Struck out again

Thursday October 10, 2024

5:00 am

I awoke having slept extremely poorly the previous night, The neighbors were up till 11 or 12 at night and making quite a ruckus. I guess they were being quiet to save up for tonight. Their damn campfire smoke was blowing into my roof vent too, leaving me choked up in the trailer and with a sore throat. Anyhow, I went to the chicken trail. It is about 1c this morning, thus I have about 4 layers on so I'm reasonably warm. I had another wander around on the trail head because the markers are not great to pick out in the dark. I probably walked in circles for 20 minutes until I finally worked out where I was, and got going. This trail has a fair amount of ups and downs, but I see why it is so popular, with its smooth granite as far as the eye can see, with small breaks in coastal forest. I found myself to a height of land up on a cliff, and set up for a sunrise, once again no aurora. And no sunrise either, in that, the sun did rise, but just a pretty boring orange on the horizon, and also I had no foreground interest where I set up. I might do better next time, but due to the need to get a permit to come up here I'm not sure I'll be doing it again so early. As the sun brought blue hour to an end I packed up and headed down to the coastline. There's a small wooden bridge over a swampy area, and I remembered too late was extremely slippery, nearly losing my footing and sliding into the swamp under the 'safety railing' which I did manage to grab at the last second and right myself. Carefully heading forward, there's a about 5ft high wall right at the other end that requires a bit of clambering over to finally make it down to the coast. I set up the tripod short and set it a few feet away from the water and took some golden hour shots of the lake, and even put in the nd100 filter and did some long exposures. Nothing revolutionary this morning, but its all experience as they say. On the way back, I ran into an idiot hen, she was 'using her camoflage' and standing beside a small evergreen tree, nearly completely out in sight. She kept looking at me as if to say 'I'm invisible' I took a second to slowly get my smartphone out and zoom in for a shot before she realized she actually wasn't invisible, and flew off like a brick with wings into the distance. The return trail was a lot easier than the approach one, and I was out by around 9:30am. During the trail, I found one side of a safety helmet's hearing protection, and turned it in at the park office. I swear that lady just threw it in the garbage.. I hope she didn't, it was an expensive one, and it just needs to be snapped back onto the helmet it belongs to..

10:00am

I had intended to have a quick breakfast of granola, and then head off to.. well, I didn't plan that far. I set up the butane stove to boil for some coffee, but it was too cold to get enough pressure so I ended up bringing out the coleman stove anyhow. I actually started feeling a bit bad after eating, so the plan became to just rest. My hands and feet are cold, and I'm a bit tired.. so maybe running at 200% for the previous two days is catching up to me. I'll do some photo editing, check the weather, aurora forcast and have a nap and see how I feel. By the way, the city next door up and left while all this was happening.. I wonder who will be there tonight? That site is reserved all weekend.

I found that there's a strong chance of auroras tonight, so the new plan is to nap and rest most of the day, get some packing done for tomorrows departure and then get up the ridge trail just prior to sundown. once I'm satisfied I'll come back down and take a sleep-eze to ensure I'm well rested for the drive home tomorrow, and intend to leave around 10:00am which should get me back to the parent's place for 3-4pm. I'd like to say I'll just take it slow, but i'm sure I'll just drive straight as usual. I'm going over the top of Algonquin on the way back due to the park being plugged with Toronto people and the horde looking at leaves on thanksgiving long weekend.

3:00PM feeling much better now, there's still 3 hours till sundown so i'm going to finish up this post and prepare my pack to go. I think if I head up there around 5:30-6:00 pm it should be good, since it takes me ~30 minutes to get up there, but maybe less when the sun is out.

4:00PM

I went for a walk around the camp ground and had a long chat with an older fellow who hadn't been here for 40 years. Funny that he hadn't been here for almost as long as I was alive. He was shocked how much the area had changed. I talked at length, seems like I can still do that. I still don't make real connections with people, but I can fake it until I make it I guess. He recommended some places to check out in the northern states (state parks) supposedly some of them are even free to camp. Surprising, I wouldn't expect that extends to visitors from afar, but worth looking into.

5:30PM

Time to head out, I topped off my snacks and water and got on the road. There was one car, and one couple who had walked across the road to the granite ridges trail. I made it to the top and found a place to hunker down for sunset. There was a guy obviously doing a photography tutorial with some folks, but he didn't stay for sunset. He was going on about how the best camera was the one you had, how you want to shoot with the sun behind you, etc. That last one is kinda cliche, you should break the rules when you need to. Anyhow, I set up a time lapse once the people had left, and took some shots, but nothing worth mentioning. As the evening was almost beginning one last couple came through and I chatted with the young woman for a few minutes and answered her photography questions before they left for the evening as well. The sun had just passed below the horizon when I saw some oddities in the sky.. large red blobs.. I had to wonder if there was a cloud there I couldn't quite see, the sun might have been catching it.. I was well into twilight before I realised that was the aurora, and as the sun set, the red blob spread across the sky. Shooting this was challenging, as the moon was also up around 50%. Long enough exposure to capture the aurora, but not too long to have it washed out by the moon, and not too long to have it blur into everything. There was actually too much activity, the sky just ended up being pink, with very little detail. The whole world was lit up pink some of these photos are interesting, with green curtains running through the pink, others are just oddly pink. I'll really have to work out how they will turn out in the edit. I was satisfied with what I got on the ridge, and the moon was getting a bit too high to see much and so I headed back down. Strangely enough all this time I thought this was an out and back trail, and I actually found the rest of the trail on the way back down. These markers - I tell ya, they need to be blue and reflective.

10:30pm

I got back to my campsite, and snuck through the now vacant adjacent campsite to the george lake overlook. There was one of my other neighbours there, and we chatted in the dark as I set up the tripod one last time, to capture a few photos up until around 10:50pm.

Friday, 11 october 2024

Around 3:00am I woke to a click sound, and found that my house battery automatically shut off.. the low voltage shut-off had been triggered. Not sure how this is going to work, since solar will need to have power in order to collect power. I'll probably have to charge it manually when I get home. I rolled over and went back to sleep, and woke around 6:00 am to do this entry. Since its still dark out, I'm just going to hang out in the relative warmth of my trailer and edit some of the photos I did last night while I wait for the sun to come up. Breakfast will be bacon and eggs, and then I have to get everything organized and packed for the road. Hope to be rolling around 10:00am so I don't arrive back after dark.

6:00am

I've been awake for a while, now. for whatever reason that sleep-eze I took didn't seem to take effect, maybe its just old and didn't work. Regardless, I've been organizing things in the trailer to make it easier to unload. Dirty laundry in plastic bags, clean laundry in the clothing bag, etc. Finally time to open the door and start breakfast. I had 3 eggs this morning instead of the usual 2, and 2 slices of peameal along with an apple, with the usual coffee and juice box. This should keep me filled well until the afternoon. I'm trying to avoid the urge to stop and get junk food while I fuel up. Cleaning up the site was not too bad, as I'd mostly kept my boxes organized how they were when I left. Buying these little 1'x6" totes and labelling them makes packing for this sort of trip a lot easier. Just stack them in the back of the car, and off you go. I think, perhaps they may not be big enough for what I intend to do next spring, but, then again the car might not be up for that either. I'll have to do a good inspection when I do my winter maintenance and see what needs doing before I decide. That and maybe I'll finally find the van of my dreams for the price of less than my immortal soul, and it won't be an issue. I expect if that happens I'd still tow the trailer and live out of the trailer for the first trip.. converting a van isn't something to be done lightly. Either that, or I use my vacation to outfit it, but I have long discarded any notion of a $5000 - $10000 van in close to perfect shape. I expect now to have to pay at least $40,000 for a van with known issues I'll need to handle. So that means going back into debt, unless I want to use my retirement funds - and I do not. Might as well get it financed while I can still work and use it once or twice a year at least until the Subaru gives out for daily driving. I'll have to see what the insurance companies can do for that, parked except for 2-3 weeks a year thing. I won't be able to register it as a motor home until it has specific amenities installed, after all. I can't register my trailer as a motor home either, as it has no kitchen or toilet. So it is a 'utility trailer'.

After breakfast, I got everything packed into the car, hand-bombed the trailer around so I can hitch up, tested the lights, got the radio set up so I can see the rear view camera, and hit the road. On the way out I stopped by the garbage area and got rid of my trash, and chatted with a park employee about the wedge and how it was built, as he was impressed by it's setup. I explained it until he was satisfied, and then pulled out of the front gate, depositing my permit in the collection box. The return trip would be via sudbury, north bay, and mattawa over the top of Algonquin, because going through the park this time of year is asking for issues. A few years ago my parents and I went on thanksgiving and we managed to get in but only because we got there before 8am. When we left around noon, there were cars lined up all they way from the west gate to the next village and beyond. They've now implimented a system where you must reserve a day permit to enter the park ahead of time. I do not know what they do with those people who do not, I guess they tell them to go home.. but no way are they doing that, they probably just go in anyhow. I departed the park around 10:30am and arrived in sudbury around lunch time. I thought i'll just go into the shell and use my CAA, not realising that the shell was basically right in the middle of town, and barely a store. So I navigated through 'lunch rush hour' in sudbury, construction, etc, and it wasn't till around 1:00 when I got to the small shell station, and filled up. It wasn't at all like the one I expected, it did not have a convenience store with hot food as I intended to get lunch, it was mostly automated.. so I just filled up and headed on my way, assuming I'd find something in North Bay or worse case just eat trail snacks. However, there was a Dairy Queen on the way out.. but unfortunately it was just a 'snack' store, they only hot food they had was hot dogs.. So I got myself a chilli dog with all the fixings for $6 which was actually pretty good. I found a place to pull over and ate it along the highway on the way out of town, since the usual picnic area on the outside of town had the gate closed - closed for the season. Since I had a full tank, I was able to skip along the top of lake nippising and bypass north bay, stopping at a rest stop mid mattawa and north bay for a quick washroom break and stretch before continuing on. I filled up one more time at a MacEwan about an hour away from Mattawa, and proceeded back to the parents with a half tank of fuel to spare. I arrived back by roughly 5:30PM parked the trailer, had dinner with the parents and then turned in for the night. Cola was very happy to see me, so she kept getting in my face all night making sleep difficult. And that ends this trip, I'll have to go back again some day. Depening on what happens next year, I plan to go to cape breton again over 2 weeks in the spring/early summer. But that will depend on my car more than anything. I have no doubt the trailer is up for it.

Merry Christmas, and here’s looking forward to a great New Year.

Cheers.

On hiking and going to outer space.

Wednesday October 9.

I woke around 5:00 am, much more reasonable than yesterday's much earlier time.  The exercise must be affecting me.  I decided last night to go to the lighthouse, but when I stepped outside - it was completely overcast.  Blacker than black, so dark I couldn't see anything at all, even after waiting for my eyes to adjust.  So I grabbed the flashlight and went about packing up, and hit the road for the village of Killarney.   Originally I thought I’d just go down the road and hit the lighthouse directly, but there was a new lighthouse trail which found in my research.  So, google maps and go.  I arrived after about 20 minutes of driving.. there is this.. monstrous, paddle.  And this monstrous eyesore of a lodge down there.  well, maybe I’m trespassing, I found the trailhead, and there was this huge disclaimer stating that I couldn't sue the owner of the land if I died on it or something.  I thought to myself, 'I'd be more likely to sue you for destroying the natural beauty of this spot.'  Anyhow.. the trail, was fairly well marked.. more red markers that are not reflective.. using the head lamp for basic awareness and the handheld flashlight to pan around and find the trail markers in the dark I was able to make my way.  The trail followed through a small wooded area and was of 'moderate' difficulty.  I felt my abs clenching a few times as I decided to forego my walking pole since the reviewers said that there are a few sections where clambering over rocks might be required.  They were correct, the glaciers carved smooth rounded and graceful curves in the granite, but generally they don't make easy surfaces to climb, so you need to look carefully and sometimes get on all fours to get where you need to go.  Thankfully, it wasn't wet, which makes them basically ice.  My Solomons are now pretty well broken in, and I’m able to walk on some of these rocks like spiderman.  Fortunately, I'm not so stupid as to assume all rocks are equal, as I found out here a couple years ago when I nearly found myself in the tar bath after slipping down around 10 feet and barely managed to avoid going in bodily and got only one leg soaked in.. whatever that is.  I still have those pants.. the leg is still stained, and it will not come out.  I nearly had a repeat of that situation with a more deadly end when I brushed past a small white pine sticking out of the small amount of soil trapped between rocks and two juncos came out of it, startled by my light and presence, they flew right into my face and one sat on my head for a few seconds before realizing what was going on and escaping.  I nearly tipped over and went falling 5 or so meters down the rock into the more rocks at the bottom.  Thankfully, I was able to retain balance and wait until the issue passed and make my way forward.

 The trail follows the coastline pretty well, and I found a spot to set up about an hour  before sunrise proper.  It is still pretty much completely overcast, but there's the odd hole with stars shining through.  I took a few long exposures through those holes, but no Aurora to be found.  Around this time, I started hearing the startup and shutdown sound from my insta 360 camera and pulled it out of my pack, it won't respond to my inputs, it just keeps power cycling by itself.  I guess it isn't fixed.. no video today either.  I will have to try and do some more troubleshooting tonight. The horizon is glowing oddly, so I'm assuming the action is behind the clouds.  Unfortunate, since tomorrow's aurora forecast is basically nil.  The sun has been belching out energy like a lazy machinegun this year, probably why we have all these crazy hurricanes down in the gulf.  One of the reasons I live in Canada, because, I doubt I will have to deal with that.  Fires yes.. hurricanes no.  I took quite a few long exposures, being extra careful since my tripod mounting plate locking screw decided to take a one way trip down the mountain at the granite ridges yesterday.   I'll have to find something to fix that.  There's a new ball head I'd love to have which does not have screw nobs that just 'unscrew and go for a walk' it uses latches to lock down the directions, and more importantly it is made in Canada.  Unfortunately, it is also ~$500;  cheap I guess, considering it is holding up a $5000 camera and $1500 lens.. but I still have trouble with that number.  I'll put it on my Wishlist and see if it goes on sale, black Friday?  Boxing day?  I digress.  There were some interesting shots to have, but no sunrise.. no sky fire.  I got some nice blue hour (at least on the back of the camera, I've yet to edit them) shots from one of the points adjacent to the lighthouse, and then when the sun was up completely, went there directly.  I still marvel about what disrepair this place is in, I saw a couple cables just laying on the ground and the jackets have worn off showing cabling inside.  I saw an ethernet cable, outdoor rated, and the jacket was broken in two places, with the pairs inside available to the whims of the weather.  Since I assume the coast guard depends on this thing and the antenna on top, I'm assuming that is bad.  Maybe that cable isn't used anymore?  There's also what appears to be a concrete helipad here, but the markings are long worn off.  The maritime communications tower which is also here is hooked up to a radio shack, with a dilapidated window AC stuck out the back, assuming that is for cooling equipment, but it seems hardly enough.  What do I know?  I'm just an ex datacenter facilities manager.  When I reached the lighthouse proper, I saw a touch of yellow-orange in the clouds and was about to set up, but then saw a miffed photographer over the next 'hump' already monopolizing the scene.  I wished him good morning, and got out of his shot.  First come, first served.  I climbed down the side, out of sight of his shot and took some handheld photos, but really, my earlier shots were better than anything that could be framed up now.  I took the lighthouse trail back, got in the car, and headed back to the campsite.

9:00 am

I made breakfast, I took my last potato, par-cooked it in butter, then put my eggs in and cut up two Lou’s peameal bacon with my kitchen scissors and made sort of scrambled whatsit eggs.  They were good, I had a no added sugar applesauce, and coffee on the side.

10:00 am

After cleaning up, I took a few minutes to troubleshoot my solar panels, checking voltage through the circuit.  I haven't been getting good charge this entire time, like 1-5 watts, which considering I've been getting 24-40v doesn't seem to make much sense, these panels are rated for 200W each, They aren't in full sunlight, and they are in series, so I expect a maximum of 200W, not 400W.   I'm getting a fraction of that, and it is barely enough to make up for the general draw of the fridge and the MPPT charger itself.  After checking, everything seems in order, I'll have to test them in full sun when I return to the parent's place, assuming that is possible.   I've been chasing the sun around a bit, and manage to get a little bit of trickle charging from them, so my system voltage has been hovering around 12.8v during the day, and drops to about 12.6v overnight, assuming I don't need to charge anything.  Lowest I’ve seen is 12.4 when I was using the monitor in here to edit photos.  I need to test this in parallel, but for whatever reason, I took the parallel hook-up cables out of the trailer and forgot to put them back in before this trip.  I assume I didn't even take them when I was at Pukaskwa because I had shore power.  After putting myself at rest on the whole power issue, in that I can't do anything about it with what I have on hand, I reserve myself to moving panels around to catch direct sunlight, hard to do when I’m not here, but generally I can at least get 'balanced' power from just whatever is reflected from the sky, if not charging power.  With everything off, except for the panel and the MPPT charger -0.130 Amps when the panels are in the shade.. so we're just deferring the inevitable.  Considering tomorrow is my last full day here, as long as I don't go crazy, it should be fine.

10:30

I hit up the park office for a chicken permit for tomorrow.  No, i cant' spell that trail, no, I can't pronounce it properly either.  Sue me.  Actually don't, natives are scary.  After getting my permit, I went to lake of the woods trail, about 25 minutes drive down a poorly maintained road.  I passed the tree muncher on bell lake road (the one that is poorly maintained) so perhaps they'll be fixing some of the potholes after clearing shoulder space.  Seems a bit late in the season, and I doubt that road is plowed, so I doubt they're making room for snowbanks, but who knows.  One guy all by himself running the tree muncher, doing the road.  I feel sorry for him, if he has any issues that backhoe is going to be there for some time.  I arrived at the trailhead, and no one was there, just how I like it.  This trail is little known, and far out of the way, so usually I have it to myself, even this late in the day.  I got everything ready, topped off my water and headed off on the trail.  I chose left, as I remember always doing.. I was intending to just go visit the great tree and go back, but found that left this time was actually the wrong way, and well.. I guess i'm just doing the whole trail now.   I'll use it as a test to see how I do.  Last time I did this trail, it was 27c and I killed myself.  This time, it is 11c  and.. I must say, I didn't have much trouble.  I only stopped 3 times for a break, got a few shots of silver peak through the trees, and other than 3 sun squalls, which were somewhat welcome, because the rocks up there are hot, with no place to hide from the sun, even on these cool days.  The path took me up on the high rocks first, which may have just been easier to manage since I had all my stamina.  It took me until 2:30ish to do the whole loop, and I started shortly after 11:00am.   I did visit the great tree, of course.. but he has dropped all of his leaves.. the stream that runs over and around his roots is dry.. I hope he isn't dying.. there's not enough CO2 in the atmosphere to support these giant trees anymore, so it is inevitable I'm afraid.  I hope he's around long enough for me to see him one or two more times.  He should make excellent habitat for local flora and fauna, at the least.  Upon returning to the car, I drank a LBCA powder and an element since I had lost quite a bit of electrolytes, based on the salt crystallizing on my brow.  Today is definitely a day for a hobo shower and fresh clothes, I've been wearing these and doing pretty intense hikes for days, and they smell so much even I can't stand it.

3:00PM

Happily, I have arrived back at camp, and no one is around.  perfect to close the door and get cleaned, changed, and get this story written.  I will take a look at the photos soon, but right now, my stomach is grumbling, and it's time to eat.  I think just a rehydrated meal today.  4:40 PM Signing off for now.

5:51PM 

I had an Alpineaire hearty beef stew.  It wasn't that great, usually they have good stuff, but I think this one in particular is a miss.  It does have huge chunks of beef, but the flavor is a bit 'melded' 50g of protein and 500 calories, so good light meal to round out the day and hopefully repair the tissues I’ve broken overnight, because I'm going to be breaking them again tomorrow.

Return to Killarney in the Fall - The best camera is the one you have.

I had a pretty restless night, getting used to the trailer, and there is still a bit of mustiness from the previous 'wetness'  I guess I'll need to give it a good ol'fasioned bath in the sun when I get back to the parents, assuming it is still sunny.  I got up around 3:00am I know I said 5, but I'm awake now.. so off I go!  I had prepped everything I needed the previous evening, so I just needed to get dressed, get the Solomons on and creep out.  The ridges trail is literally across the highway, so after about 5 minutes I was there.  I got everything on, poles, backpack, toque, layers, etc.  My pack seemed a lot lighter than I remember, I guess those ladder climbs I've been doing over the last few months was helping.  Well, off I go.  It is very dark, the head lamp helps but it also makes you have tunnel vision.  This is the second time I've done this in the dark, and this time was exceptionally dark as It is very much more early than last time.  Once again I question why the trail markers are red, and non reflective.  Probably the worst choice for markers in this area, considering the trees and rocks tend to shade towards red.  The result is I got off the trail once, but was able to back track with the help of my watch.  I probably would have been fine without my watch, but it sure made the process faster, once again.. tunnel vision in the dark.  Cresting the ridge, I saw something I didn't expect..  they sky was pulsing.  Like, I thought it was light pollution, or a far off lighthouse or airport search light.. but no, the lights were just on the edge of visibility and quite obviously pulsing, dancing, like faint rivers.  I quickly doffed my pack, got the tripod set up and then reached for the 5dmk4.   I don't have it.  I do not have my camera, where is my camera?  I remember setting it on the seat so I could put it on my pack .. so that is why it isn't heavy.. I'm missing 6lbs..  Do I go back?  but these aurora could be gone by then..  shit. shit.  shit.   I have the m6.. it only has a tiny crop sensor.. will it work?  The best camera is the camera you have.  It does have the EF mount adaptor, but that adaptor is not very reliable.. but it shouldn't matter, since I will be manually focusing anyhow and not relying on autofocus.  The aperture on the Ultrawide can be set manually as well.  The M6 doesn't have the tripod adaptor.. but I can steal one from the bigma.  I can do this.  I set up, and started shooting, as it happens.. the best of the storm was for the next 15 to 20 minutes,  If I had gone back down for my main camera, I would have missed it.  So the pictures aren't the greatest, and I drove that little sensor over what it was ever designed for, but I got the shots.  There's a few inverted and dead pixels in there because the little bastard probably overheated a bit, even in the cool 6c weather, but it is mostly on the black and not in the sky.  Quite a surprise, I wanted a sunrise, and got something amazing instead.  As it turns out, the 50% chance of a great sunrise, was not in my favor.  And, the sun rose out of the zone I wanted anyhow..  I forgot that, this time of year, the sun doesn't come where I want it.  So maybe, I need to find another place.  I definitely couldn't get the shot I wanted, but I'm pretty damn happy with the shots I didn't expect.  This is basically a bucket list item, I wanted to go to Hudson's bay to shoot the aurora, and it came to see me.  I missed out on hearing it, but now I'm pretty satisfied.  I have heard them before, in my 20's when I was visiting my parent's old cottage in the dead of winter.  I was dragging a toboggan over the frozen lake to the cottage, and stopped as the sky was on fire in green.  I heard the whispers, that seemed to come from everywhere, and stood there in the -20c dead still cold and watched, and listened for what seemed like an hour.  Life changing.  Back to the present, I took a quick nap on top of the ridge after setting up a time-lapse while the sun came around after about 30 minutes I woke with my alarm, and found that there's nothing really.  So I packed up, and head back down.  I reached the car, and checked the passenger seat.  My camera wasn't there.  I finally found it, ON TOP of the car, covered in condensation.  Thank god there was no one here..   I do want to get a new camera, but that needs to happen on my terms..  not in the middle of a shooting holiday.  I'll have to be more careful.  It is now around 8:00  time for breakfast.

8:20am

Today, we're having a good breakfast.. Hashbrowns from one of the potatoes I brought from Mom's garden, fried up in about 2 tablespoons of butter, with 2 slices of peameal bacon and 2 eggs.  I'll also have some of that sugarless applesauce I got on a whim.  That and some fresh ground coffee with a bit of the rehydrated Medallion whole milk I prepared last night.  It was amazing, as usual.  Once breakfast was done, I decided on my next trail.. Cranberry Bog.

10:30am 

The neighbours are finally stirring.  After I cleaned up breakfast, I hit the road again.  Well, I just drove down to the east beach.  Since the trail head is closer over there, and I didn't really know what I was in for.  I'm hitting this one sight unseen.  I do know it should be able to finish it in 2-3 hours.  After making sure I had my camera this time, I went down the road and entered the cranberry bog trail at it's trailhead.  It is a bit late in the day now, so I expect to run into some people and probably not see any wildlife.  The sky is clear, dark blue with white puffy clouds. Great for taking postcard photos, but nothing super artistic.  But sometimes, you get lucky.  The trail was moderately challenging, with some pretty steep sections, and a couple places you can get off track.  Some ducks came by one of the ponds and sat in a dry spot in the sun and I pulled out the bigma to try and get a photo, but they were just out of reach, I got a few interesting shots and crossed the boardwalk.  I saw some fish in a pool at the top of a beaver dam, and stuck the 360 into the water to get some underwater shots, hopefully.   I saw some very small bubbles coming from it very slowly and didn't think much about it, until they started coming out rapidly.  I quickly pulled it from the water, and found that the seal around the 3rd party battery I'd gotten had failed.. so there was a bit of water in there..  the camera will no longer turn on.. so i'm a bit bummed.  It'd suck for it to fail.  I pulled the battery and memory card, and stuffed a lens cloth in the compartment, then packed it in it's carrying case in my backpack.  No more video this hike.  I met a few fogies on the trail and said hello, this trail does merge with the silhouette trail as well, and you can even get to silver peak from here..  if you can do 25 kilometers quickly over mountainous terrain.  That is likely not me. I still want to do silver peak, but not this year.  I will definitely canoe to the trail head and then take it from there when I eventually do it.  Likely I will need to lose around 50 more pounds before I even try though.  There was a young woman with a large hound dog who was absolutely struggling, she can't have been more than 30 years old.  She had no gear, so I was pretty puzzled what could be the issue.  I was taking a break at the top of a ridge and she was 'oh my god'ing a lot.  I guess I just know how to pace myself. 

12:40AM

I found myself at the end of the trail, and headed back to the campsite.  I wasn't particularly hungry, so I decided to get my pictures offloaded and hopefully pull stuff from the 360 camera if I can.  I set up the buddy heater with the door open and placed the camera in front of it about a foot away to try and dry it out, before starting the copy process.  My big laptop.. is dead again.  The battery is done... Maybe it turned on by itself?  seems odd..  I fished around for the power cord and plugged into the ecoflow.  I'm not using the big inverter this time because It pulls quite a bit of battery when there's no AC input, and it actually causes the battery to go into protection mode for a few seconds before it resets.  With the big laptop up, I also connected my sabrent Raid 1 array and started copying over photos.  I edited them, and then copied them back over to the backup as well.  They turned out pretty great, I'm testing new software from DXO Labs, it has a 7 day trial which I started just before departing on this trip.  I'll have to see how well it does.  I'm actually kind of not happy with the default edits it does, they seem very 'bright'  but it did a pretty good job on the aurora shots.  I'll just have to try it a bit more.  I keep all my raws, so I can always edit them again with affinity later.   The 360 seems to be fine now, I was able to update its firmware and it is loading fine.  I'll let it dry out over night still, and see how things go.  It is 4:30 now, and I'm thinking on dinner.  Probably small since I went big with breakfast.  Those Chicken breasts I bought are thawed now, probably should eat them.

5:00 PM

I ate them, pretty nice to have them out here in the 'wilderness'.  just a bit of pepper, and checked to make sure the temperature was right for fully cooked.  they were juicy and tasty, not bad for $5 breasts.  I had some hot chocolate I made with the medallion 2% dehydrated chocolate milk, and it was excellent.  Not sweet at all, it had sort of a 80% chocolate taste.   After cleaning up I finished editing the photos and then watched a few YouTube videos before turning in around 8:00 pm

Return to Killarney in the fall

Monday October 7, 2024

I awoke at my parent's back cabin around 4am.  This was the day I'd given up a week of pay, and now I was going back to Killarney.  All year, ALL year.  I was hoping I could get another shot at that 'granite sunrise' shot I had last year, and now I was going to do it.  The weather is supposed to be amazing all week, so I figure I have a shot, if it isn't too clear, or too overcast, or something else happens.  I spent the last two days distilling all my gear into packages I could understand where everything was, and is.  It is now in the car, and I’m ready to go.  A quick pancake breakfast with the parents, and a bit of a worry since my trailer lights are not working, but screw it I’m going anyhow.  Last year was the week after thanksgiving, and this year is the week before.  I booked site 76 way ahead of time, on the map, it should be at the end of a road, off by itself, in absolute seclusion.

I decided to go via Algonquin east gate and see the leaves, which are supposedly at peak, down through Huntsville, and then after that the real journey begins.  I stopped by Barry's bay shell for a quick fill up, popped in some gum-out since my oil change would be happening next weekend, and then headed for Algonquin.  It did not disappoint, but there were signs the hoard was about to descend.  There were far more cars stopping to use the facilities, and the facilities were spotless, ready for the onslaught.  I dipped in at the gate, relieved myself, and then continued.  The sky was blue, the clouds were puffy - and well, the light wasn't half bad.. but not to be delayed, I had my eyes set on a goal, and didn't want to buy a day pass for 15 minutes of snooping.  I enjoyed the drive through the park though, a smile was on my face for the first time in a little while, and this is just the tip of the iceberg, I hope.

 I stopped at the shell in Huntsville and topped up... the station was small, and there was a blue SUV with a Chinese couple who seemed absolutely clueless about gas stations.  I seem to be re-living a moment from last year... at least there was only 2, and not 12 crammed in there.  I got my gas... and then noticed that the blue SUV which was facing me, was staring at me like I was blocking them.  Uh-huh... well... I can't exactly turn, because I had to park pretty close due to the pumps being close together.  and I had a trailer blocking the driveway because of it.  So I'm having the stare down with the woman, like, why the duck don't you back up and get out of the way?  Clearly it is easier for you to do this than me, what with my trailer.  but no... she stared at me, her black eyes boring into my very soul.  so, I said, well shit, I guess I’m backing up.  and I did... and I waited... and she waited... and there was room for her to go, but she didn't.  Well, I guess I’m jackknifing and then driving over the curb.  The last time I did something like this I got a flat.  I accelerated out into the street as soon as I could get a clear path and heard the back end slam down roughly over the curb.  Then the blue car came out after me.  What the truck lady?  Whatever, I'm gone.  I will not let someone's lack of smarts get me.  I'm on my way to the second-best place in Ontario.  The rest of the trip was uneventful, I filled up the tank every time I went down by 1/4 and whenever I could.   The result is by the time I reached Killarney proper, I have 3/4 of a tank and not 1/2 so hopefully there's no fuel anxiety this time, though I am staying for an extra night this time.

I signed in at the gatehouse, informed them that if I die, they can indeed let people know I’m here, and then headed for my site.  Spoilers, objects on the park map may be closer together than depicted.  There's a tent freaking city about 5 long strides from my site.  I hope they aren't here the whole time. but based on what I saw for the reservation, I’m guessing they are.  I got set up and organized within a couple hours and set up for dinner at about 4, when they neighbors came in.  An Indian? woman said hello, and I greeted in kind.  They are fairly quiet so far, however they are bushwhacking and taking firewood from the forest, which is a big no-no (I found a neatly stacked pile of firewood at my site that was obviously locally obtained and fired it off into the bush, You'll not catch me being an accomplice to these folks.  It leaves me in a bit of a pickle, I do want to report them, but at the same time, I’m the only one here who is new, so they will know it was me.  So I guess I will have to stew in silence, the last thing I want is campground wars.

I'm sitting here typing while they listen to music softly and chat quietly, so no issues, I guess.  My vegetable soup is sitting beside me, and I had some nice hibiscus tea waiting for my soup to turn from lava into something edible.  I guess I’ll sign out for now, it is approaching 6pm and the sun is starting to dip, as some clouds roll in the temperature is going down pretty fast.

7:06 pm

I've pretty much settled on going up the ridge tomorrow at around 5am  sunrise is somewhere around 7.  All the data I can find states I have about 50-70% chance of seeing something special.  So I don't want to regret it... so I’ll go.  Once that is done, I’ll come back, have breakfast and either do cranberry bog or silhouette east.

Pukaskwa in the Spring Day 6, May 24 2024

I woke at around 6:00 am and finalized packing.  I wasn't hungry, so I just got on with it.  I needed to leave by 7 anyhow, to give myself some time at Kettle lakes to explore.  After everything was packed, I hit the road.  I find a good audiobook just helps pass the time.  I stopped at white river to check the whinny the pooh statue.. unfortunately it hasn't stood the test of time, perhaps the town council isn't looking after it, or something.  The paint has all worn away in the sun and he's all grimy with age.  It really is unfortunate. The town seems to be tight knit still, I got a sausage and egger from the A&W there when I used their facilities.  The man working the counter was a black man who must have been around my age or a bit older, judging by his greying moustache.  He was running the place like a café, and had everyone's orders memorized, he as chatting with some locals when I came in and took my order and it was served up pretty quickly.  I was back on the road after about 10 minutes of stretching my legs.  In Wawa, I filled up at the Esso, and picked up two cans of 'peace tea' for the road, I'm still low on fresh water, so I want to stretch it for the final go.  Now for the long drive.  Learning from my mistakes last time crossing this span of emptiness, I stopped whether I needed to or not, anywhere there was a turn-around or a rest stop to stretch my legs, and this made the trip a lot less trying than the first time - though I might just be used to it.  Before I knew it I was on the other side fueling up at the Canadian tire gas bar in Timmins like hardly any time had passed.  This trip has been like a whirlwind, It seems like all the time I spent trekking around, driving, cooking, etc. is just is gone now, and unfortunately I bet the next time I notice a change I'll be sitting in the car, with Cola sleeping beside me on the way back to Toronto, and then I'll be back at my desk at work, wondering If I even went in the first place.  I guess I need to make an effort to actually go out more.  I should go somewhere the weekend after next, even if it isn't too far, even if I don't take my full kit.  Just to get out, just to try to keep some of the fitness I gained on this trip. Once I arrived at Kettle Lakes I did a walk around the park, the place is pretty much vacant this time of year, other than the odd trailer that appears to be also vacant.. like these folks just rent the site to store them? Anyhow, I did one trail as well. Unfortunately there’s not much to see here, but it’d be a great family park with nice beaches. I had a good sleep, and the next day I headed out early and then I arrived back at my parent’s place just before sunset, tomorrow I have to get everything organized for the trip back home. Maybe next year I’ll have to do two weeks and go somewhere else, at a more relaxed pace.

Pukaskwa in the Spring Day 5, May 23 2024

2:30 AM

It seems the great lake isn't done with  me.  I woke to heavy rain and howling winds.  I hope this blows over.  I'm typing this up and the rain seems to have stopped, but I can hear what sounds like a hurricane outside.  I can't hear my tarp flapping anymore, so I'm betting it may have completely collapsed.  Something else I noticed is that my house battery is reading 12.9v which shouldn't be the case with this inverter charger on it.  As an experiment, I pulled the battery cut off I have directly on the inverter, since it has about a 1.9a parasitic draw when not in use, and then reconnected it.  Low and behold, it started charging the battery at about 67A  according to my flow meter.  I wonder why that is?  does it get a full charge and then just not provide any more charging after that?  It must be the case, because I am looking at the meter and it is once again registering a -1.02 A draw.  I wonder just how flat the battery needs to be in order to cause the inverter to charge it again?  do I need to manually flip it?  I'll have to write Renogy and see, this thing was a factory second, it is way out of warranty.. maybe there's some sort of firmware update I can get or something.  I'll have to ask and see, the manual is pretty vague about anything to do with the charging system.  One final point.  I am thirsty.  I have one of the canteens I filled with boiling water, you know, one of the ones that is a vacuum bottle..  like all of the rest of them.  Can I say they are exceptionally good at holding heat?  How do I have a nice refreshing glug of boiling hot water?  I suppose its time I have to get a 'regular' bottle.  But I'm not putting boiling water into plastic, that is for sure.  I guess I'll just have to leave the cap off somewhere safe like inside the car to let them cool  or make them all into tea.  Nah, scratch that, tea residue is a PITA to get out of stainless steel bottles.

Off to sleep again.

6:00am

Holy crap, I slept in.  I'm just going to use the single burner backpacking stove to make coffee, have granola and some protein powder and get on with it.  The sun is already up, not that there's anything to see but gray.  First things first though, off to the comfort station.  On return, I saw movement on my campsite.. I crept in slowly and watched carefully, and I saw a football sized grey rabbit meandering through.  Of course, I didn't have anything on me at all that could take pictures, so this will just have to be a personal memory.  He hopped off across the road and disappeared into the bramble on the far side, never to be seen again most likely.  After breakfast, I did as I said and swapped out my boots for the old ones.. they already feel more comfortable and supportive.  I'm actually a little ticked - if I'd worn these on the trip to the suspension bridge, would I be as sore as I am?  Probably not.  These ones are being relegated to donation or possibly just used for walking around town.  I can't afford to use them for work, they'll kill my feet especially when I'm walking on concrete back and forth.  I got some snacks into my backpack, and off I went.  This is my last day, so I wanted to cross things off as much as I can.  I actually am considering packing my tarp and such before bed tonight, but everything is still wet, and I don't want to pack them away wet unless I absolutely have to.  Tomorrow is supposed to be partially cloudy, so with luck they will dry overnight.  I'll just have to decide after I get back from my hike.  I'm a bit bummed that weather wasn't better, but on the other hand there's lots of bonuses to bad weather - like, the half of the campground that has utility power is relatively full, but the other half isn't.  Most of those people get in their cars in the morning and drive off to ???  and aren't seen again until 1-2pm at earliest.  The remainder as far as I can tell just hunker in their RV's the entire day, leaving the trails essentially to my prerogative all day.  I have only seen one set of people out on the trails other than me, and they must have saved my ass by finding my canteen.  There's been fresh tracks of course, but I’ve never met or seen anyone else this entire time actually on the trails.  As a result, I walked over to the trailhead for Manito Miikana which is in the non powered part of the park, and that part of the park appears to be vacant.  Unfortunately, there is ONE powered site over here by itself, not on the map.. I wish I would have seen it when I came in otherwise I would have taken it and been absolutely by myself.  Having the power has been a game changer here, compared to killarney last fall, just being able to use the heater all night to keep things warm in here.  Especially since last night I considered using my sleeping bag just for some weight when I was having trouble sleeping (backpacker's muscles are sore) and the zip from the zipper just.. came right off in my hand.  I tried to re-attach it.. and tried to pry the two halves apart to open the duffel, but in my sleep addled ability it was an insurmountable challenge.  The Trail head was sort of 'part of the trail system' so I had to start on the boardwalk, I could have for instance just gone and done the headlands, beach, and then reach the trail, but I opted to cut to the chase and start at the beach boardwalk, which helpfully puts you right at that observation deck I found yesterday.  And boy are the waves coming in.  The weather radio said 2-3M waves and it wasn't kidding, they are coming straight at shore, the wind is blowing much more fiercely and I’m barely able to keep my hat on.  I'm very glad I dug into the 'winter' clothes bin I brought on a whim, I'm equipped with the merino wool t-shirt, covered by a sweatshirt, covered by my raincoat.  That is pretty good insulation and wind breakage.  I also am wearing the gloves I wore at killarney which are a bit thicker than the other gloves I used to use, but also water resistant and still provide enough tactile feedback that I can understand the camera buttons by touch alone.  I'm still rotating through pairs of 'darn tough' hiking socks.  They are also excellent, and even though they're usually $40 a pair they are wool, and hug your feet extremely well.  I still prefer my mom's wool socks for general use though.  I haven't broken out the electric socks yet, if I didn't have the heater in here I'd for sure be using them.  I'm digressing again, suffice to say, I was prepared for the ~40kph wind gusting to ~70kph at 5c  though my eyes and nose were watering.  That old outback hat that cooks my head in the summer, keeps it warm in the shoulder seasons, especially with the lupa under it.  I spent probably 20-30 minutes on the beach overlook shooting hundreds of wave shots.  I got long clips with the 360 as well.  I hope I can do something with it, piecing this section of the trip into a coherent video will be difficult since it is too windy in most cases to explain it.  Voiceovers kind of suck, though I generally lean on them.

After I was done with horseshoe bay, I walked to the end of the beach and into the forest again, turning left on the trail where it reaches a junction.  Going straight will take you to the next beach on the beach trail, which depending on how I feel or how the weather goes I may walk this afternoon.  The trail immediately climes a set of sturdy stairs, and up into the rocks, this would surely have done me in on the first day, but I believe I’ve finally worked all of the 'Toronto' out of my body and it is responding like it should now instead of having the usual delay.  This trail is probably the best so far for views, it goes around so you can see the area where the headlands trail does, and also you can see the huge muddy swath of the pic river inlet, the deep and light blues mix with the milky coffee colours of the pic river in interesting ways.  The winds are so fierce here that a seagull is just hovering while gliding right in front of me holding something in his beak, I got lots of shots of him, I hope they aren’t overexposed.  He dropped whatever he was holding I think I might have gotten that in frame as well, focus is another consideration, since I have it set to single shot at the moment.  Continuing out onto the point I got several more opportunities to get wave and rock action, and finally got to the first proper lookout.  This was a nice enclosure with plexiglass and I set up some long exposures here, which hopefully turn out good.  The previews look interesting at least.  I then hunkered down sitting on the platform so most of me could hide from the wind, though unfortunately it was still shooting up through the planks and also up my back.  It still gave me some welcome relief, I think I may be getting wind burned because my face feels like it has a sunburn.  After a quick snack and some warm water (not complaining that it is warm now am I?) I continued to the second lookout, which was overlooking horseshoe bay and Hattie cove's entrances.  I got some shots here, but really think the other location was superior (lol).  And then returned back down the trail to Horseshoe bay, things were a bit quieter now and there was a flock of sand pipers daring the waves.  They literally don't give a crap I'm here.  I thought they were going to fly right into me as they were hunting for bugs washing ashore.  I got some pretty personal shots, hopefully some of those are going to be in focus, because like the waves they run in and out, and all fly away in circles looking for the best place to land and feed.   After about 4.5 hours I've returned to my campsite.  Its still pretty cold at 8 degrees, but I still have my door open as I type this and copy today's pictures to storage.  The sun seems to be coming out, and I've been watching a couple warblers jump around not too far away looking for scraps or bugs on the ground.  Probably should get some lunch and see what the afternoon has in store.

So all things considered, I want to try and get to Kettle lakes right at 2:00pm so I can have some time to explore that I didn't get last time, I'll have some time in the morning of Saturday for sure, but once again, I want some time at my parents place on Saturday to get everything squared away so I'll have Sunday to edit photos and rest. That leaves the evening to get things done at kettle lakes, and I could rush there and get there before 2pm but I don't want to.  IF I get there and my site has someone on it still, I have to drive around with the trailer and waste fuel and time I could be setting up camp and then walking around.  So the only option is for me to have a big breakfast for dinner early, and that means I skip lunch and go to the end of the beach trail while the sun is still out.  I removed the reflector in the skylight before I left to allow the sun into the trailer to warm it up a bit since I’d had the door open, and grabbed just the 360 and the 5dmkiv and my camera bag and went.  And holy crap I saw 3 other people.  I guess the sun roused them like reverse vampires from their RVs  All older than me, they looked pretty surprised to see me, but we passed by with general pleasantries said to people who will likely never see each other again, and I headed for the big beach.  There's driftwood as far as the eye can see.  I guess it all washes down from the pic river and then washes ashore here.  The brown water from the pic has overtaken this entire bay as well.  The photographic opportunities here kind of lie in the small things, and I got a few, but generally I couldn't find a good composition here.  The sun has obviously gone to hide again, because I'm outside and not inside where it thinks I belong I guess.   I went to the very far end of the beach where there was a sign explaining about an endangered thistle that was going to be wiped out by natural means, that they rescued and replanted here.  They further replanted it in other areas.  I guess it is too early for this plant because I saw some leaves that looked similar, but nothing flowering.  I generally try to not step on plants so I just was extra gingerly as I explored the beach to the smooth rock point at the other end.  While I was there I saw a pink coat photographer in the distance by herself shooting various things on the beach, but she was long gone by the time I got over to see what she was shooting, and honestly didn't see anything of interest there myself.  I set up the tripod to add to my growing collection of waves exploding over rocks pictures, and then returned.   On my way back, I came across a single sandpiper who was just sort of hiding in one of my footprints from this morning.  When it saw me, it jumped up and started doing sandpiper things in the surf.  It kept looking back at me... was it hamming itself up for the camera?  I walked around the strange sandpiper and back up the beach, where I saw a couple of guys working on the platform I was using earlier this morning.  So I had to go back along the secondary trail.. and I saw a flash of orange flit by and crash in the sand in front of me.  My gosh!  Is it the first Monarch?  because It sure looks like one.  maybe not 'the first' but 'a first' for sure.  It had a death grip on a twig and was fluttering trying to get into the air but the wind was too strong.  So I picked up the twig, and used my body to shelter it from the wind, and carried it further back into the forest where the wind wasn't so bad.  I deposited it on a tree.  I wonder if it will survive?  There's no milkweed over here yet..  there is tons of pollen though.  I returned to the trailer to find that the two idiots had been replaced by a canadream RV.  and I also saw that there was a notice attached to the door of the rv one site to the east of me, they were supposed to leave this morning, according to the post.. I didn't read the notice.. something creepy about that rv.  I saw a car there that couldn't possibly tow that one day one, and they were hanging out there, but after that there hasn't been anyone else.  I returned to my site to find everything dry, so I had my 'lupper' tidied up and tore down the tarp and poles, removing as much pollen as I could and then folding it and storing it where it belongs under my bed in the trailer.  The table cloth is looking a bit worse for wear..  I think I stored it wet last time and there was mold on it when it came out here.. I scrubbed it the best I could, but there's also holes and stains in it.  This may be the last trip for it.  Some of that was my fault, but I figured it'd be ok because it is plastic.  Live and learn.  I took my garbage over to the waste station and brushed my teeth at the comfort station.  I'm going to probably have a hobo shower tomorrow morning and change into some fresh clothes for the trip back south east.  The weather radio said there's going to be rain again tonight and then clearing in the morning, so at least I won't be driving in the rain.  I will miss this place.  This is a long drive, it takes a lot out of you, and you leave behind parts of yourself here.  If it were up to me I'd spend spring, summer and fall here, or at least around Lake Superior.  Watching the way it changes, documenting it, understanding it.  I could never do it, though, maybe if I do get that van thing going, or a mid sized trailer and vehicle to tow it.  But I still wouldn't be able to afford it.  With this feeling of melancholy I'll sign off here.  Tomorrow is going to be busy, I might as well get some photos edited before bed.  5:14 PM.

I finished my first round of editing by 8:30PM  I have to say, I'm starting to wonder if I took these or if someone else did.  It seems the tips I've been reading have made some improvement.  I think there are even some portfolio worthy shots in there, but none good enough for the world photography contest..

Pukaskwa in the Spring Day 4, May 22 2024

Author’s note: Had a bit of a block and just didn’t feel like it, for several months. But let us continue now.

2:27 AM

The thunderbird is slightly angry, but not like it has been in my memory.  I awoke to thunder and heavy rain on the roof, some of which was splashing through the top vent, which I quickly closed.  nothing too bad though.  I spent some time rolling around trying to go back to sleep, and finally did, used to the constant drumming of rain on the roof.

6:00am

I woke up again, feeling quite well rested.  I guess this is what? 14 hours in total with the nap yesterday?  I don't know what time I passed out.  I did take a Sleepeze, which has a double effect of putting me under and since it is also an antihistamine, it helps control this stupid rash I get on the inner elbows during the spring and summer up at my parents.  Perhaps whatever it is is also here, because it really flared up during the hike yesterday.  This morning it seems to have mostly scabbed over.

I'm still not particularly hungry, but I know I need to provide at least something.  So I decided to go with just pancakes this morning.  I know, I should be getting protein, but I don't think I can stomach more right now.  I made coffee as usual, I have a slight amount of 'stick man syndrome' from yesterday, but it isn't as bad as I thought it would be.  I guess making sure I had that BCAA stuff before and after the hike may have really helped.  I eyeballed about half a cup of pancake mix into the collapsible silicone bowl I got for this purpose, and whisked in water with my fork.  I only have about 2 liters of water left now, so until I get the other container from Marathon I need to be super sparing with 'non drinking' usages.  I got the batter to a good consistancy, and then poured out a bit into the waiting cast iron pan, which had a bit of butter.  I got the heat a bit wrong the first try, a little black around the edges, but still edible.  Since I do not have plates, the resulting pancake was split in half and put in the cook pot to wait on the back of the stove grill for the other ~2 pancakes I made one at a time.  They turned out pretty good, other than the first, they were light, fluffy, and crispy around the edges from the butter.  While I was doing this, I had prepared my coffee, and sat down with some real maple syrup and ate.  Cleanup was pretty easy, I just used the leftover water from coffee making, plus the water that I collected from the tarp I have over the picnic table.  Once done, I packed up the kitchen, locked up the trailer, and headed for Marathon.  I left around 8AM, thinking that Canadian Tire would be open at 8, and after about a half hour I arrived.  I had mistakenly thought Marathon was where the Terry Fox statue was, you know, because the town is named "Marathon" but I was wrong.  It is funny how childhood memories flip together and get compressed.  The actual memorial is by Thunder Bay, which is over 4.5 hours away.  So, sorry Mr. Fox you won't be getting a visit from me this trip.  I arrived at the parking lot of Canadian Tire during what I hope is the worst of the windy part of the storm.  The wind is pretty warm actually, but according to my weather app (which now has signal) the wind is 20KPH and gusting to 60KPH.  This explains why my car is rocking sideways around 3-4 inches as the wind gusts.  I made the mistake of taking my raincoat off for the drive, and when I stood up in the parking lot to put it on, the wind nearly tore it from my hands as I tried to put it on.  I walked over to the door, and found that this Canadian Tire opens at 9:00 am, so I visited the LRV out front and snapped a tourist shot with my smartphone, before retreating to my car again, before *I* was blown away.  I tried calling my parents a few times but there was no answer, so I spent some time checking the next few days weather models.  Since tomorrow is my last day here I want to make the most of it.  Judging from the models, the worst of the storm should blow over tonight. I want to do the lookout trail, which is a short but somewhat steep one, and visit the dunes, which are along the trail.  This might mean this afternoon I can scout it, get some stormy pics.. and do it again tomorrow, though I think my chances of getting a clear sky at all are probably Zero;  But you never know, Lake Superior creates a zone of uncertainty in every forecast, and since it tends to boost or suck the energy of storms, this could burn out early and give me a nice day tomorrow.  I got my water bottle and some extra paper towels from the Canadian Tire, I was going to go to the grocery store and look around, but there's not really any point, since I have more than enough food for two weeks most likely.  So I decided to head down to pebble beach,  which had apparently received a massive overhaul with huge cedar boardwalks and railings.  The wind has died down some, but the waves are still coming in.  These are nothing compared to the huge ones that I experienced with my parents last time I was here, but they are still pretty impressive.  Considering the wind is coming straight into the shore I'm kind of confused why they aren't massive ocean sized waves.  I got some snap shots, and some establishing shots.  Nothing great, these aren't planned or artistic, just hand-held.. but maybe there's something here.  I went down from the lookout to the beach proper, and layed down on the stones right behind the ridge where they've been pushed up from the ice and waves crashing, so I was reletively safe - note there is another ridge pushed up behind me from when things are extra insane, but that apparently is not today.  From this vantage point I shot quite a few pictures at 'eye level' with the crashing waves, which will hopefully be interesting.  After getting a few more shots down the coast, I climbed back up and made one final attempt to call my parents.  This time went through and I spend about 20 minutes updating them on things, before heading back to Pukaskwa.  Oh, I did top off my gas tank, which was hovering around 50% as well, It pays to be topped up out here.  I returned to my camp site, to find the tarp that had stood through last night finally collapsed.. so I had to fix it.. some of the pegs and ripped right out of the ground, and especially interesting to find those were the ones I had to hammer in with my folding shovel because the ground was so hard.  After fixing that, I went back to the car, and unboxed the folding water tank.  I also pulled out the wet hoodie from my backpack so I could hang it up, and cleaned out the wrappers and such I had packed out.  I got the cameras and took them to the trailer, i will copy the memory cards to the big laptop and maybe edit some in the evening.  (it is copying over as I type this - multi-tasking!)  once that was done, I locked everything up and walked to the comfort station, which also is where the water tap is.  I had to do some other business, and once that was done, got some soap out of the dispenser, and waved my hand under the automatic tap. 'click'  no water.  I tried again 'click'  no water.  Shit! now I have soap on my hand and no water, I tried to shake some off.. but it wouldn't come off.  so i walked outside to the water spigot with my new tank, and turned on the tap - nothing.  Perfect..  I walked back to my site, empty jug and soapy hand.  I did wash my hands with water off the tarp.. but I guess getting more 'contaminated' water will maybe require me dipping the tank in the lake, which right now, would be likely to have me washed away.  I'll have to check later.  At least the clouds appear to have gone a bit higher, so the tree tops aren't obscured anymore.  This means going on that lookout trail this afternoon might be a good idea.  I'll have lunch and then decide what to do.

Lunch was 'expensive' ramen ($1.99) and maple tea, with some Kool-Aid, because it is a bit spicy.  I thought, hey, I need some protein, and dropped an egg in for the last ~1 minute and still managed to over-cook it.  I guess you really need to take it off the heat for that to work.  The white fully separated from the yolk and somehow managed to burn to the bottom of the pot.  Titanium pots don't seem to do well with 'anything' that can stick.  I guess the oxide layer provides tones of surface area to stick to.  This is why the Stagg Silverado is still in its can.  Perhaps the last morning with some wieners, when I can just say 'fuck it' and pack it away with stuck bits to scrub at my parent's place.  Anyhow, the water situation is pretty dire, so after packing up, and deciding to do the headlands trail, I cruised by the comfort station again, to ensure I'm empty as there's literally no place to squat on that trail, and try to get water.  The water is back on! I filled the floppy jug most of the way before it got too heavy to hold the stupid mouth straight.  I now remember why these things are shit..  but if it is a container you only need sometimes, its good because it takes up hardly any space.  I returned to my campsite, just in time to watch the two idiots with the inflatable boat, truck off down to the lake with it.  Well, I guess they'll either get blown back to shore, or end up as a darwin award.  I locked up and proceeded to the water access, where the headlands trail's closest access was.  It seems the two idiots are just messing around near shore, it is fairly sheltered here, but the waves are raging just a few hundred meters away.  I started to wonder if I was the actual idiot, because;  Holy crap, this is dangerous.  the rocks are soaking wet, and covered with lichen.  I can barely manage to progress, and it is getting very sketchy.  I thought, well, I'll just find a nice place to stop, and sit and watch the waves.. maybe record some 360 video, its too windy to actually do a real video, and even if I had the lave mic on the water is spraying at me so much I'm sure it'd get inside the camera, because the door needs to be removed for the external microphone to work, and it is no longer fully sealed when you do that.  So I found a good vantage over Hattie Cove and held onto the invisible selfie stick with a death grip as the wind battered the little camera around.  The cloud deck was too low for much in the way of a good shot, so I just sat there, it was surprisingly warm even with the wind, and I was wearing my merino wool T-shirt under my raincoat which is an excellent barrier.  I sat like that for what must have been twenty minutes.  The clouds started to clear a bit, and the wind wasn't spraying rain everywhere, and in fact the rocks were drying quite fast.  So, I tried to push on a bit, and found the going was a lot more 'safe'.  The trail seemed to be pretty inconsistently marked, and I actually found quite a few side trails that could very well have been just animal trails, or places water had run and destroyed the vegetation.  This is a difficulty with places like this, because, if there isn't strict marking, people go off on anything that looks like the trail, and come to a dead end, and turn back - so now you have something that could have been just an animal trail, or an erosion trail, that people have walked on, so now it looks like the actual trail.  Compound that with thousands of visitors yearly, and you really can't tell the difference anymore.  This is another reason I say, have a map and a compass, or a GPS, or all of the above.  People might laugh at you but you'll be getting the last laugh, trust me.  Anyhow, there are some pretty nice views from this trail, and I found the Adirondack chairs, bolted to one of the best overlooks of Hattie Cove.  I did not partake though, because they were soaking wet, even though they are made of plastic.  Continuing on, the weather continued to clear, though the temperature is definitely dropping now, and the winds are becoming far stronger at least out here.  It could be because I'm out of the shelter of the cove, but the waves aren't huge so there has to be some cross-winds.  I can see the waves definitely have an 'interference' pattern to them out in the distance, so that must be why they aren't as huge as I remember.  They are still plenty deadly to the unprepared, that's for sure.  The wind being as it is would have taken my old clipper canoe and pinned it against the rocks so the waves could grind me to pulp there, that is absolutely certain.  I came back around the trail and ended up on the beach in Horseshoe Bay, where there's an old look-out deck, and a painting by the group of seven immortalized,  I looked at it every which way, and I'm pretty certain that it wasn't actually painted here.. some of the elements lined up, but most did not.  It looked like he was painting from a spot in the sky behind where I was, and there is no ridge like that back there I can see.  Anyhow, since it was still kind of gloomy, I decided to do some painting of my own - using light.  I set up my tripod and got it firmly set, and got out the ND100 square filter, and got some 30s open shutter shots, that should be interesting, they make the water seem a placid pool, when its actually a raging torrent.  Afterwards, I got out the 'bigma' and shot some more action packed shots to capture the waves crashing, far out in the distance.  I hope they are sharp!

The return was along the coastline, and the wind was just howling, I could feel the water evaporating from my eyeballs, there were tears coming down my cheeks that were dry and gone before they even reached my beard.  But I found a spot, and set up and got some more 360 footage and some more handheld shots.  I nearly lost my lens cap when I accidentally dropped it and the wind took it and threw it about 20 feet behind me into a crag! From now on those go in my pocket!  I finally returned to my campsite after about another 20 or so minutes of hiking.  My feet are sore again, and itchy.  I really think these new keens I got aren't as good as the old ones.  In fact, tomorrow when I go on my last planned hike - I'm going to wear the old ones and see if they're actually more comfortable.  Sore feet are hard to deal with when hiking, they make everything worse.   Anyhow, I'm in the trailer now.. its 10c outside and I'm running my little 500w heater to get the temperature up.  It is brighter outside, but still overcast.  The radio says that it is supposed to rain overnight, but should just be overcast and windy tomorrow.  We'll see.. I saw something that looked like blue sky hanging out over something that couldn't possibly be the sleeping giant to the north west when I was up on the headlands, I'm good with mixed sun and cloud, because it offers far more opportunity for interesting shots during the midday period.

I guess I'll have to get off my ass now, as it is 5:00PM  I am finally hungry again, but since I had such a lavish lunch I don't want to overdo it.  I am down to about 1 Liter of drinking water, and all my canteens are empty.  Guess I'm going to be boiling - a lot.  10 LBS of propane was a great idea if I do say so myself.

I had Mac n cheese with a hotdog in it, and then after cleaning up I started the boilathon.  I have two containers that hold one liter, and two that hold 500ml and that is four rounds of boiling.  Once those were full, I added one liter of boiled water to the blue jug, which has my remaining fresh water.  I guess it isn't fresh anymore.  Boiled water tastes 'flat' to me, but mixing it with fresh water should help a bit..  I edited some photos with luminar until around 8:30 pm and then retired for the night.  The temperature is dropping outside pretty fast.  It is already 8c degrees outside.  My little heater is keeping the inside relatively nice at 18-19 degrees, so no worries there.  One of the problems with my trailer is, it is too well sealed.  I mean, carbon dioxide builds up inside if you close the windows doors and roof vent, so to keep my home-away-from home from being my tomb, I have to keep the window and vent open.  I've experimented with a C02 meter, and while I can only get the levels very low by leaving the door open (might as well just sleep under the stars)  I've found that I can keep the levels moderate by leaving the top vent open a crack, and the window open by about 1/3.  This is a good balance between fresh air and not freezing, but I want to figgure out a better solution, like a floor vent.  The problem with that is keeping critters out, and not letting rain in when driving.  I need to find something that can be closed and waterproof during travel.  The idea, is that since C02 is a heavy gas, it should just find its own way out the floor vent, and since heat rises, the cold air should also find its own way out.  I need to spend some time on this topic and see what others have done.

Pukaskwa in the Spring Day 3, May 21 2024

"Recovery time 120 Hours"

I woke up just before the sun.  Today I’m having a large calorie dense breakfast, because I suspect I will be grinding myself down to nothing.  I set up the kitchen and cubed my potato, then got it into the cast iron. I then started some water heating for my fresh ground pacific pipeline.  There's another photographer who is far more famous and far skinnier than I am that swears by the stuff, and you know, I may be swearing by it too.  It really gives you a kick in the pants, without being too acidic.  I was going to try making this cowboy style, but it is a bit too messy, so I packed up the old myleta (sp) one cup filter that was over at the cabin.  It works wonderfully, you just have to be careful not to pour too much water in at once, keep it on the grounds and not touching the paper.  It takes a while, but the result is pretty amazing.  I have a double walled vacuum mug my dad bought me once Christmas,  I think it was supposed to be a beer stein, but it works for everything pretty well, and keeps the heat for lots longer.  It is hellish hot if you drink immediately.  Best to let it sit, which is perfect while I finish the other components of breakfast.  Since my second burner was free, I put the old 4" cast iron pan that I somehow thought was a good idea, it isn't seasoned well, and it is so thin it is difficult to manage.  However, it seems perfect sized to brown a piece of Lou's peameal bacon - this time I got one of their other products, the smoked back bacon.  It doesn't have much fat, so about a pinkie sized bit of butter is in there as well.  I tried to put a second piece in there, but it didn’t work that well.  I babysat those for about 15 minutes while gingerly sipping my coffee, testing the potatoes from time to time to check for doneness.  Once they were done, I unloaded both pans into the lid of my pot set, which serves as a bowl, and placed them at the back of the stove to keep warm.  The bacon stuck badly to the little pan so I’ll need to go back and scrape it after.  Unfortunately, this will wreck most of the already wrecked seasoning.  We'll hopefully fix that this trip as well, but it might need a trip back to the sander.  In my bigger pan, which is still only 10" I cracked two eggs and fried them up.  They slide around like they have the leidenfrost effect; perfect.  I broke one of the yolks though.  Over-easy it is.  Once done that goes on top of the other two, and I sit down to eat.  Complimented with a juice box, some Metamucil, and a preparatory scoop of LBCAA powder, that is breakfast.  I also made sure to pre-pack myself with plenty of water, since today doesn't look like it is going to be cold and rainy like the evil AI voice on the weather radio said last night. Seems I’ve been too coddled, being able to use windy.com and some other sites to basically flub my own forecasts for the next day which generally contradict whatever the talking heads say.. the truth usually ends up being somewhere in the middle.  I decided to err on the side of 'I can take it off if it gets too hot' and wore my merino wool t-shirt and light hoodie, with my raincoat stuffed in my camera bag.  I then put in a couple oranges, some cheese sticks, and 4 trail bars.  I fixed one liter of fresh water to my backpack's horizontal rear carrying straps like a bedroll, and then another thinner one liter container in the side pocket - this one has electrolyte mix intended for dealing with heat stroke, I run it a lower concentration for just dealing with 'oh god, my sweat stopped' or 'oh man, I’m getting kind of dizzy'  the second one is pretty scary when you're about to cross a god damned evil suspension bridge, oh and on high rocks too.  After cleaning up the kitchen and putting things away (I found out that the propane hose actually DOES NOT disobey the main valve; it is just that the Coleman stove will quite literally run for about 6 minutes with the contents of the hose.  Talk about efficiency.) I decided to drive up to the front gate and return the 'temporary' laminated thing they gave me by sliding it under the door.  Once done, I just parked at the visitor center, which is basically the trail head for most of the trails (it appears to closed at this time in the season, it is also where the famed 'Wi-Fi' comes from, as I found out on the map - there is no Wi-Fi while it is closed, I scanned for signals, believe me.  I will have to go back during '11am-4pm' which is the park operating hours and see if it is open, because I believe after today's stupidity, they owe me a free badge.)  And you might ask, why not just walk there?  It is only about 500 meters away from your campsite.  and to you I say 'bah humbug' you have no idea how disheartening it is to have to walk 500 more meters after you've already trekked 16.9 kilometers over 8.5 hours up and down rocky hills, scrambling under fallen trees, slipping and falling on your ass.)

Once I parked, I unloaded and checked my gear.  Set up my smart watch heart monitor belt - the battery was dead, replaced then set up my backup-gps - the database was corrupt, the memory card had gotten loose, which is behind the battery compartment. and I dropped one battery that rolled under my car, so I had to fish it out on my hands and knees but it working after all that.  Did I mention, I'm wondering if my camp site is haunted? and that thing is following me? and that maybe is why the last people left early?  I found my sleeping pants - that I wore last night waaay on the far side of my camp site after I locked up my trailer to go to the comfort station and brush my teeth this morning... I hadn't been over there at all today.  I took them off before leaving the trailer.. W.T.F?  I digress.  Once everything was set, I locked the car, shouldered the 30 odd lbs. of backpack and gear.. and headed off down the trail.  I spent time lolly-gagging at the beginning of the trail, since there were so many informational posters about operations in the park.  For instance, there was a prescribed burn area in the early 2000's which can't have been all that long after I visited here with my parents (I think it was 1998?  I was still in high school, and I think they took me out to go, but I’m sure mom will correct me.)  The area burned was small.  I think we need to do this on a more regular basis. While the area is clearly damaged, the amount of new life there is immense.  There's even a special stand there set up to orient a camera and take a picture and send to the park so they can see the progress, that way everyone can participate.  Of course I will be too, because as far as I can tell... there's only one or two sets of footprints on the trail so far, though possibly others have been washed away.  There weren't too many photographic opportunities, a few snaps I took with the main camera, but mostly macro with my phone.. I did bring macro tubes this time but getting them to work on the trail is a bit cumbersome.  Unfortunately, I'd hoped that there would be a lot of flowers blooming but there's hardly anything.  There are orchids probably as far as the eye can see over in this part of the trail, but they are just barely starting to bud.  So, Swamp Marigolds, and some other tiny flowers that I can't yet identify are on my phone and camera where appropriate.  as a rough guestimate I reached the floating boardwalk around 30-40 minutes in... and the light was amazing here.  nice yellow side light... it was also bloody hot.  So much for the 'cool and cloudy forecast' once again.  There were a pair of bluebirds flying around from stump to stump, and then one stopped to sun bathe... so you know, I carry that huge 6 lb. 'bigma' lens around and feel like I should just not do that, but it always seems to be needed.  I set up my tripod and... of course it left.  I spent around 20 minutes being quiet, and waiting, and finally a swamp sparrow (I think) took the spot, and stayed nice and still for me to get several relatively close up shots with the big boy.  I waited a bit longer, but the sun was getting around, and there was a grackle swearing at me from the top of the highest dead tree. With him around no one else would show up, so I packed up and headed on.  At this point I was feeling pretty good.  I was about to be un-good.  Somehow in my mind '15 feet' was transposed with '15 meters’ well, 15 meters, isn't quite three times 15 feet, but it is pretty close.  Unfortunately, this being the north country, those meters can't just be spread out over a long distance, they must come and go within a few meters.  So, up and down, and rest.  up and down, and rest.  up and slide on my ass and rest... and this went on for about 3 more kilometers before the trail levels out again.  At this point, I was worried because I'd already wasted about 2.5 hours and hadn't even covered 1/3 of the distance.  but since the trail was level for quite some time, I was able to cover about 2/3 of the distance in around 1.5 more hours.  I was still tired, but I rested and took drinks and snack breaks, and mostly used my freshwater canteen... saving the electrolyte one for the return, when I’d need the extra boost.  I already had salt crystals on my brow and around my eyes.  the heat was according to my watch around 30 degrees Celsius... probably minus 5 for my body heat, still not at all what I expected.  I only had to take a leak once this entire time, every other ounce of liquid was being used for sweat.  I passed by a lovely outhouse close to the first campsite on the trail.  I still felt good enough to go check it out, but I could clearly see there was someone staying there, so I just moved on.  The remainder of the trail was relatively flat, with some more ridge crossings that weren't fun, some rotten old bridges, but mostly new bridges, and a lot of fallen trees that were at the annoying height - too low to really crawl under, and too high to climb over.  The forest was thick in some of these areas, so I was forced to crawl under, my backpack barely making it through, but I did it.  I made it to the bridge.  I set down my gear, pulled out the camera... and... crossed it.  My heart was in my throat.  I didn't look down much.  The bridge swayed wildly with each footstep.  I thought of all of the ways suspension bridges failed that I’ve ever seen, and harmonic swaying was one of them... I decided to not walk so evenly... and the swaying was lessened.  I then thought 'oh yeah, wasn't the environment minister saying about not wanting to invest in infrastructure?  Isn't he in charge of this kind of thing? and then I remembered how the cables at the radio telescope failed.  And then, I was on the other side.  I turned around... and pondered whether I could just stay on that side for the rest of my life, then remembered that White River holds the record for the coldest winter... and came back across.  The second time wasn't as bad as the first.   My heart rate was still peaking at about 150, higher than it had been on the entire hike.  I stopped, got video, and even went about halfway out again and got some freaking dizzying shots with my ultrawide - the one so wide it can get your feet in the picture.  Yes, I did that on purpose.  After the excitement was done, I switched back my lens, and sat down for about 15 minutes to have 'lunch' since it was now 12:00.  I drank water, and I saw something out of the corner of my eye.  It was about fist sized and had the face of a groundhog.  It was watching me.  It wouldn't move while I was looking, so I quietly got the camera out and waited, sort of pretending not to look.  He was brown, with a long tail, but I couldn't manage to get a shot of it.  I took a faraway picture of him, when I moved too much he bolted.  He is brown with dark hair on his back. I wonder what he was?

around 12:30 I started my trek back.  Happy that I will never have to do that again.  At this point, I was sore, and tired, and just wanted to be done.  The day is way hotter than it was supposed to be, and my black canteen with fresh water is down to one mouthful.  At least I have my ... blue... canteen gone.  I do not have my blue canteen.  What the hell!  I did have a couple sips out of it mid trail, but it is gone. Well, I pray to whatever god will listen it is just at one of the last places I sipped on it, or I'm going to be in trouble.  I didn't hear it fall out, so it must have fallen somewhere soft.  I started the long slog back, taking tiny sips of the water I had remaining, but by the time I'd crossed 1/3 of the way back... the final mouthful was gone.  To deal with this, I decided to go in roughly 500m sections, rest, let my heart rate go down, and continue.  This worked fine, but I was still feeling kind of sick, and a bit dizzy.  Not enough water, lots of heat, and heavy exertion isn't a good mix.  The bars I brought are dry, they need water to go down, so I can't even power through with calories.  The cheese was moist, I had one more tangerine left, which helped quite a lot.  and just about as I was about to lose hope... there was my bottle. It sitting in the middle of the trail, bathed in a patch of sunlight like an idol of health. It was right past the outhouse to that campsite.  The campers were gone, but it was there...  I picked it up, opened it to check the contents, and nothing looked out of place...  and drank.  I was immediately energized. But I had to council myself not to just pour the whole thing down my throat... I still had 3ish kilometers to go, and they were the worst kilometers.  I took it slow, taking breaks, sipping at the water, and ate one bar washing it down.  My feet were sore, it took everything I had to just stand up again, but stand I did.  I crawled under the trees that I'd climbed over earlier, getting my pants and shirt dirty, but I did it.  I can't even relay how relieved I was when I saw the edge of the burn zone, which was only about 300 meters from the parking lot.  It was closing on 4:30pm now.  I tossed my gear into the car, grabbed my last canteen of water, and reclined in the driver’s seat, letting the cool air conditioning wash over me as I drank the whole half liter at once.   I stayed there for about 10 minutes before I drove back to my campsite.  My feet were cold, this is not good.  this is probably some sort of warning sign, so I got back... I wasn't hungry, but forced myself to eat a bit of granola, and drank a serving of that protein powder.  I also drank another two canteens of water, and immediately needed to pee.  What came out was... not natural coloured.  I suddenly was very tired, I stripped off all my clothes... had a quick 'hobo shower' with the body wipes I had, and changed into my bed clothes, with fresh underwear.  My feet were still cold, and were slightly blue.  I massaged them and drank more water. Finally, when they started to return to normalcy, I passed out for two hours.  It is now about 6:50, and I’ve spent about 50 minutes typing this.  My feet are fine now, and I’m cozy and warm.  Still not hungry, but thirsty.  I’m sipping away on some water while I type.  I had a bit of a fever for a while, but it seems fine now, and I’m not dizzy anymore.  Panic averted.   The storm alarm on my watch went off a few minutes ago, and clouds seem to have come in, but the forecast on my trailer weather station is still showing sunny.  I guess we'll see.  I'm going to read for an hour or so and probably go to sleep for real. I still need to brush my teeth... but maybe I’ll just spit into a garbage bag.. not sure I want to walk over to the comfort station right now.  Tomorrow - going to marathon to get gas, visit Mr. Fox and get that jug I mentioned.  Maybe pick up lunch, we'll see how long all that takes.  Marathon is one of the few places left that has A&W Chubby Chicken up here.  I might sit down and steal their internet for a while too, try to answer some of these questions I've come up with.

Pukaskwa in the Spring Day 2, May 20, 2024

forgot to mention on the previous day, that well, there are a lot of people at this little park. A lot of noisy people with music, the camp site up the hill is having some sort of dance party, and while the one next to me is pretty quiet for now, I can't help but notice they have a huge Napoleon BBQ and a Webber smoker sitting out. Around 8pm when I was turning in for the night, I heard' click-clock click-clock... CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK I looked out the window and saw a half naked man furiously pressing the igniter button on the front of the BBQ. I guess those igniters fail whomever makes them. I suppose they will be upset at me tomorrow morning when I rouse to make breakfast.

4:52 am

I've actually been 'awake' for about an hour apparently I didn't get enough fluids yesterday, something I need to remedy today. My mouth feels gross. I checked the outside temperature at 10.6 degrees. much cooler than yesterday. This is more like it. it is a reasonable 15 degrees inside the trailer. and the humidity is pretty low at 33%. Going back to what I was saying about fires in the boreal forest.. i can quite well see how it happens easily. I know a few people were having campfires here last night, I could smell wood smoke while I was trying to get to sleep. It wouldn't take much to get things going here. Surprised there isn't a fire ban, whomever sets the fire bans must be asleep up here. Anyhow.. I need to get breakfast going. I think I'll just have granola this morning as much as I want to go all out, I have a 7 hour drive ahead of me at least. I didn't get to see much of this little park. Hopefully I can spend a bit more time here on the return trip when there shouldn't be so many people, and I won't be as pressed to get to my destination before the office closes. Time to get at er, as they say.

6:00 AM

After a quick breakfast of granola, I quickly folded up camp, secured everything, and hit the road. I feel pretty good today, so I think I will make good time. This is the hardest part of the trip, it is a straight shot across highway 101 west to Wawa. There is a several hour section with no gas stations so gassing up is very important. After about a half hour drive, I feel the call of nature for the first time, and pull over by a small river where there's a commemorative plaque to mining in the area. Just like most of the pit stops in northern Ontario, the washrooms are white concrete bunkers which are pretty darn clean, I think they literally just pressure wash them with javex solution every week or so. After finishing my morning business, I took this opportunity to call my parents, since I wasn't sure if the email I'd queued up went through. They had got my message, mom was frantic thinking something had gone wrong since I called. I thought this was strange because usually she's frantic when I don't call. I mean, I'm going to be 44 years old this year. I've made it through near half my life without coming to a hard end, so you'd think I had things figured out by now? (no, nobody does, everyone has no clue what they are doing)

I took a few pictures of the memorial, since I couldn't read the faded text, after inspecting it on the back of the camera to ensure the text was legible (it was printed in English, native of some sort, and French) I got back on the road. Next stop was Timmins, where I filled up my tank at just over 50% and grabbed a 1 liter of water, a sports drink, and a small can of wd40 for my leveling jacks which squeak like crazy. There was a short surly looking woman at the counter. I went to went to pay. And my card wouldn't read. for the second time. Holy shit, I was slightly panicking. This is the only way I have to pay now, and I'll be in deep shit if I can't get fuel. After a few tries, she handed me a piece of paper and i slid it under my card, just like at mattawa, it read. It was a releif. I continued on my way, this was my last fuel-up until Wawa, which was roughly 4 hours drive away. The land out here is sparse, the road has no shoulders, and only truck and snowplow turn-arounds every fifty or so kilometers. Suffice to say, there was no 'pulling off' to dart into the bush for a pee. I continued to drink like a fish though, knowing from experience that dehydration when driving sneaks up on you, and you can't just immediately remedy it. I'd already finished off about two litres of liquid by now, and was on the sports drink. I passed the time here listening to 'three body problem' which i'd downloaded from audible before leaving scarborough. It is quite excellent and I highly reccommend it. I hope the author isn't going to get in trouble with the CCP.. he goes way deep into the horrors of Chinese Comunism. There's enough balance there that maybe he's ok.. but those guys don't screw around. The other thing I considered is the geology of this place, since the sun was now deeply buried in cloud, and there was the odd passing shower. You see, this place is still relitively flat, and this bears looking up when I get access to the internet again. From my basic, high school level geology understanding (and the good high school from the 90's, not the garbage they teach now) The glaciers came down from the north pole, and up from the south pole. They compressed, and ground the landscape down to nothing, except where the rock was too hard to do as much damage. You can see some evidence of that in Hamilton where there's mounds capped with hard dolomite that stick up like strange squat pillars in the otherwise flat landscape. When the glaciers receded, the meltwater left behind whatever was in the ice. The heaviest bits were left behind first, and you see them in erratics - huge boulders just left in the middle of a field, usually made up of rock that is alien to the area they are in. And the smallest stuff, generally came out last. And that is what I see up here, mounds and mounds and mounds of gravel made up of rock just as far as the eye can see. the earth is sandy as well, and it is hard for me to imagine the forest I see growing in it. Anyhow, I might be completely wrong here, there is a lot of mining up here so it is possible this is just redistributed for road works from tailings piles. Something else that I find interesting in all this, is I remember as a kid that we used to see blasting mats all along highways like this. There seemed to be always some construction going on, blasting the rock away from the road so it didn't tumble down onto it or just to widen it. Now this place is barren. The road is in pretty good shape, but it isn't new for sure. anyhow, there were roughly two proper roadside stops for this four hour trip, and I found myself being almost mesmerized by the sameness of everything. On one of the stops closer to Wawa, something else struck me as strange. Something that bothered me at a fundamental level. The river by this stop, was running north. I don't know why this bothered me so much. It took a while for me to even understand what it was, since i’m not usually fully aware of my compass directions. but I felt like something was wrong. I stood looking at it. I knew lake superior was on my right, and by all logic you'd expect it to run that way, but no, it was running away from lake superior. It just made me feel like something was wrong when I stared at the golden water. Maybe that wasn't it, I've seen water run different directions all my life, after all. but this indeed was about the third one I'd seen like this, running north. I guess I'll have to check again on my way back on Friday. It isn't like there's anywhere else to stop along this route!

It was getting on to 2:00pm as I started to get back into the amazing hills and mountains surrounding the big lake, Wawa wasn't far. My fuel gage was at 1/3 ish and I was starting to get a little nervous. I was distracted to my right by a huge triangular mountain, and realized it wasn't that.. it towered above the natural rocks, and there were more of them. Tailings piles from an active mine. I didn't see what they were mining there. It looked to me like it was an open pit though, judging by the equipment I saw. I will have to see if I can find out later. Before too long, I was cruising into Wawa. Thankful as I was down to my last quarter now. The place seems to have sprouted even more geese statues since I was here last year. I filled up at the first gas station I found, which was a petro canada. The price was 1.83 a litre. I calculated my fuel costs at 1.80 I'm glad to see our horrible government can exceed my expectations even in this. I paid directly at the pump, and my card went through without issue. So maybe there are two malfunctioning card readers out there. I hope that is the case, I need to at least make it home before I can order a replacement. and then the fun of going around and updating all the insurance, CAA, etc to the no doubt new card number. I did add this card to google pay on my phone, but that requires the machines out here to support NFC - which is not entirely likely. The tap to pay on my card failed a few months ago, and hasn't worked since. So I guess maybe the card is just a defect, it is supposed to be re-issued next year anyhow.

This is the last leg of my journey, up through white river, over the massive brown pic river, and finally - around 3:00ish I pulled into Pukasaw and walked up to the main gate. It is manned by three young women, that couldn't have been much older than 16 years old, and one that was probably ninteen or twenty. Either that, or i'm just horribly old now. I was given a map, and a laminated card.. and told to go find a site, it is first come first serve. I found site 13, which is fairly secluded, with a power outlet. There will not be a repeat of killarney and being soaking wet and unable to dry out because my dehumidifier killed my battery. After a few false starts, I managed to back the trailer in where I wanted it, unhitched, and drove back to the gatehouse. To my terror, I heard 'clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk' coming from my right front wheel. Oh shit. The car finally got me where I was, how could this be? I replaced the struts, bearings, knuckles and brake pads and rotors all reasonably recently. Would I be stuck out here? Not horrible.. but I can't stay here forever. I pulled up to the parking area by the gate house, and did a walk around. There was a huge stone stuck in the treads of the right front tire. I thought 'shit, is it a puncture?' nope.. it was just wedged in there. no issue. with a sigh of releif I told the girls my site number. The nervous and youngest one was on the till. She said 'that site is taken' and I said, no one was there, and there was nothing on the sign... so she had to call the older girl over to help her out. She was able to remove that person who had apparently left a day early or something. my total bill for four nights is just $120. That is FAR and away cheaper than the provincial parks. She noted that the campground is 'B.A.R.E' certified, and that if I left food or anything like food out and unatended, a staff member would confiscate it and put it in a lockup, leaving a note behind. I usually leave my water jug out.. but I guess I won't do that either, it will stay in the car when I'm not around. I returned to my site, and began the process of setting up. I picked up the trailer and rolled it back and around so the back faced the road and blocked view of my table, then I pulled the picnic table over closer and strung up my tarp covering the table and just outside the trailer entry way. I pulled it very tight and put extra lines to keep it strong. I barely missed stepping in a huge pile of Dog feces. Disgusting. I got one of the garbage bags i got from Killarney a long time ago, turned it upside down, and picked up the offending offal, and then tied it tightly, putting it in with the garbage bag in my car, and tied that as well. there's a garbage room by the comfort station, according to the map, so i'll take it up there and toss it when I go brush my teeth. Tarp strung, I then put the battery in the trailer and hooked it up. Then I plugged into the power receptacle outside, and turned on the breaker. Inside, I connected the secondary DC disconnect I set up for the Renogy inverter/charger under the bed - and took note that it didn't over-discharge the battery. The thing must have a huge capacitor array in it. Hopefully those never go kaboom while i'm sleeping, or things might be over pretty quick for me! finally, i pushed the controller button on the panel and the inverter came to life. The battery charge meter started rising - 1 amp, 5 amps, 10 amps, 50 amps, 70 amps - and then.. nothing. I was confused.. I started to hear 'electical noises' from the fuse area where I'd just installed the 200amp DC fuse.. but that shouldn't have blown. The amp meter shows a constant draw of .7ish amps. Did I blow the fuse at the post? I went out and checked, no.. I reset it anyhow, and confirmed that I was getting power due to the idiot light on the extension cord. Not sure what is going on here, but I am getting power from my outlets, so things must be ok? I hear the inverter working, it has a pretty loud hum. the fan cycles from time to time. I guess i'll just have to get used to that noise. I really should have gotten the 2000W model, but this one was cheaper.. 3000W probably should be fed by 30A may have to do something about that if this doesn't work out. I pulled out the manual and read the display, it is currently in 'bypass' mode so that means power is directly coming from the plug outside. Only issue appears to be the voltage from the plug is only 110V it should be 120V hopefully this doesn't damage the unit.. if the humming is so bad I can't sleep, i'll have to shut it down. I wanted to try and run my 500W heater overnight when it gets chilly, but if I can't, i'll just have to man up and live with it. It is nice to have the fridge running on AC as well, since it can run at full power and keep things cool more effectively. Anyhow, I made myself dinner after this, tonight its mac and cheese, and tapioca for desert. I'm pretty tired, but I headed up to the comfort station to brush my teeth, toss the dog poop.. and the girls didn't tell me what to do with this stupid laminated thing, so I stuck it in the post. I pulled out the weather radio to see if I could get the weather for tomorrow, since there's no internet access here. Seems like tomorrow is going to be cold, blustery and in the afternoon rainy. And then the rain is supposed to continue until friday. Great. Well, we're used to this by now. Tomorrow is the best day to challenge the white river gorge, so that is what I will do. I will turn back if it gets too difficult, but 6 hours at Killarney didn't kill me last year, so I don't think 8 will this year. The trail has a 15m rise and fall as well, which doesn't seem like much. I'm most concerned about the beach sections, which will do most people in. If it is super windy, walking along where the waves crash isn't really an option since the waves will be taller than me. Sometimes these beaches are all fist sized boulders as well, which isn't easy either. I can't remember which from when I was a kid.. so I guess I will find out. It is 8pm now, I'm dressed in my sleep clothes with the door open. The sun is peeking in but is golden yellow and will set very soon. I've prepared for tomorrow about as much as I can, filling water up etc. Oh yeah, and there's a boil water advisory here.. so I'm going to have to do with what I have in the blue water container and then I guess I don't know.. I don’t have a large container other than the blue jug, and i don't have any large pots either.. I guess I'll have to empty the blue jug into my good containers, and then fill it with bad water and drink out of the clean containers until there's room for water in them, boil enough to fill them and continue on. I'll have to javex the thing when I get it home.. or else, maybe go to the Canadian Tire in marathon and get one of those collapsible jugs for clean water. I could possibly do that on Wednesday, since that day is supposed to be pretty bad. It could all blow over in an instant though. Have to keep up hope.

Pukaskwa in the Spring Day 1, May 19 2024

This morning was spent with the last few steps of loading up the car, breakfast, and loading up what remained at the main house.  Picking up the trailer, saying goodbye to my parents, and then onto the road by around 7:30.  I went straight up the highway to Mattawa, a trip I'd taken several times, and other than a few pit stops to rest or refuel it was pretty uneventful up to this point.  The only concern was the outside temperature which was skyrocketing.. 15,17,18,19,20 degrees.  This is spring!  what the heck?!  At Mattawa was also where I kicked in the GPS for the first time, since the remaining trip was somewhat new territory for me.  It showed that I would not arrive in time for the park to still be open (kettle lakes) they close at 4:00PM!  so I had to opt for the more expedient and fuel costly route up 101 through Quebec.  This took me past Timiskaming and the Parc Du O'Pemican which I had stayed at before and generally wasn't impressed by.    It also took me past two different historical plaques for 'great fires'  Boreal forests require fires to grow.. but it seems that people are still shocked that they happen.  Today especially, is very dry, and pretty hot now at 28 degrees.   This place is quite flat, I think I will call it 'the prairies of the north'  there are a lot of farms up here, but the soil looks desert like, pale tan, it doesn't look like anything will grow here.  Some of the farms have vast fields covered with plastic flowing in the wind like waves on a lake. I assume they are protecting their early crops from the mood swings of May.  Hopefully they won't be killed in this heat!  I admit, there isn't much up here in the north, and places to stop and get gas are few and far between.  I happened to find an Esso station about an hour out from Kettle lakes, my gas tank was just over half.  Knowing the following day would be bereft of fuel as well, I filled up there.   When I finally arrived at Kettle lakes, I was served pretty efficiently, but once again, no park paper, no map.. I bungled my way around to find my site.  Site 66, and it will be the same one on the way back.  the site is, uh.. sand.  Great.  Usually I back the trailer in and then lift it with my hands to get it into the right position.  On this sand though, it refuses to roll.  At least I won't have to worry too much about it rolling away in the middle of the night.   Since I have to leave early tomorrow, I set up the bare minimum, solar panels, stabilizing jacks.  It is now 31 degrees outside, thankfully, I had the foresight to install the reflective panel I made into the skylight in the trailer.. so it is only 25 degrees inside here.   I have the fan running and the door open, so it will equalize I'm sure.  Unfortunately, there's no signal here, so I have no idea what tomorrow has in store for me.  Weather forecasts for Wawa were showing a reasonably nice day tomorrow, but the temperature here is out of whack with what I saw.. it was only supposed to be 15 degrees.  Lake superior makes its own rules once again.  At least it is nice and breezy.  Anyhow, it is currently 5pm, I guess I need to put my pants back on and make some dinner!

616PM

I had that 4patriots dehydrated vegitable soup for dinner, along with mint tea, and extra water for the heat.  I had tapioca pudding for desert.  The soup was  good, it was like creame of broccoli, except it was rice, carrots and peas.  The peas did not rehydrate well after 20 minutes, but were soft enough to just be pleasantly chewy.   I already managed to burn myself on the camp stove.  Did you know those adaptor hoses for propane tanks just ignore the valve position?  no? neither did I.  I turned the tank valve off and lit the burner to burn off the end of the propane in the hose, and it kept burning for two minutes before I realized it wasn't getting any weaker.  As a result, the grate was hot and when I lifted it up to put the hose away, I burned the back of my hand.  nice red welt there now.  I'll have to see if it gets bad  its usually best to leave these alone unless it actually opens up or blisters.  I have my first aid kit anyhow, might have to put a bandage on it to keep friction off.  anyhow, if this is the only injury I get during this trip I will be very happy (well, excluding my left arm which the black flies have turned into some sort of strange disease patient.)  The sun is starting to lower.  it has a halo of white around it but the sky appears completely clear.  I'm not sure what this bodes, but it is getting cooler rather fast, which is very fine with me.  Once I finish my tea, I'll get my teeth brushed, read a bit and then turn in.  I figure I want to get out of here by 7am at the latest to get to Pukaskwa.  I'm also low on camp soap, so hopefully I can swing by Canadian tire or something to get some more.  Else it's just dawn or sunlight.  I remember noting that it was low last time, but I forgot to do anything about it.  I just assumed it had lots, because the stuff last forever.  It seems forever is a somewhat imperminant amount of time.