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.

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.

Granite Ridges Video UP!

I had to Hack it together a bit, but hey, sometimes you get so juiced up for something you are trying for the first time your focus is so narrow other things fall away. That said, considering everything I think it turned out O.K.

Killarney in the Fall; October 12, 2023

1:00 AM

I woke with a start.. I did take a nap, a nap that lasted 8 hours. I busied myself with reading a bit, and then checked the windy app.. it is clear now. Since I covered my skylight with foam for extra heat retention, I needed to look outside to see if there were actual stars up there. There were yesterday, if partially covered by clouds.. and since I'd hit the battery cut-off before going to bed, I had no idea what the temp outside was... I braced myself and opened the door. COLD. VERY COLD. MORE LAYERS NEEDED. I raced to the car and grabbed my fuzzy jacket and pulled it on over layers of my merino wool t-shirt and my t-max thermal underwear top. I found my fuzzy gloves and put those on too, and of course my hat. Well, oh hey, there ARE stars. So I pulled out my Star tracker and got my backpack on and walked down to the shoreline. I knew from last time I was here that the galactic center would be on the far side of the lake from the canoe rental racks, and I also knew there was a bit of a 'dip' in the hills I could frame it in. Though the whole center won't rise until December-ish I could get at least half of it straight up there. So I spent a bunch of time setting up, trying to sight in my star tracker with Polaris.. but didn't do too well because the little dipper was very very faint for some reason.. but I got it in the general direction, and usually that will give me a bit of lee-way with exposures. Usually you'd only get ~10 seconds before things get noticeably streaky, where I was able to test up to 40 seconds with acceptable stretching. I set my ultra wide up and set it just before infinity which I'd marked as 'in focus' for stars. I got quite a few good exposures, checked with the zoom function on the back panel of my camera. Around 3:30am I packed up and went back, and slept for another few hours until the sun was up. I had another big breakfast with taters, eggs, and bacon but it wasn't salty enough this time.. I guess I lost a lot of sodium during my hike of the crack yesterday. No amount of salt added would make it 'seasoned' so I gave up after adding a good teaspoon. It was good anyhow. I'll have one of those freeze dried meals for lunch, those always have extra sodium. After doing my dishes, it was time to go visit the great tree.

10:30 - The great tree.

I set up my insta360 on the hood as I traversed Bell Lake road, it was not too bad.. but it is a lot more wash boarded now. I met one van that was going exceptionally slow, and one pickup that was going moderately fast on the way in. I arrived at the parking lot after a 9KM drive down the road, just after passing a guy on an ATV all kitted out in Hunter's Orange, he let me pass. But at this point, I had.. an issue. I had done my morning expelation earlier, but apparently there was a round two. There's no outhouse here. I find it funny, because at the beginning of this trip I'd packed in my backpack 20 sheets of Kleenex, because after all these trips, and all these trails I've done.. I've never been caught short. And I thought, for some reason, maybe I should have that in there - just in case. In hind sight, I should have packed my folding shovel as well, but you know.. the camera bag is already ~60 lbs. I thought 'I'll just have to find a place along the trail' and things seemed ok.. I didn't remember how far the Tree was.. I thought it was maybe half way, but apparently it was only about 30 minutes in. I immediately went trekking off the trail with my zip lock full of Kleenex in my hand. I found a nice rock ledge.. but nothing to sit on.. so I did the squat. Without gory details.. there's an art to defecting in the woods.. and since my target was a rock, the next step after cleaning up was to find a nice stick, move the Kleenex under some leaf litter and bury it the best I could, and well.. smear the remnants on the rock. This would cause it to dry quickly and the environment should do its thing over the next few weeks. And just think, if someone does see it, they'll think it was a bear or something.

Anyhow, That was a huge relief, with the odd waft of 'something' still around the area I returned to where I set my pack down, and set to the work at hand. The Great tree is.. well, great, and unfortunately the area that he's in is one which lends itself to very personal focal lengths in order to capture his greatness. My Prized 70-200 L was too long. My Ultrawide would handle nicely, but it isn't very good at sharpness, and then the old 24-105 L which was shipped to me by mistake when I ordered a standard 24-105 on (insert internet store name) which never got missed.. anyhow, it was used instead of new - but it was an L and pretty awesome.. I got it for basically half price. I digress.. the 24-105MM was the star here.. I wish I had like a 35 Prime but I'm not buying any more lenses for the Canon Platform since I'm intending to flip to Fujifilm Medium Format in the semi-near future. I first laid down under The Great Tree with my ultrawide and did some shots up through the canopy, because he's too tall to fit in any shot I could do, and even taking several and stitching them together would just look weird (I tried that last time). After that, I found a more intimate shot with the 24-105L catching the moss on his base, and the child tree right beside focusing on the little stream. I don't know if that will turn out to well, because the stream is a bit messy with leaves and broken branches, and I try not to interfere with nature too much, plus.. my boots are still moist from Day one. (note to self, get a second pair of boots) I also did a few more shots down the creek and I hope those are good, they look good on the camera and I focus stacked all of the above.. so I've got a bit of processing to do. I was shooting my wrap-up video as a young woman came by and had to stop.. we chatted for a bit, she said the Great Tree was her favorite tree as well. I think with a few more people we can start a cult. She didn't want to give me her contact details for some reason. Anyhow, I waited for her to pass through before packing up and heading back. As it was, The Crack did Crack me. Things I was doing yesterday with ease were getting the big 'nope'. My legs and arms were not reacting as I wished, and anything above just walking normally was becoming quite an ardous task. I headed back to the camp site. My final goal for this trip completed. I noticed with some joy that all the sites leading up to mine are clear, except for the family with the baby, and they are packing up. I set about making a quick lunch - the bag bragging to have 49 grams of protein. Beef Noodle Marinara. Sounds good. It was.. ok.. a bit plain.. also didn't taste salty.. so again, I guess I'm short on salt still. I still have one more sports drink, but I'm saving that for the drive back tomorrow. I've been repositioning my panels quite a bit and now I'm back up to ~25% charge. This is not enough to run the dehumidifier through the night.. but a good safety margin that will allow me to at least use the trailer's lights. The fridge remains disconnected. It got up to 9 degrees in the trailer today, but the food was still quite cold. I'm sitting here writing this with the door open, I've gotten used to the cold for the most part. I only crack the door in the morning and fire up my buddy heater when I'm changing. The sun has been going in and out today.. large white clouds, some gray, the odd snowflake sometimes. I wonder if I should go down to the lake one last time to see if there will be a sunset. I will probably take my time tomorrow, but I'll aim to leave around first light, there's a small black cat who has probably forgotton who I am by now, and I also want to see if I can sneak into the Algonquin Visitor center and pick up another sack of Maple Tea and maybe a copy of the Raven, since the Friends of killarney no longer publish.

P.S. the baby was just replaced by a leaf blower, baby, and yappy little dog, a man who can't split Killarney firewood without sounding like he's chopping down a tree, and a stereo. Suddenly I don't feel like I will be tip-toeing around when I pack up tomorrow.

Killarney in the Fall; October 11, 2023

Granite Ridges

I had a quick breakfast of Granola with an orange and a cup of mocha, and then cleaned up quickly. I Locked up the trailer and then headed out. The trail head is literally across the highway from the main gate, so the only hurdle is trying to leave without causing much noise. I made sure I had my big headlamp, started the car, pulled my parking brake up by one click and turned off my headlights. I turned on my light bar, which is aimed down specifically to not shine into people's faces. I creeped out at 10KPH and made it to the gate without any lights coming on, so I'll call that a win. At the trail head, I readied my gear, set up my hiking pole and head lamp, and started the climb. I arrived at the top by around 7AM giving me around 30 minutes to set up, the first blush was already visible and it looked like it was going to be 'good' but not great, just a bit of orange. But as always, conditions change constantly, and there were plumes of mist rising up from lakes and rivers across the valley, and Lake Huron itself. I got several shots and spent the entire morning to around 8:30 am when the sun was fully up. After a few false starts, I managed to get back down the hill, and met a young couple on the way back.. warning them that things were slippery. I got a few new pictures of the old car, and then returned to my car, and drove back to my campsite by ~9:30. I had a 'bio break' refilled my water and snacks, and then planned my next journey. With only Today and Thursday as full days left, I needed to plan.

I thought, ok, I could do lake of the woods trail - at least to the great tree.. but then what would I do on Thursday? I went to Alltrails.com (or as I call it now, all Lies) and found that people were rating 'The Crack' as less difficult than the Hike to H1 I did on Tuesday. So, screw it.. I'll go to the gatehouse and see if there are any spots available for 'The Crack' and if there are, I'll scout it for a sunrise shot location (HA!) else, I'll reserve for Thursday morning and head up in the dark blind (AHAHAHA!). Plan set, I went back to the office.. to wait in line... for 30 minutes.. to get my pass. I made it to the trail head by ~10:50AM and started on my way. There was a huge warning sign stating that you shouldn't go on without experience, and supplies. I thought 'huh, I've never seen this sort of warning before, this trail is super popular.. so maybe there's some 600 LB guys that think they can do it or something, but All Trails said it was 'Medium difficulty' and I've already done 'Hard' so no probs. The Trail was literally a Highway.. and besides the exceptionally loud people coming up behind me I was fairly alone to start. I put the pedal to the metal, got my cadence set and steamed forward. No sweat.. wow this trail is easy. I checked my watch when I stopped at a potential sunrise spot overlooking the first lake along the trail, and it said I was averaging 10.5 KPH, which is a new record for me. I don't know what happened to the guy behind who was bragging about having been 'all over the world' and that 'he'd finish this trail before everyone else' He was constantly chatting with his friends in a loud voice.. saying he had walkie talkies so they wouldn't get separated.. that he was a native, so he knows the forest.. etc... I seem to have left them all in my dust.. so with time, I found a few interesting shots, but nothing to write home about.. it'd be hard to defeat the experience from this morning. I kept going at my pace until things starting going up hill, and I had to slow down a bit, but I was doing well, and stopped when I felt my heart rate going a bit high, took a few deep breaths and continued on. Soon, I was out into white rocks.. but again, nothing more difficult than what I'd done in the morning, and I'd caught up to a 30 something couple with an elderly dog who was having trouble climbing some of the rocks. He kept looking back at me as I waited for them to move ahead, he looked like he wanted to go back down. I continued shadowing these two as I made my way forwards, sometimes passing them, other times climbing straight up to avoid a more round about route.. some areas were like Giant's stairs which required me to pull with my arms and jump with my legs to get up.. but still, nothing too bad. I passed a few people coming back from the top who looked dead in their eyes.. I thought it was odd. Anyhow, I found a nice place to stop overlooking the valley and had a snack and a drink before making the final ascent.

This is where things.. became.. 'technical' and so I became once again a member of humanity, suddenly the people on the mountain weren't just annoyances, but comrades in arms.. because, passing through the crack is basically mountain climbing, maybe you could call it 'bouldering' but it is a uniquely unique set of skills that not everyone has, and not everyone understands how to change the balance of their body to clamber rocks. Fortunately, I have some sense of this, I was able to plan my movements by looking up each section, and then execute the path.. but it was taxing. I folded up my pole and stuffed it in my backpack waist band so I could use my hands, arms, and legs to clamber up. It was slow going, and used muscles I don't usually use.. my abs were starting to burn specifically, probably good. But the top was in sight, and after about another 15 minutes I was there. The view was good, not great, but I did set up and take pictures - I didn't haul 60Lbs of gear up all that way to not use it. I wasn't happy with the shots, it was about 1:00 and the clouds have come in again, but in the distance there were some areas with sun.. so I ate my remaining trail bar and drank my fill surrounded with people. I helped a group of girls take a few photos and chatted with them and a few others as they completed the climb. It appears the two non-loud members of the people who were behind me had finally made it as I heard the walkie call from behind me. Apparently the 'Native' had fell 'down the mountain' somewhere.. and was lost. He finally joined them around 2:00, which was about the time I was rested enough (and worked up the gumption) to get back down. Climbing back down was a lot more difficult and I felt a great relief when I finally finished the rock slide section. Going down didn't take long, but I was getting very tired.. and my legs were turning to Jelly. Never fear though, because for the first time in my life I experienced the 'runners high'. Suddenly all the pain was gone, I broke out in a wide grin involuntarily and was able to move forward for around 10 minutes like I was walking on clouds. After that.. everything came back, and I lost focus enough to lose track of the trail and almost got lost... but used my Garmin to get back on track. I passed a few more people on the way in.. but it is already 3pm by now.. I don't know what they intend, they don't have enough gear for the Full La Cloche loop.. and there's no campsite up there. I expect they don't understand what they're in for. One group of Asian girls asked me when I was half way down taking a break how much farther.. and I said about 30 minutes and they were groaning.. they hadn't even reached the hard part.. and they were far younger and in far better shape than me. I'm what you call fat. I'm 280 Lbs. These girls looked like they wouldn't even make my weight if I put them all on the same scale. I almost said 'you could turn back, but then you'd know an old fat man did something you couldn't' but I just smiled and warned them about the technical section, before heading on. The rest of the trail went by in the blur, I was starting to get a bit dizzy, but I made it back. My feet feeling like boards, I fixed myself a shaker bottle full of LBCA powder.. hopefully it will stave off the stickman syndrome I get after extreme exertion as it has in the past.

4:00 Pm - Return to my site.

When I arrived, I found that my trailer was making a screaming noise.. it was high pitched, but not too bad. I opened the door to find out what was wrong, only to find out that my battery had dropped to 12% and the low charge alarm was sounding.. I silenced it and immediately unplugged the fridge and the dehumidifier, even with the sun - It wasn’t enough to offset the usage.. so I moved the panels into the direct sun and have been doing so for the last hour. The sun is now too low to be useable.. so tonight I'll be running nothing.. If I need light I'll just have to use the head lamp. I'm considering supper, but now that I'm warm and dry inside the trailer, I'm starting to droop. I'll probably skip dinner tonight, I'm not actually hungry after that exertion, and I've been feeding myself all day with high fat bars and oranges. Tomorrow morning I'll have a big breakfast, and then we'll see how things are.. I only have one goal left, and that is to visit the great tree.

Killarney in the Fall; October 10 - Silhouette

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.

Killarney in the Fall; October 9, 2023

Well, things were planned, and not all plans go the way you intend. Who knew, that in July, when I booked my 4 night stay at Site 19 on George Lake, that, first, there'd be an El-Nino year after so many La-Nina years, Second, The height of leaf season would happen BEFORE Thanksgiving, by almost a week, when it has been on thanksgiving for as many years as I can remember, and finally - that there'd be a Post Tropical Storm breaking up right over where I was planning to spend those 3 days. Well, I collected my rain coat, and warm clothes to go under it... prepared the trailer as best I could, knowing that I had never tested it by driving for 5 hours in rain and snow, and headed out. I was very disappointed.. I had purchased a ‘Previously Loved’ Insta 360 camera, which I had intended to get amazing 'drone like' shots by attaching it to the car or the trailer, and driving through the autumn colours. Though the camera IS fully water resistant, down to an underwater depth I would never dream of even taking it.. the problem is, droplets of water hit the lens, and the video looks like it is being attacked by aliens. Not good. I ended up discarding the idea after a few tests looked like my car was being absorbed into some sort of wormhole. I set out around 8:30 am from my base camp in the Renfrew valley, and headed west through Algonquin, hoping to beat the hoards of people who usually attack the park and make it into an unpleasant place to be. To my surprise, there were only a few people on the east side, mostly people like me by the looks of it.. just passing through to use the washroom. It wasn't until I hit the west side of the park, when I started to see the telltale signs - trails closed, traffic cones, and side roads closed to local traffic only with angry locals sitting at the barricades on the other side of the west gate for several kilometers. It rained, all the way through, I only stopped for gas twice, once at the Esso right outside of Huntsville, before heading into the town proper - there was a line up, 3 cars deep.. and I had to wait for 25 minutes for a pump I could get into with the trailer, and some jack-hat-ass-hat guy pulls up right as I'm about to go into the pump, barges in and then pops out.. the side door opens and seven People jump out like it was some sort of clown car. They left the sliding door open in the rain, and the driver, unable to seemingly figure out the pump diddled around until the attendant came out and gave him heck before he finally filled up after about three false starts, picking up the filler hose and putting it back on the pump. I had to wait while he did this.. and after filling up.. instead of moving his van to make room for the now three people waiting behind and beside me, went into the store for snacks. He then caught heck from his 'wife' I guess? and moved the van so I could finally fill my tank. Five minutes later I was back on the road with steam flowing out of my ears, and expletives exploding out of my mouth to no one in particular.

On the road again, I passed through Huntsville and saw a Shell station.. of course, I could have gotten three cents off per liter.. but I just would have to be happy with my PC Optimum points from Esso. That station was also full anyhow. I was getting pretty damn hungry at this point, it was around 11, and I drove by a McDonald’s.. but the place was just absolutely full. I probably don't need to eat that stuff anyhow. Onward. After about another hour of Driving there was a pit stop along the highway, and I was able to top up the gas at a Petro Canada, and I grabbed a Blackberry Iced Tea and a small package of Black Licorice Nibs to hold me over. I also made use of the facilities - never knowing when the next stop could be. I was keeping my eyes peeled for the stop for the French River, as I missed it last time. This time I did see where it was, I saw the old river crossing bridge.. with its angular trusses poking over the side of where I crossed.. on a new super freeway bridge with high concrete barriers on both sides and no place to stop. I guess that fancy road side stop for the French River that we spent so many hundreds of thousands of tax dollars on is now gone. A shame. I remember stopping there when my parents and I first went to Killarney Provincial park for lunch, and looking down at the river, and then again, after it'd been updated when I went out to Calgary when I was 20. Now all there is to see is the top half of the old bridge. There must be a way to get back down there. I'll have to see if there's a way when I head back on Friday.

Finally, I got to the turn-off ramp to the highway that leads down to Killarney Village, and started watching for the Park. The road had recently been fixed up, at least, most of the way.. the part outside the park was basically just a bit of tar and gravel mix.. and no sign of the construction crews except the odd forgotten red and orange cone. It was much better than last time regardless, when I was having to constantly swerve around potholes big enough to eat the trailer and my car both at the same time. Upon passing the edge of the park I saw 'The Crack' trail with a sign at the end, but I wasn't able to read it.. I would later find out at the park office that that, and Chickanishing trail require reservations due to being 'at their limit' as they’d had issues with emergency vehicles getting in. I was kind of interested in going up the crack, but I told them I didn't intend to do that at the time. I will check back before I do that trail otherwise. After signing in, I found my site easily - Again, disappointed that they do not provide maps or park newspapers anymore (they aren't printed, so you can't even just pay for one). I got things set up, and mostly organized, due to the extra clothing I have to bring because of the cold, there's not as much room in the trailer as usual. I will have to think on that. Also, due to the rain and water, I found a leak.. there was about 2mm of water on and under the floor insulation (I put down Reflectix under my grey foam mat) I think it either came in from spray under the front wall, or through the trailer's signal lights plug. Not sure what I can do about that. Anyhow, I mopped up what I could with paper towels and then set the dehumidifier up while running the buddy heater inside the trailer to try and get some evaporation going. I can't run that heater for long while I'm in the space, my C02 Meter rates the air quality as 'unhealthy' which is about 3000PPM So, I have to then run the fan to exhaust the C02, and of course, that action also exhausts a lot of the heat.. so I'm kind of at an impasse. It is humid in here now, but getting better I will have to shut the ceiling vent mostly overnight or it will become very cold in here. There's a bit of a smell from the redwood paneling soaking some of the water, but it isn't completely unpleasant. When I check my weather station, it shows the outside humidity at 93%, the temperature at 5.5c and the internal humidity at 53% and the temperature at 20c It just feels cooler than it is I guess. I have my t-max long-johns on, and my wool t-shirt and a pair of heated socks set on low, and I'm pretty acceptably comfortable, with the odd chill blowing in from the window which is open just a crack to let the fresh air in. The little dehumidifier is running, it only takes about 1.5 amps of power and it already has about a millimeter of water in its catch container. If that thing was all I used, it could run for around 50 hours straight, on my Lithium battery - assuming there was no solar input. It is getting darker now, as is now 7PM and the sun is going down, but, when I set up.. I had the solar panels set up in Parallel and aimed in the general direction of the sun - angled back as far as I could without just laying them flat.. since there are trees overhead. They were still pulling in about 1 amp of power, so that fairly offsets some of the power used by the dehumidifier during the day. I'll have to check how things are tomorrow morning, but I'm already happy to say the sniffles I get when its too humid are starting to subside.

That's it for today's entry. I'll be aiming to get on the trail for 6:00am with my headlamp tomorrow to see if I can get some nice compositions and marking down my positions on the GPS so I can return hopefully Wednesday when it should be nicer. The weather is fluid right now, so the forecasts can't really be trusted, but it looks like overcast again all day tomorrow with spotty rain and possibly some snow. Fun times.