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.

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..