I woke around 4AM to a 12c trailer, and a 3c outdoors. The blocker I made for my skylight must have made a difference. After changing back into my outdoor clothes, I braced myself, and opened the door. This let out all of the warmth I'd saved up all in one go. This morning's breakfast would be home fries, 2 eggs, and Lou's Peameal bacon. I set up the two burner stove, got my cast iron pre-heating and proceeded to carve up my first potato. After putting a little over 2 tablespoons of butter in the pan, I carefully layered the potatoes in and started boiling water for morning coffee. I was able to have a hot drink, and cook breakfast with the two burners, which was great. I invested $80 while the two burner classic Coleman stove was on sale, and also picked up a butane to propane adapter which works great with it. I was able to tap into my existing cans, and cook breakfast. The flame control is much better on this stove that the little 'jet' style stoves I used to use. They're GREAT for quickly boiling water, but if you need to carefully heat up a pan for cooking much else, it is difficult to control the heat. The Coleman stove makes controlling the heat way easier, and I was able to carefully agitate my taters and get them to a nice golden brown without scorching my butter. I set aside the finished taters, in the lid of my titanium pot which I will use as a bowl, and let it sit between the two burners to keep warm, next in are 2 eggs which I let firm up and pushed to the side, before adding the slice of peameal bacon. I was quite happily surprised to see that the eggs were sliding around like they were on ice. I spent a long time seasoning this pan, and this is the result. Kent Rollin's method with sanding the pan smooth before layering it on works flawlessly, I would recommend anyone with troublesome cast iron give it a try, grape seed oil is key. Breakfast was perfect, I layered the eggs on the taters, and then bacon on top of that. It didn't need any seasoning or salt at all, the Bacon provided enough of that for the whole dish. After finishing breakfast, my coffee juice and orange, I did the dishes and packed up. My camera bag was ready to roll, I just added a couple of trail bars, and my water bottle and an orange, and headed off.

7:30 AM

I started the Lacloche Silhouette trail at the bridge as the sun was starting to come up and set my GPS waypoint, as well as starting a trekking activity on my watch, with my heart rate band synced up, I started up the trail. The colours were very flat, because I was still well into blue hour, but the sun would come up soon.. even behind the clouds, and I would get to see the leaves glowing through. It was lightly raining and it did rain for around the first hour of the 3 hour trek I had planned. My goal was to hit H1 ( the first campsite) or 3 hours, whichever came first. The trail was wide, fairly well maintained for the first hour, but soon I started to see the signs of wear - board walks split, trees down, washouts, etc. No worries, I am prepared - I have my hiking pole. And I must say, I am not in shape - I am fat. But that Hiking pole is basically like a super power. If I have that, I can remain stable, and balanced, and reduce the load on my legs all at the same time. Carrying on, I came to my first creek crossing, no bridge... but there was a nice pool, and some waterfalls. It looks like a log fell down and is backing up the water, but this was my first photo stop.. I wasn't sure it would turn out, but I filmed a bit with my insta 360 camera and took a bunch of tripod spots with my ultra wide. I hope something turns out, but I wasn't too 'fussed' with the scene. This is also where, one of my tripod legs broke. I have a manfrotto aluminum tripod, it is a nice tripod, if heavier than what I probably should be carrying. I was dissapointed when it snapped.. but it is still usable. The latch that locks the angle for one of the legs stopped biting in, and then I noticed that the metal that holds the latch had snapped off. It looked like cintered metal, and not machined. it just snapped off, somewhere I wasn't able to find the piece in the leaves or the creek. It is part of the landscape now. Guess it is time to start looking at carbon fiber, this trip has claimed my phone screen, and now my tripod. Its becoming a lot more expensive than I had wished, but we will carry-on.

I looked for a place to cross the creek, it was about a foot deep, which would be over the top of my hiking boots, which are only really water proof up until my ankle. after that, they start to let water in, so I bushwhacked up the creek and finally found a couple of small boulders sticking up that weren't covered with moss or slime. unfortunately, as I made the short leap to the second boulder, the first flipped away and underwater, so I guess I'll have to look for another way across on the way back. Further up the hill.. about 15 minutes walk, I found a beutiful stream that was in an S shape though red and orange leaves. I spent a lot of time here, taking shots at different shutter speeds and fstops hoping to get a good image. I also set up a focus stack, so I hope I have enough puzzle pieces to build something special. While I was working on this, a grey haired man came through at a high pace.. t-shirt with a huge pack on. I thought he was Dad, but he was even faster than that, he whisked by and out of sight within the time it took to adjust my focus. I was fairly surprised, I didn't expect any serious hikers today, but I guess there are. After filling out the shots I wanted, I proceeded on, to find yet more waterfalls. It was a pretty good day for them, still overcast.. it makes it easy to do that 'horse tail' effect with long exposures, and no ND filter needed. At the top of the hill I heard yet another waterfall, but it was probably 50 meters up a rock cliff and almost fully obscured by trees. There's no way I'd get a good shot of it. It looked like one of the frequent 'storm rivers' as I call them. Basically, in this mountainous region, you can be on a bone dry trail one moment, and then a rain storm passes by somewhere up the hill.. and suddenly you have a river running down. Since it has been raining for days, there were lots of these, and unfortunately, my feet would not be dry much longer. I found a valley with about a foot of water, across, and no where I could find had a place to get across without taking a dunk. So I did, I checked the bottom with my pole and sloshed through, getting my pants wet up to just below my knee, bubbles rising from my boots as they filled with water. It wasn't too cold, and was actually a bit refreshing. Shortly after, I saw the side trail for H1 which led to a lake.. and a lookout point.. unfortunately, someone was sleeping there already.. so I didn't get to go out on the point, but I came back to a viewpoint where I sat down on a (mostly) dry rocky ledge and had my trail snack. I saw the sky clearing a bit, and got my camera out on my now less functional tripod. I tried exposing for the sky, then the cliff to the left, and then for the ground, with hopes of merging these later.. we'll see if it works. I used my finger to point at each area I was focusing on prior to taking each shot.

Starting to get chilled now, and seeing the sky did not clear up as I'd wanted.. I headed back, my 3 hours well and passed now. The trip back, I met first a couple of ~20 year olds with big packs, who asked me 'how was it' like I'd done the whole trail, and I said it was fine, and that I'd only gone to H1 and back, and told them about the person camping there. Then, I met a man and his big black lab with his wife? they nodded quietly and the dog looked like it was enjoying itself, and then I met a couple of 60 or so year olds who were picking around the edges of the lake I had to wade through as I just waded through, which, with my feet already wet, I just waded through the remaining water features on the way back. The sun threatened to come out a few times on the way back but nothing really happened. I was close to the beginning of the trail, and an asian couple came through.. completely underdressed for whatever they might run into, but lessons learned in freezing wetness are lessons never forgotten right? I returned to camp, called my parents.. because I couldn't find the picture they took.. it appears they did take it up where I was, but it was closer to where the people were camping already. Oh well. I don't think it will be worth heading up there again, even if tomorrow's forecast of partially cloudy comes true, I only have so many pairs of dry boots, socks, and pants. I went out to the park office and asked about the crack, and they told me I needed to book parking there because of the busy trail in this season.. so If I do want to try it, it'll have to be after I visit them. So tomorrow is the very last day since I'd have to book a day ahead. I'll have to see how I feel, I did go pretty hard today I had checked my trip log from the hike and it rated it as an activity that 'I shouldnt do too often' and that I would need '210 hours to recover from it'. Anyhow, I headed to Killarney village, for the other reason I come up here - Fish and Chips. Also, I needed to visit the General store, since I didn't get any plastic bags from any gas stations along the way.. because.. Thanks Guilbeaux and no, I don't care if I spelled your name correctly you absolute idiot. So the Lady who owns the general store only takes cash, and so I bought a pack of kitchen bags for 10 bucks. I talked to her, and she said she was having real trouble with the bags too.. stating the paper bags were about 50 cents each so she had to start putting the prices up since people got very upset about having to buy a bag. After this stop, next door was Herbert Fisheries, who do take credit, debit, etc. They whole crew was in the kitchen having a chat, with one person in the restauraunt. I ordered an adult meal, and after about 15 minutes and $30 I had it in hand. I considered eating there, but I never did like sitting in by myself.. so I took my meal, and High tailed it back to my campsite. I was able to wrap it up in my coat and it kept pretty hot by the time I made it back. I have two new neighbours now. Unfortunately, right next to me on both sides.. there were literally 4 empty sites and they picked the ones next to me. The ones to the left also have a baby.. it isn't making too much noise so far, but I mean.. they have a tent, and a baby.. well, I hope the baby is tough. They're keeping it in a screen tent in what looks like a outdoor cradle also made of screen. I ate my lunch in my wet clothes watching red squirrels prepare for winter, once I was done.. I cleaned up my garbage, and compliled it all into one of my new garbage bags, and put it in the back of my car. I retired into the trailer again, as It has started to rain.. and I wanted to get into dry clothes for a while (and write this) I plan to read and rest and hang out until around 5:30 when I'll get dressed and head down to the beach facing the sunset to see if it happens or not.. sunset is around 6:45 now so I'll have a bit of time to walk down there with my gear.. though If I look out and it's grey, i'll be coming back to make dinner, Somehow, I'm still freaking famished. I guess the 4000+ calories I burned today has something to do with that. I already had to notch in my belt by one.

6:30pm

I sat down by the shore, and watched the mist rise off george lake and started a timelapse with the m6. It looked like nothing was going to happen, but the clouds were moving fast, and I was determined to stick it out. I was watching a couple of chipping sparrows (male and female) hopping around on the ground near me, come within a few meters of me, look at me and then hop way away from me and then start over again. They did this for around an hour, before A blue man came down the hill and asked what I was doing. I explained where the sunset should be, and when it was and told him I was probably skunked.. but in the past I'd decided not to go and then amazing colours happened at the last second. He asked if I'd seen any wildlife around, and I said no. He wanted to see a bear, and I said I've never seen a bear around here and then he asked about moose.. and I said, probably algonquin for moose. He nodded and walked off.

I didn't get the shot of course, I headed back as blue hour started.. but there were some interesting blue hour shots I got across the bay I won't know if they will turn out since my editing laptop is now unable to boot.. erroniously saying the battery is disconnected.. I won't even boot when attached to power, so.. Hopefully it isn't cooked. All this moisture and cold is causing strange malfuctions with some of my gear. I returned back to my campsite and had a hot meal of macoroni and cheese with a hotdog. It took forever to boil the water.. I think maybe the coleman stove isn't good at boiling water in smaller pots, I will make my hot drink tomorrow with the brunton mini stove and see if it works better. I did my dishes, and packed up.. refreshing the snacks in my backpack and filling up my water bottle for tomorrow. I have looked at the forecast tomorrow, and it looks to be clear for sunrise.. so I am going to climb the granite ridges trail starting ~6am and set up facing the sun. I was in bed by 9PM.. here's hoping tomorrow is great.