forget who was surfing the wave but Dan yelled upstream boater has the right of way and he did his normal wave hog slide onto the feature move. Well payback is a bitch as I was now the upstream boater and headed right for him. He said bring it on and I pushed him off the wave and paddled like hell so he wouldn’t push me over and make me swim.

I headed down to the last set and played for a bit. I then headed over to the take as I was getting tired.

I think everyone had a great day. I know I did. Dan and I grabbed some dinner in town on our way back to reality land.

Here is a short video

I did not figure out to have music in it yet. Maybe next time.

Ottawa River

Saturday 24-Nov-2007

Ottawa River – Main Channel

Water level: -1.0 according to educated guess

Today was the River Junkies Cold Water Paddle Day

The temperature started out at -12C when I got up at 6am. I am not sure why the hell I would want to go paddling in that temperature but I didn’t drive 370km to wimp out.

The paddlers of the day would be Alex, Bobbie, Bryson, Geoff, Jenny, Laura, Rich, and myself. We stop at the McKoys putin and made a decision to start paddling at the Lorne and avoid the long cold flat water paddle. We started offloading the boats and changing into gear. There was lots of grumbling of whether we were going to paddle or not. It wasn’t a good thing when you could see the ice along the shoreline in the flat water sections. Bobbie, Laura, and Rich did the shuttle which seemed to take forever as the rest of us were shivering waiting. I put on every piece of warm paddle gear I had including the new SealSkinz waterproof socks I bought the day before.Rich decided to sport the 2008 Bob and Doug McKenzie paddle headgear.

We all hopped into our boats and headed off to Garb. Geoff and Alex decided to try some flat water loops and cart wheels. They rest of us basically went holy crap that must be cold. The theme for the day was NO SWIMMING.

My run through Garb was fine. I think I was just to the left of the Garb wave and pulled in behind Moby Dick. I got out to take pictures of Alex, Bobbie, Bryson, and Geoff surfing Garb. It looked really fricking cold. Jen and Rich paddled down to the lunch spot to meet Laura as she did not want to run Garb.

I finally made it down to Push Button where some of the others spent a little bit of time surfing before I got there. I looked at Rich and he said keep paddling its getting cold. Everyone had no problem with Butchers Knife. We did not even stop to play in the whirl pools.

We headed down to the Norman’s. Laura wanted to get out take pictures and was going to walk around The Norman’s. We waited in a holding pattern until she had the camera out and made our runs. I caught my normal eddy on the right and then made the rest of the run down to where the others were waiting. I got out to give Laura and hand with her boat as she walking down. She decided to get back into her boat and run Coliseum as it was a lot harder to walk on rocks covered with snow.

We ran the rest of the river to the takeout as people were getting cold. There were no swims today. My airbags were frozen and our gear was covered in ice. See pictures.

I really enjoyed my paddle today out with my friends. This would be my coldest ever day of paddling. I am glad I did not wimp out as I would have never heard the end of it from the others.

We ended up having a late lunch at The Middle of Nowhere in La Passe.


See pictures

Washago Black River

18-Nov-2007

Washago Black

Water Level: 7.65 on Washago Black gauge

Most of the people were on time for meeting at the putin at 11am. I however was late as I decided to go to a last minute house party in Hamilton the night before. And yes I got picked on for being late. The air temperature was a bit cool today probably around the 0C mark.

We had a huge crowd. More people showed up than expected but hey we are all friendly paddlers and we just ended up being one happy family. Here goes it for names (sorry if I missed anyone). Janice, Blaine, Greg, Neil, Dan, Dan’s friend who was paddling my boat, Doug, Colin (different one), Louis and friend, and myself. Janice and Blaine were the kayakers in the group and everyone else where open boaters. Most of the group had never been on this particular river before.

We probably finally got started around 11:30ish. I was paddling in a different boat today. I borrowed a Esquif Nitro from my fellow paddler Geoff. It is a lot shorter and way narrower than my current boat. It was a bit tippy at the start but I soon was getting the hang of it. We started to head down river. This was the lowest I have ever paddled this river and wasn’t sure what to expect.

The first set of rapids were non-existent.The next set was ok and everyone was starting to get warmed up. We ended up staying at Baby Ender for a while as people seemed to be enjoying themselves. I ended up having my first and only swim of the day after. All I can say is the water was brrrrr.

There were a few surf spots just above the lunch rock. It was really weird to see the rock ledges above the lunch rock for the first time. The ledge after the lunch spot and before the bridge was ok. Some people decided to carry back up and run the ledge again. Dan decided to run it backwards for some reason but hey that’s Dan.

We paddled down the long flatwater stretch. Everyone played for a bit on this one wave where we ended up having swimmer number two of the day. We then headed down river since everyone was done. I ended up playing icebreaker to see if we could make it through the channel but it was too low. Greg came in to break up the ice as well. We had to make the run around the bend before getting to Bell Ringer. I opted not to run Bell Ringer as it was too low for me and I did not want to put a gouge in Geoff’s boat. Janice, Greg, Neil, Dan, Doug and Colin ran it. They all carried back up from the other side of the island and we all headed down to the Cottage Rapids.

There ended up being a sweet surf wave at Pinkies. Dan was on there forever. Neil managed to get on for the same ride. Some of the others were on for a bit but not as much as the two wave hogs did. My feet were getting a bit cold and I decided to head down to the take out. The was a bump and grind at the bottom of Cottage Rapids as we had about three boats stuck in one place at the same time.

I got to the takeout first and Janice was right behind me followed by Colin and Doug. The others were still playing on the river. I decided to borrow Neils truck in order to get the rest of the vehicles for us that were finished for the day. I was glad we did that as the others were still playing on the river when we came back.

All in all it was a nice day to be out paddling. There was way more water here than the Lower Head and I am glad we came hear instead. Thanks to Val for scoping out the river the day before and posting the recommendation.

Video Clip

Lower Head River

We put on the river around 11:30ish.

All I can say is the water is about 4 inches lower than last weekend.

It was a bump and grind.

Neil and I ran the river today and did a cleanup of logs, etc on the way.

We took apart the beaver dam above sucker chute. We have found out there is about a two foot undercut on the river right rock wall.

After that we headed down to triple drop. We spent about 3.5 hours there alone.

I am glad he had his drysuit on. He spent quite a bit of time up to his waist in water. At one point he slipped face first and said some non-family rated statements.

We cleaned out all the logs at the first drop. We took a break for lunch. I made pasta with butter chicken sauce and hot chocolate. We finished up the first drop and head off to second drop.

It took a while but we managed to get the big a$$ tree out at second drop. It took all of our biners and pulleys between our two pin kits to get the bugger to move after it was cut into two sections.

After that we ran the rest of the river and ended up getting off in the dark at 5pm. Mark at Timmy Who's stayed open for us. He thought we might have drowned as it was getting late. We got a couple of fruit tarts before going back to get the boats.


Here is the video from the day

Lower Head River

Saturday 10-Nov-2007

Lower Head River

Water Level: 7.76 on Washago Black gauge

Brent drove up to my place from Hamilton as he was desperate to get out and paddle. We left my place at noon and met up with Neil at Timmy Who’s just across from the putin. I went in a pre-ordered a half dozen fruit tarts for later. The weather was nice and zero wind. The flat water spots on the river looked like glass. Great possibility for reflection shots but my SLR camera was in the shop being repaired.

Dan and Erin showed up about 20 minutes later. Neil lent her AnnaLisa’s drysuit as she wasn’t paddling that day. Erin had a big smile on her face when she saw the suit as she thought she would be wearing cold neoprene gear. This would be Erin’s third day ever solo whitewater paddling in a open boat. We got suited up and did a quick shuttle and hit the river. Neil went holy crap its low. I told him that it was up at least four inches from two weekends ago.

Dan decided to check if Erin’s drysuit would keep her dry and decided to dunk her in the river like it was a religious experience.

We paddled up river towards Stonewall rapids. Neil went up above while the rest of us were just hanging out. He ended up taking some built up sticks and stuff out of the river in order to run the rapids. He asked us if the river went up at all after he came back down to where we were and told us about how he cleaned out some crap to make his run.

After that we headed down to Husky rapids. I got out to shoot some video as every ran the left side. Erin had the best clean runout of the group as she did not ground out or hit any rocks. Neil also ran the right side but had to do a extreme bump and grind bounce up ad down move to get over the ledge.

Our run down Second chute was fine. Some of us managed to get a little surf time in below the drop. Everyone was able to run the left run down the next set of rapids. It was definitely not runnable two weeks before.

We ended up doing some river cleanup at Triple Drop. Neil removed some logs at the first drop of triple drop. Neil and I removed a big plastic floating frame from the eddy below the first drop. Everyone but Erin ran the First drop. Everyone ran the Second drop. Someone took a chainsaw to the big tree at the second drop and most of it is now submerged. It loooks like someone went down the river with the chainsaw as there was trees in other areas that were freshly cut up. Everyone ran the Third drop and headed down river only to hit the bump and grind on the corner run.

At some point during the trip Dan’s hands were getting cold and asked me if I had my gloves with me. I pulled them out of my drytop pocket already pre-warmed and lent them to him. The rest of the river was fine. I did my most bonehead move of the day after the last set as we were paddling on the flatwater. I decided to try tag a free ride on Dans boat by hooking his grab loop with a paddle only to get pulled over sideways into the river and swim. Everyone had a good laugh on my swim.

Later on Dan bet me 50 bucks that I could not paddle his Zephyr into the middle of the river, standup in it for 10 seconds, and get back down into the boat without tipping over. I fell pretty fast into the water on try number one. Dan said he could have two more tries but would reduce the bet by 10 bucks on each try. Dan is not quite sure how but I managed to pull it off on the second try but his comment was basically “Holy $h1t ….”.

We finally made it to the takeout around 4:30. We headed up to pick up the other vehicles. Rodney passed us on the road and was pointing towards the bridge. Neil thought he was pointing to the porcupine he had seen on the road. I picked up my freshly baked tarts and a load of bread from Timmy Who’s. We found out when we came back to the takeout that a black bear had crossed the road about 100 feet on the south side of the bridge. It was getting pretty cold. Neil already had ice forming in his boat and my deflated airbags were starting to freeze.

Dan walked up with a fist full of cash in his hand to pay off his bet. I took 15 bucks out of his hand and told him to keep the rest. I told him he just paid for the tarts. I shared the tarts with everyone. We then said our goodbyes and departed ways.

Brent and I were heading back to my place when I got cut off by Dan in Barrie. He asked us what we were doing for dinner as Erin and him were heading to the family cottage a few minutes away from my house. Brent said he had to head back home. I told them I would come after drop Brent of to get his car from my place. I enjoyed a lovely dinner with Erin and Dan. Thanks!

Dan don’t forget to get your air pump fixed!

Here is a link to a video I pieced together. Nothing fancy but you get the point.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=dlMY9XbhNfc

Madawask River

Friday 02-Nov-2007

Madawaska River – Middle, Palmer Rapids, Lower

Water Level: unknown

I headed up to the Palmer Rapids mid-afternoon and made a quick stop to talk with Scott at Rapid Media. After that is was a shopping trip to Foymount.

I stopped at MKC just before dark to scope out the river from Staircase down to Chalet rapids. It was low but very runnable.

I finally made it over to the Paddler Coop around 6:30ish and set up the tent, started the fire, and made dinner. Greg was the next to show up around 7:30ish. Neil and AnnaLisa showed up around 9:30ish which is way early than Greg and I thought as they normally have some lame excuse for pulling in at midnight. Beverages of various types were consumed around the fire.

Saturday 03-Nov-2007

The temperature probably hit around -8C on Friday night. I was toasty warm but the others complained they were cold. After breakfast, the plan was for those that were there to get some time on the river at Palmers until the others showed up at 11:30 and then run the Lower Mad in the afternoon. Well that didn’t quite happened as Greg had the fire going and it was hard to get motivated.

Dan and Erin showed up a little while later. Greg and decided to go paddling. We were still waiting for Ryan and Val. Blaine showed up with his kayaker. He was the new comer and asked if he could come out and paddle with us. Ryan was the next to show up followed by Val-park-n-play kayaker who we thought was coming alone. He ended up bringing the Fun Sherrif and the two deputies. He only wanted to park-n-play at Palmer and not run the Lower Mad (typical lazy kayaker).

So plans changed. Blaine and Ryan had never been on the Middle Mad over at MKC. The three of us went there. Neil and AnnaLisa joined Val and kept him company at Palmer.

Out group did the 32km drive over to MKC. We dropped the boats off at the putin at the bridge and did the quick 1.2km shuttle. We did a warm up paddle on the flatwater. Ryan was just about to leave the bridge when someone yelled at him and asked if they could tag along. It turned out to be Greg and we waited a few minutes in an eddy until he caught up to us.

We all got out of our boats and scouted Staircase before making our runs. Everyone basically made it through unscathed except for Blaine who had a minor swim. We headed down to Chalet for some eddy catching and ferry practice. Every seemed to have fun. I did my normal photo duties but screwed up on the camera setting as I unknowingly pressed some button while walking with the camera and over exposed some of the shots. Hey crap happens. After what seemed like a couple of hours we packed up and headed back to Palmer Rapids.

Blaine, Ryan, and I put in on the river and paddled up to the upper chutes. Blaine and I ran the river right chute. I managed to catch and eddy that I have missed all year and I was happy with the progress I have made.

We then headed down river and played at the first set. We practiced ferrying back and forth from each side of the river using all the eddys. The rest of the run down the river was spent catching as many eddies as possible on both sides of the river before taking out at the bottom.

We packed up and head back to camp to change into dry clothes. We still had a few hours to kill as we had dinner reservations at the Wilno Tavern. Dan was zonked out in his tent. He was totally screwed up in his sleep as he was away on business overseas and was just coming back from a 12 hour time zone change. He was all cuddled up in his brand new sleeping bag complete with tags still attached (see pictures). Beverages were being consumed by the fire while passing the time away. A beverage run was made as some people seemed to be running low. Soon it was time to wake up the Dan from his nap. Erin, AnnaLisa, and Neil piled on top of him in the tent (see pictures) to wake him up.

Well it was time to go off to the Wilno. Erin and I had to drive as the others couldn’t for some strange reason. I am glad I made a reservation. The place was packed and it wasn’t even buffet night as that was finished for the season. We spent a couple of hours there before heading back. We stopped in Barrys Bay to pick up a couple of pies for dessert. We re-stoked the fire and warmed the pies up near them and consumed more beverages. Some people decided to make up some hot water bottles for their sleeping bags (wusses). I went to bed around 10:30. Not sure about the others.

Pictures from saturday part 1

Pictures from saturday part 2


Sunday 04-Nov-2007

Most people started stirring around 7am or so and we were lucky to get that extra hour of sleep due to the time change. Some of us went into town for a number 5 or 6 and a flushy for breakfast. Blaine decided to join us for another day of paddling. I guess he did not think our group was that dysfunctional.

We head a new plan for the day. It seemed the river rose about 1.5 feet during the night. The dilemma now became do we run the Lower Mad or just be lazy and park-n-play at Hass Hole as the level would be at an optimum level. We decided to pull a Val and spent 5 hours at Hass. We had the place to ourselves the whole time. To bad for you Val you missed a great day.

Oh wait a minute that must have been a dream … the river was still the same level and we ran the Lower Mad. We finally got on the water around 10:30. I paddled ahead of the group to Hass to get setup for pictures. The rest were only about 10-15 minutes behind me.

I took pictures of everyones run. Neil took some of me. I was really happy when I caught the eddy on the right considering it did not fit into it. Dan said I was really learning how to work my boat with that move. Swimming throughout the day was minimal and I managed to have no swims at all.

This was the lowest that most of our group had run the Lower Mad. A lot of the bigger rapids ended up being a float through for the most part with minimal consequences. We were especially surprised at Rifle Chute which ended up losing all of its nastyness.

Dan, Greg, and I had fun there. I caught the same eddy they were in on river right. We then did a ferry over to the center eddy, followed by a move upstream ferry around the big rock pile in the middle over to another eddy at river left. I made it all the way across but ended up being a little to low on the last eddy but it was still and accomplishment for me. We ended up finding a nice undercut on the river left side of the run through Rifle just jet of the rock that would normally rip boats apart in higher water. Mental note for potential swimmers next year.

My best move of the day had to be at the second or third last rapid. Some of us took the right channel and some the left channel. We saw a boat upside after we finished the right channel. Neil went like a bat out of hell over to see what was going on. He did the left move around the big rock and made the drop. It turns out that AnnaLisa ended out of her boat and bumped her knee but she was fine.

I made my run down towards the same place that Neil went. I decided to take the drop to the right of the rock. Which would have been an easy move until after starting down the drop there was another fair size rock just below it an to the right. I ended up going vertical stern up and then dropped into the hole sideways, did two power strokes, and a brace in order to get out of it. Dan told me later he thought I was going to get munched for sure and he was glad he saw my run as he was going to boof the rock I went beside and would have ultimately landed on the second one. Blaine told me he saw almost all of the bottom of my boat when I was vertical and would have made a cool picture. Too bad I had the camera.

Raquette was low but runnable. All of us except for Dan took the left channel around the island with no consequences. Dan took the right channel. He said it was a pretty sketchy and hairy run. After that is was one run through the last and off to the takeout. We took a vote at the takeout. Blaine is now officially part of our crew now. We had to bring the kayak numbers up by one so Val would not be lonely. But we really only let him into the group as he is normally an open boater but still likes to run the river in a kayak as well.

The takeout road sucked big time. I am glad my car stayed at the putin as I would have been shopping for a new one for sure. Neil is the king of shuttling open boats. He had four of them on his vehicle. The passed some hunters at the hunt camp. They were probably going WTF are they doing.

Goodbyes were said to those leaving from the putin. The rest of us head back to the Coop to get our tents and other gear.

It was a fun day on the river but if we ever plan on doing this type of weekend again, we will be running the Lower Mad on the first day and play at Palmers the second day in order to make it convenient for others driving a long distance to leave when ever suits them.

Pictures from sunday

Ottawa River

Sunday 21-Oct-2007

Ottawa River – Main Channel

Water level: -3.5 according to others

It was a great day for paddling. The weather was sunny and absolutely gorgeous.

There would only be four of us in our group today. Wayne, Jason, Anna, and myself. Wayne managed to scrounge some gear for Anna as her boating stuff was still in Colorado. I stopped on the way to borrow a drytop from Jen which was very much appreciated.

We started to get ready and did a quick shuttle. We ended up giving Jennifer a ride back to the putin as she was just sitting in her vehicle at the takeout hoping someone would be coming soon. Anna ended paddling in Jason’s boat as it was more her size. They were very creative in re-outfitting the boat to make her tight in the boat. Anna found it difficult to move in the PFD she had on but would live with it as she was happy to be boating as it has been eight months since she had done it last.

We headed off to McKoys. We ran into Luke who was heading back to the putin as he was done playing for the day. I looked at his PFD and asked him if we could borrow it for the day. He agreed he swapped with Anna who was now very happy and comfortable. Wayne did the thread the needle. Jason ran the right hand line to show Anna where to go. She decided to walk this one. I did my run through McKoys down the right side and I did it with the bow of my boat pointing in the right direction. Jason played at Centre Horseshoe while I took pictures of him and the fall colours.

He headed of to the Lorne. I ended up swimming after getting side swiped at the third wave at Garb. I did a quick self rescue and paddled back up in the eddy to the boof ledge. Jason and Anna ended up run the ledge. Jason did a couple of rides at Garb and headed down river. I peeled out above Moby Dick and ran right through Garb with no problems at all. I am not quite sure how I can swim the first run and not swim doing the peel out.

Push Button wasn’t too busy. There were maybe eight people or so. Wayne, Jason, and Anna managed to get in a few good rides before we headed down river. Everyone made it down through Butchers Knife no problem at all.

I ended up swimming at the top of the Normans at the last wave before the boils. I decided to run the middle left line as I had never done that before. I self rescued in a nice little alcove, got back in my boat, and peeled out. It wasn’t until after we all ran the left side of Coliseum that Anna found out I swam. She thought I stopped to take pictures again. Everyone in the group were quite surprised at how fast I can self rescue and swim with my boat and get back into it with out losing any of my gear. I learnt a new expression today. I was not swimming … I was just out of my boat going pee!

We all ran Dogs Leg with no problem and headed off to Blacks. Jason spent a bit of time playing there. I was busy taking pictures of him and the fall colours. I took some pictures just before the takeout on the small rocky shoal islands that would normally be under water. The little green bushes were now a brilliant yellow. I don’t know how she did it but Anna managed to be able to float in her boat over the very little water there was flowing over the rocky shoals. The rest of us had to get out and walk.

We headed back to Little Picky lodge after we changed and loaded up the vehicles. I was hoping to transfer my pictures of the camera and give them to Anna and Jason but I did not have my cable. Anna is quite the tightrope walker. She started walking across the line they had strung up between the deck and tree. I said my goodbyes and it was time for me to go back to my dads. I had to drop off the drytop and the PFD we had borrowed earlier.

Pictures:

Part 01

Part 02

Part 03

Fall Colours

Ottawa River

Saturday 20-Oct-2007

Ottawa River – Main Channel

Water level: -3.5 according to others

I was the first of our group to get to the putin. I drove right down to the river dropped off my boat off. I left all the paddling gear I needed in my boat and drove back up to the parking lot. Jason from Colorado had just pulled in as I came up the hill into the lot. He had never run the river before and was only in town for a few days. He got hold of me through BoatWerks and asked if he could tag along.

I then ran into Dave and Sean. They decided to join our group. Wayne saw my post and decided to come out for a paddle. We did a quick shuttle. And then there was the late comers Laura, Brent, and Ellen.

We all head off to McKoy’s. I had already decided I was not running Phil’s today as this was my first day paddling since the Gull river race back at the beginning of September, Dave and Sean ran the right hand line close to shore. Jason and Wayne did the thread the needle.

I decided to run the same line as Jason and Sean. I ended up getting spun on the eddy line just above the last rock with the pour over. I decided there was no way I was going to spin the front of the boat in time back down river as it had already bumped the wall. I spun the boat around and ran the chute backwards and then spun it the right way around and eddied out at Corner Wave in order to head back up to take pictures. Brent, Laura, and Ellen all took the right hand line.

After some swims (names to remain anonymous) we all headed down to The Lorne. I ended up swimming when I started to change my angle too soon to head over behind Moby Dick. I ended up having too much downstream lean when I hit the top of the Garb wave sooner than expected. I self rescued and paddled back up the eddy in order to get out on Moby Dick to take pictures. The others made their runs. Jason was having a blast trying to get onto Garb and other various places around it. I don’t think anyone else tried to get on Garb as the level was not prime. I managed to get a front surf on the diagonal wave you have to get out on in order to slide onto Garb. It was frickin amazing and I was happy.

We then headed down to Push Button where I finally met Paul for the first time ever. I also met Kyle for the first time as well. I tried to surf Push Button but today was not my day. Dave hopped into my boat and had a couple of great rides. Wayne got in a few surfs as well. There were 26 people at Push Button when we were there and more were showing up as we headed down river.

Next was Butchers Knife. Most of us took the left line. It was kind of hard to tell by looking up river as I went first. Some of the group played in the whirlpools at Brain Douche before heading to the Normans.

I tried catching the most upper right eddy above the ledge but missed it and end up going over the ledge into the hole backwards and I swam for my second time of the day. I self rescued and swam with my boat to the big river right eddy before Coliseum and got back into my boat. I did have to throw my rescue bag out in order to tow someone into shore but the good thing was nobody was hurt. Laura was quite surprised at how the boils grabbed her boat. I warned her and the others about the boils so they would not be caught off guard.

Some people got out to scout Coliseum. I just ran the left line and waited in the eddy below. Dave and Jason were having fun trying to surf the river left hole. Everyone else finally made it down. Ellen elected to walk this one. Everyone went through Dogs Leg fine and then came Blacks.

We spent quite a bit of time playing here. We ran into Alan and one of his friends (sorry forgot his name). I almost had a front surf before I got out to take pictures. Jason was just ripping it up. Sean and Brent looked like they were having fun. Laura tried a couple of surfs. Dave took my boat out for another ride and was styling it quite fine. He then hopped back into his kayak and styled it some more. I hopped back into my boat and blew a crappy attempt at a front surf. I went back for a shot at a side surf and was there for a bit before getting window shaded and swam. I almost rolled back up. Jason and Laura said it looked pretty cool. Jason figured that I would have not gone over if I had thrown my body weight over to the other side (oooppss).

After that we headed to the takeout. Dave, Sean, Wayne, and Ellen were already there. I loaded Jason’s boat and mine on the car. Wayne was asking what I was doing on Sunday and said I did not have any plans. I then asked Jason what he was doing and the outcome of the conversation ended up we were meeting at 09:30 Sunday to go paddling again! I then gave a couple of drivers a ride back up top to get their cars.

I dropped Jason off at Little Picky and met his girlfriend Anna. I changed into my dry stuff before heading off back to my dads. I made a couple of stops on the way to visit friends.

Pictures:

Pictures Part 01

Pictures Part 02

Pictures Part 03

Pictures Part 04

Pictures Part 05

Pictures Part 06

2007 Vacation - Day 19 through 23

Day 19 - 09-Oct-2007

I hooked up the DVD player and VCR to the kids computer downstairs. Rachel and Alex were now happy that they could finally watch movies.

I spent some time fixing Michelle’s computer as it had some big time problems. We spent some time shopping at Costco just in time for the hotdog lunch special. I spent some time and showed Michelle how to transfer their pictures off of her digital camera. I also showed her how to back up their file onto the external hard disk drive we picked up at Costco.

Michelle and Rachel started out making peanut butter cookies buts as normal the mom got left holding up the rest of the backing duties.

Calvin and I went out shopping at Staples for a network based multi-function printer. I ended up setting it up and configuring the other two computers to use it.

Day 20 - 10-Oct-2007

I spent some time in the morning going over stuff with Calvin about the new printer. He also asked me if I wanted to come back in the new year and help them get other stuff sorted out with the house. He apparently has a lot of Aeroplan miles to use up.

I left around 2pm and started heading to my friend Mike’s in Leduc. Its been at least six years since I seen him last. After dinner he asked me what I wanted to do. He asked me if I wanted to go blow crap up and I said sure. We headed off to the shooting range with two rifles (M1 Carbine and a 22 pump action that was 90 years old) and two handguns (45 and 357). Its been at least twelve years since I fired a weapon of any type. Mike and I used to be on the shooting team when we were in cadets together. I have not lost my touch. I managed to get six inch groupings at seven yards with both handguns and eight inch groupings at 45 yards. I probably had an eight inch grouping at 45 yards with both rifles.

After a couple of hours it was time to get going. Mike said that I could get my firearms license the next time I came out.

We got back to the house around 9pm and I crashed early at 10pm.

Pictures from the shooting range

Day 21 – 11-Oct-2007

I spent a few minutes looking at one of Mike’s computers. It was running real slow. I cleaned it up a bit and started running a scan for spyware and other stuff. I showed Deb what she had to do after the scan was done. I left just after breakfast as Mike was going to work.

I headed over to see a friend I met earlier back in June. I stop to see Aaron at the seminary. He was in between classes. He gave me the grand tour.

After that I headed over to the West Edmonton Mall. I despise shopping and the mall really had nothing I would be interested in shopping in. I went in to take pictures of the ice rink, ship, and wave pool. After that I headed over to MEC to buy another duffle bag and headlight.

I stopped at the Northgate Shopping Center and had dim sum lunch at this really good Chinese place. It was nice to eat lunch and check emails at the same time. They offered free wireless internet to their customers.

I then headed over to my cousin Tamara place. I walked in through the garage entrance. I startled her friend that was talking on the phone. Tamara came down and gave me my hug. Tamara and the boys had a light dinner as Reg was not home until after 6pm and he would most likely want to go out for Chinese food as Tam is not fond of it.

Riley asked me if I could figure out how to put pictures and music on his cell phone and mp3 player. Tam asked me if I could look at their computer (this would make number six on this trip). I managed to get everything figured out before Reg came home. He walked in the door and asked me if I could figure out getting music on his cell phone. I told him it was all done and that Riley would show him later.

Reg, Riley, and I went out to Smiley’s for dinner. After that it was watching survivor night and discovery channel. They others went to bed around 10pm and finally went sometime after 11.

Day 22 – 12-Oct-2007

I left Tamara place just after the kids left for school. I made a stop in Red Deer to see Kathie. It was kind of strange as I had not seen here in at least 22 years when we were in cadets together. We caught up on life. I would have like to have gone seen her sister Vicki but she lived in Medicine Hat which was out of the way for this trip.

I headed off to Calgary to see Marieke and Anke. I looked around the mall for a bit as they would not be home until 5pm. I phoned my friend Mark back home to see if he would pick me up at the airport but it turns out that he was at the airport flying to Montreal to see the hockey game.

The girls finally made it home. I offloaded all the extra food, rubber maid containers, and cooler that I had from camping. They were quite happy with the donation. We met some of their friends for a birthday dinner at Jamiesons. I treated the girls out to dinner as they have let me stayed at their place for two nights now. We rented the move 1408 which was kind of bizarre to watch and after that it was bed time.

Day 23 – 13-Oct-2007

This would be the last day of my vacation out west. I said goodbye to the girls and got my hug. I told them I hope to see them again in January if things go right. I headed off to the airport to return the car and catch my flight.

I finally got home just before 9pm.

2007 Vacation - Day 18

Day 18 – 08-Oct-2007

I spent the morning with Michelle’s family. I ended up spending three hours fixing their computer and getting their digital camera working with the computer as well. This would make four computers I have fixed for my relatives on this trip. The computer is going to get a memory upgrade tomorrow. I will also most likely end up configuring the new network printer they plan on buying.

After Lunch I headed over to see Adam and Angie and give them the hi-res versions of the car fire pictures I took a few days ago.

I then decided to spend some time see where I used to live as a military brat from July 1975 through July 1977. I was there for grades 5 and 6. It turns out that Canada Lands had sold off most of the old property where the military housing used to be. They moved all of the military personnel and equipment and created a super base further north in Namao.

I had to drive up and over a dirt road to get on the road where I used to live. I am pretty sure we were the second driveway from the end of the street but my dad thinks we where the third. All the houses on our street and others were gone. Only the driveways were left.

The garages across the street were gone. I remember one time when I used to get bullied around all the time by this kid from school. I was out delivering the papers on my route when he came by and kicked me as he was driving by on his bike. My dad saw what happened and told me to take a stand. I ended up beating the crap out of this kid who was way bigger than me and I think I ended up pushing his head through one of the small square panels in the garage doors. I never got bugged at that school again. I do remember I had the same problem in grade 10 where I ended up beating the crap out of the biggest bully in the school in gym class. I never took gym after that day which led to me down my path onto becoming a computer geek

I walked through some of the other housing that was boarded up. I was quite surprised to see my old school still intact. They boarded up a lot of the windows on it. I spent some time talking to a lady across the street from the school. She told me it was still in use but not many kids were enrolled there but this could change as the new residential housing gets built.

After my trip down memory lane I head back to Michelle’s for thanksgiving dinner.

Link to pictures

2007 Vacation - Day 17

Day 17 – 07-Oct-2007

I got up just before 8am, had a shower, made breakfast, and packed up all my crap by 8:30. I showed Renee and Gail some of the pictures I had taken on my trip. I said goodbye to them and headed up to the Tram to go up the mountain. They wanted 24 bucks to go up. I decided not to spend the money as I had been up quite a few times before.

I headed into town to get some squares from the bakery. It turns out they offered wireless internet for their paying customers. I ended up spending a couple of hours in the corner uploading previous trip reports and pictures as I did not have anything else I wanted to see.

I finally left Jasper and decided to head over to the Miette Hotsprings for a soak. It took me two hours to drive the 60km as I stop to take pictures mountain sheep and Jasper Lake. The lake was really wide and very very low. It was maybe an inch or so where I walked out to it. The wind was going about 60kph and the thin layer of water was dynamically changing its path over the sandbar of a lake.

I also stop to take pictures of Punch Bowl Falls. I finally got to the hot springs and 3pm. I soaked in there for two hours. I noticed people going back and forth into this other pool which turned out to have cold water in it. People were going in for like 20 seconds maximum. I went to check the pool out. I was in there for 20 minutes. It was a balmy 68F which is what my pool is like in late August / September. I got a lot of stares from people wondering how I could stay in that long (what else is new).

I phoned my cousin Michelle and asked her if I could come one night earlier than planned. I stopped a few times at the beginning to take pictures of the clouds. It was a pretty quick trip. The posted speed limit was 110kph. I set the cruise control for 119kph and followed the transport trucks. It was pretty amazing that I did not have to touch the break peddle on the car for 125km on the longest stretch. I did the 320km drive and arrived at her place by 9pm.

We caught up on the family stuff before they headed to bead early. I ended staying up until 1:30 and posted some more pictures up online and caught up on my email.

Link to pictures

2007 Vacation - Day 16

Day 16 – 06-Oct-2007

I slept in until 8:30am which is a first for me in a long time considering I was sleeping in my tent. It was definitely warmer in Jasper than the previous night at the Columbia Icefields. I met my camping neighbours Rene from Quesnel, BC and Gail from Prince George, BC.

My only goal for picture taking today was Mount Robson. This mountain has its own weather pattern and it is kind of hit and miss for taking pictures as it tends to be clouded in most of the time.

I headed back west and crossed back into British Columbia. The one way trip of 85km ended up taking me two hours as I stopped a few times along the way. I managed to get a few shots of the mountain about half covered in clouds. I decided to wait it out for the afternoon as I had no other pressing engagements. I hauled out the stove and made some soup and noodles for lunch. During lunch I was talking to a couple from Edmonton who used to live in Windsor. I spoke to Dave and Marcie for quite a while as they were waiting for the mountain to come into better view as well.

The mountain was still covered. I decided to do a small hike up the trail by the Robson River where I ended up taking quite a few shots of some really small white mushrooms. I then headed back to the field where I took the previous pictures of the mountain. Things were starting to clear up. I ended up lying down in the field for an hour waiting for the clouds to move and the finally did. I met a couple from Germany who lived near Soest. I told them I lived in Germany as a military brat living outside of Lahr and on a pig farm in Soest.

I also met a professional photographer from Calgary named Anna. We talked about photography for a few minutes while waiting for some of the clouds to shift. I managed to get a few shots with barely any cloud cover. I was very happy and stroked another site to see off my list.

On the way back to Jasper I stopped to take some pictures of a moving train and the Moose and Fraser Rivers. I finally made it back to Jasper and decided to find a wireless connection to check my emails. I headed down to the residential area. I then decided to eat in town at the local Chinese restaurant as the Asian cliental ratio was quite high. The food was excellent.

There were lots of Elk in the town of Jasper itself. It is currently rutting season. A male elm will easily have 20 – 30 females following him around like a harem (lucky guy). The males are very protective. They have been known to go after people or cars that come close to them during mating season.

I went for a walk in the park and ended up at Dave and Marcie’s trailer. We ended up playing a dice game called Rummikub. We had hot apple cider and strawberry rhubarb pie for a late snack. It was very dark out by the time we finished and Dave figured I would run into the wrong four legged creature and drove me back to my campsite.

Link to pictures

2007 Vacation - Day 15

Day 15 – 05-Oct-2007

I got up at 6:30am and it was frickin cold. It had snowed that night and the car windows were frosted up. I had to let the car run for a bit to warm it up while I packed up my tent and sleeping gear. I wanted to be at the base of the ice field for sunrise pictures. I was out there for almost two hours freezing my a$$ off. I let the camera sit in the cold for abit before I started to use it. I decided to you a tripod and my electronic remote this time as I would have most likely been shaking too much to take the pictures. The camera was doing some really weird things. Some of the pictures had kind of a purple tinge to them which kind of looked neat for a special effect.

I only had a 100km of driving to do today as I was only going as far as the town of Jasper but I knew it would take me the whole day to do it by the time I got to the campground.

I managed to get some nice reflection shots at Beauty Creek. The water was smooth as glass. I stopped at the picnic area at Sunwapta Falls and hauled out the stove to make breakfast. At least it was warmer here due to the lower elevation. I did get a few funny looks from some of the other people but I didn’t care as I was hungry. I managed to get a few nice shots of the falls.

Next stop would be the Athabasca Falls. I spent about an hour here walking up and down the trails taking pictures. Afterwards I took some more pictures of the Athabasca river in various places on my way towards Jasper.

I remembered from a previous trip that Horseshoe lake was a nice spot to stop at. I did the short hike in an managed to take some half decent reflection shots. The water had a nice blue colour to it.

I finally reached the town of Jasper at 2pm but I still had other places to see before going to the campground. The weather was great as it was sunny and warm relative to where I had been. I was walking around in just my tee-shirt and crocs where others were in fleece and hiking boots.

I headed off to the Maligne river canyon route. The canyon itself was a really cool place as it starts out really narrow at the top and supper wide at the bottom. I spent almost two hours hiking around the trails in my crocs but did not have any problems at all.

I stopped at Medicine Lake for a bit to take some pictures and decided to come back near sunset on the way back to take some more. Shortly after I seen this RV pulled over. There were people on the rode trying to take pictures of this red fox on the run. I put on my zoom lense and put the window down. I did a drive by shoot pictures with two hands and drive with the knees and managed to get great pictures of the fox while he was running. I drove a bit further up the road and got out of the car. I managed to get some shots of him as he was coming towards me.

I made it to Maligne Lake. It was almost 5pm. I hauled out the stove and started cooking dinner. While dinner was on simmer I headed over to the lake and took some pictures. After dinner I managed to take some pictures of moose and deer.

I headed back to Medicine Lake to take more pictures during sunset. I managed to take some pictures of Elk near the town of Jasper before heading to the campground.

I set up the tent and had a quick shower before heading back to town for a movie night. I saw the Kingdom as I am a Jennifer Garner fan. I went to bed around midnight but at least it was warm out.

Link to pictures

Pictures part 01

Pictures part 02

2007 Vacation - Day 14

Day 14 – 04-Oct-2007

I was up and gone by 06:30ish. I knew it would only be about 200km of driving but it would be a long one with all the places I wanted to stop at to take pictures. I was heading eastward to Banff National Park. I had decided during the planning of my trip to avoid the town of Banff as it was nothing but a concrete jungle and not worth visiting for me.

I made a quick stop at the Spiral Tunnels. This was basically a set of tunnels that spiraled through the mountain sides to decrease the amount off grade on the railway line through the Kicking Horse Pass.

I then reached the lovely village of Lake Louise. I avoided all the touristy stuff and headed right up to the lake. I spent about an hour taking pictures and walking through the Chateau Fairmont hotel.

After that it was off to Morraine Lake. Personally I think this lake is more beautiful than Lake Louise. It has more of a turquoise colour but you have to be at the right angle to see it. I managed to get some really nice reflection shots while walking alone the beach shoreline.

I stopped off at Bow Lake for a snack break and then off to the Bow Summit trail which leads to Peyto Lake. The elevation is about 7000 feet and you are definitely in the snow line. Luckily I had my fleece and winter boots with me. This lake is supposed to be the most turquoise colour of all the lakes in the Banff/Jasper Park system. On the way back down the trail I met a nice young lady from Spain who asked me to take a picture of her with her camera. I said sure why not. I took a picture of her later on with my camera just before she slipped and fell coming down the trail.

I was just about to leave the parking lot when this guy comes up to me and says my car is on fire just around the corner. He wasn’t kidding. The funny thing about this story was that Adam wanted to take his moms van but she told him to take his sisters car as the van might break down. Angie was from Portland Oregon and was visiting her boyfriend Adam from Edmonton. He decided to take her on a trip through the Rockies.

I decided I was not going to miss a great photo opportunity and decided to stick around. The ranger finally showed up and started asking Adam questions about what happened. I asked Angie if she would be interested in a hot chocolate and fired up the stove to make her one.

It took the fire department a half hour to come from Louise Louise. By that time the car was basically crispy crittered. It was a 2001 Grand Prix. I was surprised in all the time it was burning that the gas tank did not blow at all. One of the fire fighters wanted his picture taken after it was all put out. I will put a DVD with all the pictures on it and send them to the fire department when I get home. I gave Angie my email address and will email her the pictures later.

I continued my journey northward and reached Sakatchewan Crossing. I took some pictures in various spots of the river with water in it and some time next to nothing in it. I also managed to take some pictures of some goats.

I reached the Columbia Icefields campground around 6pm. The temperature was starting to drop and it was supposed to hit -10C. The only other people in the campground were Louis and Louise from Gatineau Quebec. I made dinner and a fire in the wood stove in the dinning shelter. I should the other couple the pictures from the car fire. They were quite impressed. After that is was an early night as it was going to be a cold one.

Link to pictures

Pictures part 01

Pictures part 02

Pictures part 03

Pictures part 04

2007 Vacation - Day 13

I finally found a internet connection so here is another report.

Day 13 – 03-Oct-2007

I slept in until about 8ish. I guess I must have been tired from all the driving I have done the day before. O looked out the window and all I saw was two bus loads of Japanese tourists taking pictures of the snow. I finally got my but moving around 9:30ish as I had a long day ahead of me and many pictures to take in Glacier National Park.

I drove back to the west side of the park and started working my way back taking pictures of the various spots. I managed to get some great shots at the Hemlock Grove, Rock Garden Trail (lots of neat vegetation), and the Loop Back Trestles (old abandoned railway trestles).

I spent some time taking pictures of the trains. Man they are long ones out here. I fount the Mount MacDonald Tunnel entrance and took some pictures there but no trains were going through it at the time. I am sure I was probably trespassing but I don’t remember seeing any signs.

I finally made my way back to the Rogers Pass Summit. It was very pretty with all the snow that fell the night before.

I started heading eastward on my journey to Yoho National Park. I wanted to be in the town of Field before sunset. The drive through the Columbia valley just west of Golden was beautiful. I stopped for a quick bite to eat and gas in Golden before heading onward.

I managed to make it to Field in time. I headed up to Emerald Lake and the Natural Bridge to take pictures before the daylight was gone. I did a bone head move and lost my pair of sunglasses somewhere at the bridge. I went back but they were no where to be found. I am sure one of the Japanese tourists from the two buses that pulled in just as I was leaving has them. That would be the first pair I have lost this summer plus the three that I broke. Crap happens.

I headed off to the campground. I met a couple from Switzerland. We were the only two groups of people camping there that night. It turned out the camping was free as it was now a winter camping zone. Saving money is good. The only downside was there was no water but I had lots with me. I keep refilling my two litre pop bottle every chance I get.

I started a fire in the wood stove during dinner. The other couple were going to San Francisco via Calgary as they had a friend to pickup. They were not sure of which way to go to the USA. I showed them different options with my map program on my laptop.

After that it was an early night in bed.

Here are some links to pictures

Pictures part 01

Pictures part 02

Pictures part 03

Pictures part 04

Pictures part 05

Pictures part 06

2007 Vacation - Day 07

Day 07 – 27-Sep-2007

I left my cousins place a 6am in order to catch the ferry to the Sunshine Coast. The ride over was nice. I managed to take a couple of pictures as it was foggy and overcast for most of it.

I had breakfast at Molly’s Reach in Gibson. It was pretty cool to actually see this place as I grew up watching the Beachcombers in the 70’s and 80’s.

I headed up to Egmont. I could not find some of the Ontario paddlers that were going to be there. I did the 4km hike wearing my Crocs into the Skookumchuk tidal rapids. I managed to see the whirlpools, etc for the outflowing tide just before noon.

I hung out in the woods for the rest of the day as the other rapid that the paddlers use would not be in until 5:29pm for incoming tide. I spent the afternoon taking pictures of the rainforest and marine life and having a nap under my umbrella as it was raining. By this point I had less than 9 hours sleep in the last 58.

The Skook wave started coming in around 4ish slowly building to its peak. I managed to take some pictures of two paddlers from Colorado as the Ontario paddlers were not around. The pictures were not exactly great quality as it was crappy weather but at least I got some.

I did the 4km hike out and decided to head back to Vancouver as I hand time to make the last Ferry. I managed to get to my other cousins place around 10:30ish. I finally crashed after midnight. I woke up an hour later with my hand still on the mouse as I was waiting for the pictures to upload.

I will be in Vancouver for a few days and then off to the Revelstoke, Glacier, Yoho, Banff - Jasper parks for the rest of my journey.

Link to some pictures

2007 Vacation - Day 12

Day 08 28-Sep-2007 – Day 11 01-Oct-2007

I spent most of my time at my cousin Prescott’s place with his family. I played mister fixit around the house fixing things that were out of Prescott’s area of expertise. Well not exactly on one of the jobs as he is a plumber by trade … I ended up taking a hairball the size of my fist out of his daughters bathtub as the water was draining out very slow. Linda has invited me back next year at the same time. She said she will start making a list and will pay my flight out. We will see about that.

I also had dinner with my aunt, uncle, and cousin from my moms side of the family. I found out from my aunt and uncle that I had relatives in Revelstoke, BC.

I can’t believe how much is has rained over the last few days. At least 50mm of rain a day. I hate the rain and even worse I hate driving in it.

I ended up staying in Maple Ridge one extra day due to the crappy weather in the area I was going.

Day 12 – 02-Oct-2007

I left Maple Ridge at 04:30am and headed east. I was hoping to get at least to Revelstoke by 4pm. I had to make a 180km detour in order to see my last remaining living grandmother in Princeton, BC. I spent a couple of hours visiting and continued my journey.

I stopped in Kamloops at the Costco for lunch. I have been to at least five different ones since I have started my vacation. Addiction is a good thing?!

I stopped to see the Last Spike. This was the last spike of the railway linking the east to the west.

I managed to make it to Revelstoke around 4:30ish. My mom was born here and I thought it would be nice to check the place out. It is a nice little town. I went up to the dam and took a couple of pictures. This is the smaller dam. The larger Mica dam was another 175km up the road but I was not going there.

I found the house my Aunt Shirley lived at. She supposedly held me when I was a baby. It felt kind of strange knocking on someone’s doors and asking if they were home or not. She thought I was a salesman until I explained who I was. I actually got invited in the door without even having to show ID. She filled me in on her family and I filled here in on what was going on with mine. Go figure it turns out we are all dysfunctional. She also lives at the corner of the street named after my mothers side of the family. She invited me out to dinner with her daughter Debbie.

After dinner I continued my journey eastward. I managed to get to Glacier National Park. I decided to grab a room at the Best Western at the bottom of the glacier. It is also just west of Rogers Pass. I hope to get some nice pictures in the morning.

Link to some pictures

2007 Vacation - Day 06

Day 06 – 28-Sep-2007

I left at 4am to drive over to the ferry terminal. I was 5th car in line in my lane. I figured the cost of $14.45 was well worth the price of gas and driving for another few hours to reach my destination for the day of Seattle. I am going to play tourist for the day in the city before heading up to Vancouver.

I think I found POBO or at least his bike. It was beside my car on the ferry. I took some pictures of it but could not wait for its owner to come back.

I managed to get into downtown Seattle at 06:30am. I washed up and put on some clean clothes in order to not look like a country hick.

I spent some time at the Pike Market. I watched the fish being unloaded and the stands being setup. I came across a really neat hot pepper produce stand.

I also managed to take the Underground City tour. Thanks Peter for the suggestion. It was really informative and entertaining.

I managed to head over to Chinatown for a Dim Sum lunch at the House of Hong. The food was excellent. I pigged out but it was worth it.

Well it was getting close to 1:30pm. I figured I should leave and head up to Vancouver before the rush hour traffic started. I managed to get to my cousins place just before 6pm as I had to stop for a 20 minute nap on the way up as I have had less than four hours sleep since the morning of the 25th.

Mike and I went out for dinner at Hons House of Noodles and then for a walk around the marina. Lots of money tied up down there.

I have had a few questions from people on what I am using to take my pictures. It is a Pentax K10D SLR. It is the top of the line Pentax 10 mega pixel camera. It has a full aluminum body and is fairly water resistant. I rarely use a tripod. The only time I have used a tripod is the pictures with me in them. I normally shoot my camera in full manual mode. I am getting really good at hold the camera steady down to 1/6th of a second shutter speed, Sometimes even a 1/30th of a second for really low light situations.

I have officially put 3,000 KM on the rental car since Friday.

Link to pictures

2007 Vacation - Day 05

Day 05 – 25-Sep-2007

I ended up getting up at 6am. I knew the girls wanted to hit the trail early. I fired up the jet engine stove and boiled water for drinks and then put the toaster on the stove for waffles. I even heated up the syrup containers in the water. I told the girls I would make them breakfast since they paid for the camping. Beth was out of the tent first as Lauretta is apparently not a morning person. The girls said it was the best breakfast that they had had so far on their trip. We packed up camp after breakfast was done. For me it was easy. Open the car and throw everything in.

I told the girls I wanted to take a picture of them with their packs on for my blog report. Beth asked me for my email and blog address. We hope to keep in touch. I told them to give me a call if they ever come out Toronto way. I also told them the next time I go paddling in South Bend, Indiana I would take a couple of extra days and head over to Chicago to visit.

I went back up to Paradise to take some more pictures of the mountain and other places I noticed from my trip up yesterday. I spent almost two hours but I think it was worth it with the shots I managed to get.

I plotted out my route for my trip to the coast. I tried not to stop too many times as I wanted to be at Kalaloch State Park there for sunset on the beach. I did make a stop just before Pacific Beach. You were allowed to drive up and down the beach. I actually put my feet into the Pacific Ocean for a few minutes but realized afterwards I forgot to take my picture. I was also amused at tsunami warning signs as I have never seen them before.

I made it up to Kalaloch in plenty of time. I managed to have a nap and make some grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. I managed to get some nice shots of the beach and trees as the sun was going down. I was quite happy with the pictures.

The plan was to drive up to the state campground near Forks. I decided to forgo the drive in the early morning fog by driving all the way to Port Gamble which would only be about 10 minutes at the most from catching the Kingston to Edmonds ferry in the morning. I managed to pull into port gamble around midnight. I found a free wireless signal and uploaded my day four blog and pictures. After that I caught a few hours sleep in the car along with all the other people that were pulling with the same idea.

Link to some pictures Link to pictures

2007 Vacation - Day 04

Day 04 – 24-Sep-2007

I slept in until 7am. I had the fresh waffles for breakfast at the buffet. I managed to scam some extra packages of syrup and cream cheese for future meals. I decided I was not going to take the major interstates as I would not see much. I got out the trusty map program on my laptop and plotted a back road trip. I left Spokane around 9ish. I am quite amazed that eastern part of Washington State is similar to the rolling hills of the prairies in Southern Alberta. For the most part the crops appeared to be different types of grains, onions, etc.

I took lots of pictures as I went. Some of them are of some really bizarre stuff. Just east of Othello, I found what appears to be an abandoned old wooden granary beside a railway line. About five minutes on the other side of Othello, I came across apple orchards and grape vineyards for as far as I could see and then they disappeared. It was pretty bizarre to see these orchards in the prairie landscape. I always thought they would be in plush areas. The irrigation systems used in the area was amazing. The landscape was dotted with green circle crops rings that had the automated wheel watering systems. The place looked like the aftermath of an alien invasion (yes I am a believer).

I was quite surprised that in the middle of BFN I came across the former site of the B Reactor at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. This reactor was part of the Manhattan Project from the early 1940’s and the plutonium for the first atomic bomb was made there including the famous Nagasaki bomb.

I noticed that there seemed to be miles and mile of scorched earth. I am not sure if it was a deliberate fire in order to cultivate the land. There are orchards in between all these burnt areas.

I found a house I like just outside of Moxee City. I still have to phone the real estate office to see how much it is. It comes complete with a guest house, shed, two cars (complete with bullet holes), and some farming equipment. The house is a bit of a fixer upper but I think it would be well worth it. It sits on approximately 500 acres of land which backs onto this humungous hill witch is the perfect spot to build the shooting and archery range. It is also close the vineyards which are about five minutes away.

It was getting late and I had to quit stopping for pictures after my last stop at Oak Creek. I wanted to get to Mount Rainier before sunset in order to take pictures there. I managed to get to the park in time after taking a detour down a forestry road as the main road through the park was closed due to road repair from last winters storm.

I headed right up to the top at Paradise and started taking pictures once I was closer. The view was amazing. The light was almost gone and it was time to head down the mountain to find a campsite. There were only a couple of cars still in the parking lot when I was about to leave.

I came across these two hikers that were looking for the Paradise campground only to be disappointed that it wasn’t either open or somewhere else. They were just dropped off at Paradise by someone else who had offered them a ride up. I asked them if they wanted a ride down to Cougar. I introduced myself to Beth and Lauretta. They were both from the Chicago area and looked really tired. We headed down to the campground. It turns out the girls were on day eight of a nine day hiking trip. I rearrange the crap in the car to make room for them and their gear.

We ended up sharing a campsite in Cougar. It was twelve bucks for the night and the girls offered to pay. We started setting up our tents as we were losing daylight. We had dinner. I made noodles and the girls made up their dehydrated spaghetti concoction which was actually quite edible. Shortly after dinner I started the fire and offloaded my pictures onto the laptop. I showed the girls the pictures I had been taking on my trip. They were quite impressed. We all ended up crashing around 10ish.

Link to some pictures

2007 Vacation - Day 03

Day 03 – 23-Sep-2007

Today did not go as planned. It rained all night and was sleet by the time I got up at 7am. I had a fairly good sleep considering I went to bed at 8pm and only had to get up twice to go to the bathroom (old age). It was fairly cold last night but I was toasty warm in my British military sleeping bag and poncho liner.

I packed up the car with my sleeping bag and thermarest. I dragged my tent over to the cooking shelter and disassemble it there. I shook it out as much as possible and just shoved it all into the big rubbermade container I bought for that specific purpose. I had a nice hot breakfast and decided to head up to Cameron Lake. It started to snow a lot on my way there. I did not expect to take any great pictures as there were really low lying clouds blocking out most of the view.

I met a guy from Montana at Cameron Lake. He told me that the Road to the Sun route was just closed for the winter a month early due to a big snow storm and road damage just a couple days back. There goes my plan A as I was going to spend the entire day there taking pictures. I thought about driving to Yellowstone but it was 1200KM in the wrong direction. I decided that Plan B was to drive to Portland, Oregon or Seattle, Washington. It just all depended on how much time I had before going to Skook tidal rapids on Thursday. Going to Seattle meant I would have to see my Granma in Princeton on my way out of Vancouver instead of on the way to Vancouver from the Road to the Sun trip.

I headed off the the US border at Chief Mountain. The customs guy was freezing his a$$ off in this little shack with no heat working in it. He must have been real lonely as he asked me every possible question you could think of. I guess he doesn’t get many customers going through there in a fricking snow storm. The last thing he said to me was watch out for the cows. He wasn’t kidding. It is bad enough driving up and down snow covered hills and not being able to see and then have to deal with the added fun of dodging big black cows standing in the middle of the road. Talking about playing chicken. I saw some recent evidence of people sliding into the ditch. I don’t think I made it over 40 KPH until I was out of the snow belt.

I phoned my friend Nancy back home to let her know my travel plans had changed as I was now heading to the pacific coast instead of the Road to the Sun and Princeton plan. I decided at that point to take the tent and fly out of the rubbermade container and dry it out in the car as I had the heat on.

Montana is really beautiful. It is amazing how much the landscape changes from the east side to the west side. I stopped along the way to take pictures but did not get as many as I had hoped floor compared to what would have been Plan A but I was happy.

I stopped for a Peanut Parfait thing at DQ in Columbia Falls, Montana. They have free wireless internet there for the customers. I caught up on some emails and posted up my TR/pictures from day 02. I also found out what was causing the random line on some of my pictures. I found a small barely visible fluff on the CCD of my camera. At first I thought it was on my lenses or filters but they were totally clean. I found a setting on the camera to flip the mirror up for cleaning. It took me 15 minutes with a flashlight and tilting the camera various angles to find it. The people at DQ probably thought I was an idiot.

I continued my journey westward. Darkness was setting in and the rain was starting which is a driving combination I really hate. It is amazing how on a four mile six percent grade hill that people are still driving the posted speed limit of 120KM. I was barely doing 80KM as I did not want to slide off the road.

I finally made it to the Idaho border at 21:17 MST which then meant 20:17 PST as soon as I crossed the line. I did not see much of Idaho driving through the dark.

I could not stop to take a picture of the Washington border sign as it was in the middle of the road and I did not feel like getting run over by transport trucks doing 130 KM. I made it to Spokane, Washington which was almost 700KM from Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta. I decided to treat myself and grabbed a room for the night with a really comfy kingsize bed for 79 bucks which includes wireless internet and a huge breakfast buffet.

I will decide in the morning on where I am going. I would like to see Mount Ranier again and then head up the west coast to do the Mount Olympia loop and head over to Seattle and up to Vancouver from there. It all depends on how much time and what I want to see before Skook.

Here are some pictures

2007 Vacation - Day 02

Day 02 - 22-Sep-2007

I left Marieke’s at 07:30. I had to sneak out quietly as everyone was still sleeping. I filled the car up with gas and headed south to the Crowsnest Pass area.

I stopped at the Frank Slide for about an hour and a half. It is quite amazing how all that rock came down the mountainside into the village. I took some pictures of the boulder field why taking the self guided walk tour. I left Marieke a message ob her voicemail to thank her for letting me stay at her and her sister Anke’s place. I guess they were still sleeping.

I headed over to the Croswnest Pass and took some more pictures. I phoned Nancy to let her know I was still alive.

I drove over to the BC border to take a couple of pictures before heading back east towards Pinchers Creek. It is a really neat place to see. The farm fields are as gold as can be. They also have this huge wind power generating farm there. I could not believe how big each of the wind turbine units were and hall tall they were. I made a half hour stop at the brand new Walmart to finish off my grocery list. It is amazing how this store is in the middle of BFN.

After that I headed down to Waterton Lake National Park. It is real windy and cold here. I am glad I brought all my fleece and gortex. I bought my yearly park pass and went to find a tent site in town. The deer are everywhere in town. I had three of them come up to me when I was setting up my tent. I took a couple of pictures of them and this guy from Montreal comes as takes a picture of me and the deer with my camera and I returned the favour of him and the deer with his.

I wanted to head over to Red Rock Canyon before the sunlight disappeared. I managed to take some pictures of this young black bear on the way to the canyon. I spent a couple of hours at the canyon area taking pictures. I was trying to take most of them on manual settings in order to get a feel for what my camera can actually do.

It was getting late and it was now way past dinner time (body is still on Ontario time). I headed back to camp and made dinner on my new MSR Dragonfly stove. I had noodles, buns, cheese, and hot chocolate. It was kind of a bizarre combination but I was snacking while the noodles were cooking.

I then offloaded the pics off the camera and started typing up this part of my trip report in the dark. Hopefully I will be able to get day 03 done in daylight. Well it is frigging cold and I am going to bed. I hope the wind is c=gone in the morning in order to take some nice reflection shots. I also want to head up to Cameron Lake to see the Continental Divide and take some nice pictures.

Here are some selective pictures

Links to pictures

2007 vacation has started

Well I flew to Calgary friday morning after only two hours sleep. I ended up packing until 1am friday morning.

The flight to Calgary was fine. The flight crew are definitely different and more entertaining than other airlines.

After getting a free upgrade on my car I headed off to Costco and MEC for some last minute shopping.

After that is was a 350km road trip around the Kananaski trail for picture taking before heading back to Calgary.

Marieke, Anke, some of their friends, and I had dinner at the Olive Garden before heading back to their place in residence. We managed to do a sneak a run over to Walmart as we had a one hour wait before dinner.

Link to some pictures I took today

I am off to Waterton Lakes National park and going through Montana and Idaho before heading over to Princeton to see gramma Vicki.