The Great Tree video UP!
Once again, I can’t go back in time and fix mistakes I’ve made. And In this case, I didn’t get enough B-Roll. Something I need to keep in mind (and I’m afraid the same is going to be said for the next one, if I can even piece it together) This is the last of the Killarney videos. I really want to go back there in the fall again, and hopefully it won’t be raining the entire time. I’ll have to cross my fingers and pray to the farmer’s almanac. Getting a spot here for the fall really does require reserving it 3-6 months in advance.
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.
The Superior Trip Day 5 June 9, 2023
Upon waking up I had the unwelcome task of tearing down camp. I ate a quick breakfast of oatmeal, saving my last eggs for the breakfast of the last day. My water supply is running low, so I took what was remaining in my big blue jug and filled up my canteen.. minus what I used for my morning coffee and a quick wipe down of my breakfast dishes, I have about 3 liters left. I should be able to fill up again at Chutes, and I would grab something at the Soo when I top up my gas tank to bide me over for the drive. I first packed up the tarp, and the tarp poles, then the picnic table cover and brought in my pants and shirts that were hanging to dry uselessly in the cold. The Raven who had been visiting me every morning sat and watched from his perch the whole while. All the breakfast dishes were packed in the kitchen sink dish which was something I borrowed from the cabin I usually stay at, as it just fits behind the passenger seat of my car when it is pulled forward all the way. My dirty clothes were put in a separate plastic bag for washing when I returned, and I prepared a fresh set of underwear and undershirt as I was going to have one final shower before I left the park. After that, the task of getting the trailer set up for travel. I removed the hitch lock, the rocks that I used the wedge the tires in place of proper wheel chocs, got the emergency jack out of my car and jacked up the left side and then the right side, removing the stabilizer jacks I'm using as leveling/stabilizer jacks on each side to to let the tires rest on the ground. While doing this, I noticed an ugly black stain around the air fill of the right wheel, so I got my portable inflater out and sure enough the tire had leaked about 10 LBS of pressure. I pulled the car up since this was on the opposite side of the trailer and I couldn't reach the cord around that far. With the engine running I filled the tire back up. I will have to check on that again when I leave Chutes, it is possible when they replaced the tire they didn't properly put the stem in the wheel, in that case, it is way too late to complain. I will either need to take it into the shop and get it fixed, which is a major PITA since these wheels are partially obscured by the trailer wall and they also have very old hubs, which in some cases have lost their threads so the studs were replaced by the 'farmer john' i bought it from with threaded rod or something else, and it requires a nut on both sides which are a major pain to remove. Yet another reason the next thing I need to do with this trailer is replace those hubs. Something I want to do before next year, because in my crazed mind, I'm thinking possibly of going all the way to Pukaskwa national park. Anyhow, after that, I panicked a little because I couldn't find the control cable for the lithium battery, but eventually found it right where I left it.. since the main power it shut off when I disconnect the battery, there are of course no lights.. so I had to use the flashlight on my keychain, and found it in the back of the battery box. I set the battery to shelf mode, then disconnected the cables and put it back into the car in its safe spot in the back. The solar panels were next, already disconnected (you should not run the MPPT charger without a battery attached). The panels were placed securely into their location under the bed, and then, one final check for loose things that might roll around and damage themselves or the trailers systems and then the window was locked, as was the roof vent, before the entrance door was locked. Getting myself ready to hopefully not be run over by my own trailer, I turned the trailer 90 degrees, so it was pointed hitch first down the slope of the hill and quickly set it down on its tongue jack before I wasn't able to stop it's forward momentum. I then backed my car up to it, hitched it up, attached the safety chains and noted that the locking mechanism would not engage. I carefully pulled the trailer down to the next campsite which was level and unused, and tried again.. after a few tries I was able to get it to engage. I will need to lubricate it when I return. Finally, the turn signals and brake lights were tested and confirmed, and then I was off to the comfort station, trailer in tow. As always, the shower rooms were.. adequate. Black mold on the walls, tiles broken by vandals.. at least there wasn't any graffiti. The stall is slightly larger than a closet, for those who have not experienced them. There is a small area with a half wall where the shower is, usually it is already wet. There's a small shelf at the back of the 'wet' side for soap or whatever you bring. plus hooks for.. clothing that you don't mind getting wet? There's a dry side with a small triangular seat to change and 3 hooks for 'dry' clothes and a shelf for whatever else you need. I had a quick shower, wondering if I should have worn my neoprene swim shoes, but someone once told me that athletes foot was actually stealing the athlete's power, who wouldn't want free athlete power? In all seriousness, I probably should have, nail fungus is probably worse to get but there's no bet that wearing the socks would have prevented either condition. I dried off, managed to somehow keep my clean clothes somewhat dry, and changed back into my dirty jeans and light hoodie before heading out again. 5c outside was a bit bracing after the shower, but I quickly went over to the toilet side of the building, brushed my teeth and then dealt with other requirements before leaving the campground. My mood was somewhat sour, If it were up to me, I would never leave this place. But, unfortunately, funds and food are not unlimited. If only I had a way to make visiting places like this break-even or earn income I would do it. With the looming July carbon tax increase I am afraid that soon I will not longer even be able to afford to go visit my parents, I will die if I have to live in the city and never leave.
The return trip was uneventful, other than a close call with a food truck that passed me uncomfortably close, even though I was traveling at the speed limit and sticking to the right lane. I had missed the montreal river crossing on my way up, but saw it on the way back, but there was construction there and I wasn't able to get to places to get up on the bridge as they were working on it. I stopped at Batchewana Bay again for a rest, and to use the facilities, fueled up in the soo at the same gas station as I used on the way up and this time grabbed a ham sandwitch and a bottle of water with a penut butter oh-henry. Since I was ahead of schedule I would take a break at snake river, eat lunch, and then fish for a while. When I arrived at snake river, there were quite a few people there, and some latinos fishing as well. There wasn't really a safe place for me to stand, and I almost slipped into the river on two occasions. After losing a #2 mepps after 30 minutes of terrible casts and nearly falling in, I decided I'd tried enough and headed onward. I arrived at Chutes shortly after 2pm the same gate guy recognised me, and we had a short chat about where I'd been, he'd be going to tobermory next week to man the park up that way. I told him I wanted to go there some day, but it is a very busy park. I could go there without my trailer in the edge season maybe on a weekend, but I'd need to book far ahead, which is difficult to do with my current job role. Anyhow, I set up very basically at my site and am endeavouring to take it easily as I'm pretty damn tired, and recently just found that this park has no water taps. I'm going to edit my photos and check the weather for tomorrow.
Unfortunately I forgot that Chutes on friday, and weekends during the summer, chutes becomes the 'party park' being so close to Massey, locals come in as well as people from the nearby towns and villages to enjoy the river. I was very tired, and tried to sleep around 8PM but there were constantly kids and young adults talking loudly and carrying on boisterously, with loud music blaring until the 11:00PM cutoff and a bit longer if they can get away with it. The result is I only had around two hours of uninterupted sleep. The next morning, I was so ticked off I was considering opening all my windows and blasting the most obnoxious death metal I could find on Bandcamp, but considering how unique my trailer and car are I didn't want to be 'that guy' at least while I was driving around so conspicuously. I did not have breakfast, my head was in such a bad place that I just got everything piled in the car, go the trailer packed up minimally and locked down, and was on the road by 5:30AM. I wasn't even hungry, the meal from the previous night not even properly digested. While my adrenaline was still up, I made a break for the open road. I was rewarded by a nice sun rise, but no thing good to frame it with, so no photos today. After about two hours on the road I was starting to feel the effects of drowsiness and after four my eyes would cross or sometimes roll back causing me to breeze the edge of the rumble strip on the shoulder or centre of the road before coming back to my senses. I needed fuel, and stopped by Sturgeon Creek for that, plus a couple of sugery cafeene infused drinks. I found a small place to pull over after filling up and downed both along with some of my unused trail bars and had a short walk to get myself back awake before pushing on. The man at the gas station saw my PPC member card as I was producing my credit card and we had a short talk about the useless reusable bags that we're forced to use now, and how most of them will still eventually end up in the land fill and take even longer to break down than the usual plastic bags we've been using that break down pretty quickly after being exposed to UV rays for even a few weeks. It seems like our current incumbants are all about doing things that seem to be 'good' on the surface, but they're basically pandering and not long-term viable. I should have also discussed the current forest fires, which appear to be a great measure of arson, and the recent satelite footage that shows several tens of fires starting at the same time, vigorously in quebec on a clear day.
The remainder of the trip to home base was me basically fighting my sleepiness and weariness on auto pilot, and when I did finally return home, I dropped the trailer and went back to the cabin where I stay, where I was greeted by a hissing black furball and then I went to bed. Cola, finally realised who I was and immediately jumped up on my chest and completely groomed my head. I would like to eventually take her with me on these trips but I don't think it would be fair to her, because she'd be stuck in the car for several hours for days on end, and then stuck in the trailer for the remainder of the time alone while I ventured out. If I had a camper van things would be different, but I do not, and as I said earlier, even though that is the eventual plan, with a certain sock monster's 'clean fuel standard' and other companies converting those types of vehicles to absolutely ludicrous EVs the future of long trips into the back country is looking rather bleak. Even a decade old sprinter van with hundreds of thousands of kilometers on it and no modifications for camping will set you back 60k. You would be hard pressed even further to get a good reliable diesel for less than that, and if you try to buy new the cost is roughly the same and you cannot get a diesel version anymore. My plans are evolving as the madness continues up here in Canada. I'm starting to look at flat bed pickup trucks as an option, which means I'd have to learn welding to build a metal frame to attach to such a truck, perhaps temporarily like those pickup back campers you see except far nicer. Anyhow, with this I'll call and end to this particular adventure. Plans are to visit Killarney in the fall for the interesting contrast between the fall colours and white rocks, perhaps even challenging silver peak, which will require either renting or otherwise acquiring a canoe to reach the trailhead. I've been on the lookout for a good used canoe, or a reasonably priced new one. Perhaps even something as simple as a fishing kayak, or at worse borrowing my parent's old one.. though that is a 17 footer and would be very hard for me to manage solo. My Canoe skills haven't been tested for over two decades after all, but I understand it is like riding a bicycle, however the muscles required to canoe are hardly used in normal circumstances so that must also be a consideration.
The Superior Trip, Day 4 June 8 2023
I went to bed last night around 8:30PM after that full day. I slept like a rock, without any assistance at all. I only awoke around 1AM because the inside temperature of the trailer had fallen precipitously to 6 degrees overnight. The outside temperature was 3 degrees. I won't die, probably, but I certainly won't sleep either. It was time to lift up the center section of the bed and pull out the trusty sleeping bag. Problem solved.. until 5 AM when I was really supposed to get up. Now, since the sleeping bag was containing my body heat nicely, the external temperature inside the trailer was MUCH closer to the outside temp. I stuck a toe out experimentally, and withdrew it quickly. I have a small 12 volt windsheild defroster/heater. It only puts out about 150W of heat and draws about 6-10 Amps while running. The lithium had hardly shown any sign of dipping, so i turned that thing on for about half an hour. Within that period, the temperature in the trailer rose to a somewhat comfortable 10 degrees, and so I got out from under my covers and got dressed. Except.. I left my clean underwear for today in the car.. oh boy. So knowing I have this entire section to myself, I slip on my slippers in bare feet, t-shirt and shorts and brave the cold for about 2 minutes, closing the door behind me quickly to avoid my hard paid for heat escaping, I mean, its basically the sun that I stored earlier, and now am spending for heat. You wouldn't waste the sun would you? I had a quick Granola breakfast with a juice box, granola bar and the usual instant coffee. After cleaning up, It was time to head back to old woman bay and across the road this time. When I arrived at Old Woman Bay There were a bunch of sketchy looking construction guys hanging out in the parking lot, so I opted to park way back in the 'secret' parking spot next to Mr. Mason's Monument. I call it secret, because if you come straight in you are presented with old woman bay immediately in front of you, and unless you look you won't even see the road to the west which leads further in. I had read reviews on this trail, and opted to bring a single hiking pole as some of the trail is moderately technical and extra stability might remove some of the chance of getting a sprained (or broken) ankle. After walking across highway 17 I walked into the forest. The trail starts in beautiful boreal lowlands with open spaces filled with moss and bunchberry flowers. Many of the spruce and pine trees here have fresh needles on the end, and I resisted collecting some for some tea later. Pine needle tea is not bad as tea goes, make sure the needles are washed well especially if you collect them along a trail. Put a generous amount of bright green fresh needles in a pot of water and boil. Strain it out, and enjoy. Lots of vitamin C. Anyhow, this part of the trail was prone to mosquitos however, since it was so cold this morning they were lazily floating around in the beams of sun and were mostly driven away by my Deet soaked buff. Shortly in the trail, the ground becomes more difficult, with several fist sized rocks rounded by erosion, probably from the old woman river bursting its banks in the far past. There are several lookouts along the trail over highway 17 and the river, some official, and some not. I highly reccomend this trail, but make sure you have good footwear, if your feet are not very strong, get something with a strong sole. I've been walking in bare feet whenever possible but of course the shapes of these rocks are not the same as the usual flat floors I walk on barefoot. The Keen hikers I have have a fairly flexible sole, and that gives good traction on oddly shaped surfaces, but requires a bit of foot flexibility as well. Sore feet is the result, perhaps I will invest in some bare foot style shoes at a later date to increase my foot strength. I struggled a bit on the steep sections of the trail, and more than once found my hiking pole disapearing into a bottomless hole that was once solid ground. Best be careful using your full weight here, the roots make surfaces over cracks in the rock where dirt and moss forms and it might be okay to stand on, but something like a pole will pierce it easily. The pole was very useful for descending the rocks so I was glad I took it. I took my break at around a half-way point overlooking a vast valley of boreal trees. There was a bird soaring on thermals and unfortunately dissapeared from view before I could get my big 500mm prepared. I took a few photos here, and at the other points, and was finished the trail by 11:30ish AM. I decided since this is my final day, to visit the very favorite place of my favorite place in Ontario, Katherine's cove (though after this trip, old woman bay might be knocking that off!) I waded out a bit into the bay and collected some water for boiling. An older version of myself with a fancy camper van asked me 'can you drink the water here' and I said 'If you Boil it, I mean, you could drink it as is.. but you might get sick' He left shortly after. I then spent the next 30 or so minutes trying to block my stove from the wind so it could actually boil the water for 5 minutes, before I used it to make instant ramen and then ate. While I was doing this, a family of potatoes came, the dad was a potato, the mom was a potato, the two sons were potatos, and then there was one daughter who was a french fry. I was somewhat confused. Later, a man who appeared to be in his late twenties came with an older woman. The man had his smart phone blaring music, on speaker, and he walked all over with it playing music like that. He did look like a 'dude bro'. After lunch, I put stuff away dirty, to be washed before I prepare dinner tonight. I then got my backpack and camera, and headed down the coastal trail towards the soo. I got about 2KM down and found a nice rock point with sun shining on it, and decided to camp out for a half hour, taking pictures and just enjoying the day. I had my plans quickly changed by a sudden gust of cold wind off the lake. The wind suddenly changed direction from off the shore to from the lake, and it dropped the temperature so quickly I thought winter had come early. The waves started to come up as well, not too much, but enough for me to be worried. That, and the clouds appearing out of nowhere - little white puffy clouds for sure, but based on my previous experience with Lake Superior, the weather forecast is accurate - until it is not accurate, and that can happen within 5-10 minutes. I turned back, noting the small white puffy clouds turning into a uniform white cloud bank as I did. When, to my surprise, an older couple was coming up this mostly unmarked, not easy trail towards me. They asked 'how far is it?' Confused I said 'well, I think if you keep following this trail you'll end up in the Soo. The man said 'no, till the bathtub island' and I said 'I don't know' Truthfully, I forgot that you could get there following this trail, and then I also remembered that you had to wade, sometimes through chest high water for around 100 meters to get to the island. I expanded 'I don't know, the wind has come up and I'm a bit worried a storm is coming' This couple had no supplies, no water, the man was obviously following a map on a smartphone. But they pressed on. Hopefully we don't hear about them dissapearing later. I expect people to have the same level of responsibility and respect for the lake, and nature in general that I do. Unfortunately, I am wrong. I also hate arguing with people, even for their own good I have found in my life, that people set their mind on something, and you can warn them that it might be wrong, or dangerous, but arguing with them is useless, they just get into a broken loop half the time and won't hear what you're saying. Anyhow, I returned to my car as the sky was completely covered by around 2:30PM and headed back to my camp site, fully satisfied with what I was able to accomplish with the two days I have here, and not wanting to destroy myself for the 5-6 hour drive I have to pull tomorrow to return to Chutes. As I write this, the clouds are still covering, and the odd bit of sun is coming through, though I suppose it could also be smoke from the fires.. hard to tell lately. There is the odd speck of rain on the skylight in the trailer, but nothing really worth mentioning so far. If anything major happens it will probably do so after the sun sets. It is 4:00 now and I'm getting a little peckish. I feel like something simple, especially since my pants are still soaked to the knees and i'm wearing my sleeping shorts right now.. bare legs attract the winged vampires more than anything else. After a meal of dehydrated moderateness (high in SALT.. so thirsty) I spent the remainder of the evening reviewing and backing up photos I'd taken to this point, my 32 gig memory card was nearly full and I needed to move stuff off. Following that was a long, nights sleep, broken up several times by the need to drink, and the other half of that equasion. I also had issues regulating temperature, it wasn't cold enough for the sleeping bag, so I was too hot, but it wasn't warm enough for just the blanket, so I spent most of the night with one leg out, or my torso out, or both legs out.. or trying with nothing, or everything. eventually It dropped to around 10c in the trailer and I was able to sleep soundly right through to around 5:40 AM.
The Superior Trip Day 3, June 7 2023
Good Morning! I fell asleep with some assistance of a sleep-eze around 5pm and woke up around 2:30 AM which was the plan. The galactic centre should be coming up over old woman bay, so I got dressed and locked down what needed to be locked down. I turned my headlights off and brought my emergency brake up one click to disable my running lights, and then turned on the light bar on my front bumper which is aimed slightly down to avoid blasting any people I pass in tents. I stealthily crawled out of the campground and turned left on highway 17. Old Woman Bay was around a 5 minute drive. I was slightly dismayed when I did arrive, because smoke particles were dancing in my headlights, but I was well rested, and I was doing this even if it was a failure. I set up on the beach, and.. then saw the thing that made it a failure. In my excitement I had forgotten that the MOON was almost full. So, no star shots this trip. I took some night shots and hung around until about 3:30 AM before the chill got to me (6c!). Since I didn't want to go back to the campground yet, I descided to head to Wawa and top up my fuel tank, it was around 20 minutes from there, and by the time I got back I might be able to capture some light bouncing off of Old Woman Rock (as i call it). the drive to Wawa was a bit uneventful, just passing a few transports headed east. I arrived at the esso station there, and pulled in. The pumps were on and responding to my card so I put in my rewards number and scanned my card put the filler in, and then waited. Suddenly I heard a loud, phlegmy cough, and then several more, and then jingling chains. I thought one of the truckers had a bad cold and was checking his load. And then I heard more grunting and squeeling. Confused for a moment I looked around and saw a transport truck swaying gently. And then I saw the slots in the side, it was a trailer hauling Pigs. There was one in particular which had taken offence to me using the pumps. The pump made a 'bing' sound, it had cancelled my transaction. It appears whomever owns this station just left the pumps on, but someone needs to approve the final sale.. since no one was there, no gas. That dissapointment out of my way, I drove into the town proper The big goose was still there flying off into the night, and the place seems to have grown since I was last there back in 2009. There was a few more gas stations in town, but they were all closed. So I gave up, and headed back to Old Woman Bay. There was a slight 'glim' of light now, from the sun around 4:30 AM. I pulled up my photopills app to get an idea when the sun might crest the hill, and it seemed to be more like 7:00am for full visibility, but that was well past 'golden hour' So I considered taking a time lapse, but eventually decided against it. Those have a small problem in that you need to stick around and guard your camera when you might otherwise want to be somewhere else. the shortest one I can do is about an hour, and it only gives you about 30 seconds worth of video. In any case, I set up around 3/4 of the way down the beach to the lake, where Old Woman river had created a sort of sand bar, so there was a bit of water around 4 meters across then a sand bar, then the lake. I pointed my camera at Old Woman Rock and started adjusting things and taking pictures. I was shivvering quite a bit, wishing I had through to bring the sweatshirt from home but didn't bring because of the ludicrously hot weather we've been having. I had my large cotton jacket and a t-shirt under that, and that was it. If the forcast for tomorrow states that it will be cold again, I may have to get something from the visitors centre. I digress. As I was watching and taking pictures, I saw an odd figure out in the water, it reminded me of a Loon doing it's periscope thing, where it keeps its head low to the surface of the water while looking for prey. Suddenly the water erupted, there was a black and white stripe, and a tail in the air, and then the 'Loon' dissapeared, only to pop up a few meters away. I thought 'could that be an otter?'. So I kept watching, and sure enough, the Otter came up on the shore on an old piece of drift wood with a big fat white fish in his mouth, and proceeded to eat it while I watched. I moved my camera over to focus on him, and he didn't care. I went back to the car and got my 500mm lens, and swapped out the 250mm that I had on previously, and he didn't care. I took several pictures, and video, and he didn't care. Finally, finished with his meal, he went back out. And then he came back shortly with another fish, and continued to eat. He did this twice more before finally leaving. Might be good to fish down there, but I guess you'd not want to catch an Otter. The sun was shing on Old woman rock, so I refocused my Camera, and got quite a few more shots before packing up around 6:30AM. I went back to Wawa, which now had the esso station open, and filled up. Prepared for the day, I headed back to camp and ate back bacon and scrambled eggs, before cleaning up and heading out for the day.
Pictoglyphs - agowa rock
The first order of business for today, is to visit a place I last visited in 2009 when I had come to Lake superior last, and previously when I was much younger. Agawa rock, one of the few places to see red ochre pictoglyphs in their original natural environment in ontario. There is also some very interesting geology happening here, in the past lava had seeped up between cracks in the surface granite creating softer rock, which has since mostly eroded away leaving large angular canyons that can be walked through. Rocks tower on each side of you, in some places you can reach your hands out and touch both sheer sides. At the end of one of these is a rock wedged on its points, barely hanging there, yet it has been there for some time, at least as long as I've been alive. Probably thousands, if not millions of years. The Pictoglyphs can only be relitively safely viewed during calm days, today was reasonably so.. so I headed down there, you can see where safety railings had been put in at one point and cut off like someone took a giant pair of scisors and clipped them off level with the top of the granite. The power of the winter's Ice is much greater than any steel we can make, if given time. Unfortunately the same can be said for the red ochre concoctions of the original painters of the pictoglyphs. The first time I visited they were quite visible on the rock face, standing out well, but slightly worn. The second time I visited roughly 15 years later they were slightly more faded. Now, on my 43'd year, some are all but invisible. others are gone altogether. and to add insult to injury, someone took the time to carve a heart into the granite with their initials and their lover's initials. If the spirit of the lake really exists, I'd be staying away from lakes for the rest of my life if I were them. I came back through one of the chasms, where stairs had been built to take you pretty much directly back to the parking lot. Like Giants Steps, each step was roughly a foot by two feet made with native rock and some concrete where required. Some steps were completely missing, meaning you had to kind of amble up 2 foot steps in places. Not exactly easy, but well worth it.
I did run into a couple, and a couple with children there. An asian woman who's coment was 'its dangerous' and a german couple with children who didnt' speak english. When I had originally arived, there was a pickup truck with three native women.. it looked a bit like a clown car as they piled out to go to the washroom, they weren't impressed by the composting toilets 'eew there's flies in there' If they had seen some of the washrooms I'd seen in my travels, they'd be thankful for the flies.
I moved on to the visitors centre next, I noted my Otter sighting in the sighting book. No one can probably read my writing. After looking through the displays I hit up the visitor's store and got my lake superior provincial park sticker. I looked at the warm hoodies there, so far, I think i'll hold off. They're a bit pricey. Maybe on my way out. One of the most important things there that I found interesting, and don't remember if it was there before, was the 3 wheeled manual hand cart supposedly the actual one, used by the group of 7 artists, when they rented a box car to travel the trans canada railway around painting the landscapes here. Worth seeing in person, I did not take a picture. It was around lunch time, so I was going to have a snack - but I forgot them in the fridge in the trailer, ?I didn't leave them in my backpack because they melt in the heat. So I guess i'll muscle through, I have lots of water with me.
Sand River
This river is pretty good for fishing, and the trail is somewhat demanding. The trail travels along the sand river, supposedly an old native hunting path. There are lots of offshoots with amazing waterfalls and pools below where brook trout can be found. Unfortunately, this place is quite famous and in order to actually have a chance of catching anything, you need to get a little bit more dedicated. The parking lot was almost full when I visited, so I got my camera pack, one litre of water, my tackle box and reel, and my rod. these items are all very portible and don't add much effort to my hike. I picked my path slowly and carefully between the 5 ish waterfalls, stopping to take photos. The trail becomes treacherous towards the end, and most people turn back, I passed six groups of people returning and continued onward. There are places the trail is simply a sand cliff held together by roots, with only about two foot widths worth of room to walk, with bushes pushing you towards the 3-4 metre drop down to the river and rapids below. Being carfeful not to be pushed off, caught on, or stumbling is key unless you want a very exciting and probably fatal trip back to the begining of the river. As I got towards my target, the first camp site on the river, there was signs of the river bursting its banks and pushing great amounts of dead trees, logs, sticks, etc up several meters from where the water level is now, and recently. I could see areas where the park had tried and failed to install boardwalks on floats so they will ride out the water, but only seeing bent, torn and broken wooden beams and snarls of rebar sticking out dangerously from the ground. And at this point, even the most foolhardy turn around and go back. I am apparently more foolhardy than most, because I continued on for about another 20 minutes, carefully picking my way through the detritus and doubling back to find a new route where needed until I reached the first campsite. Here is a nice sand/pebble beach below some rapids, with two or three deep pools where Brook trout like to hide. I set my line up, and casted out, first with a Meps #2 with no luck, then I tried my new Rapala and immediately caught a Brook. Unfortunately, he was slightly smaller than a fish stick so I had to carefully unhook him and send him back. I kept trying for maybe an hour, with little luck. First, that rapala that had worked, kept getting caught on the snap swivel on my line and going out backwards, or tangled.. so I switched to my favorite red and white spoon. That spoon now belongs there, because after about six casts with it, it was wedged deeply and I could not recover it. Losing that lure, I decided it was time to head back. I did my best to keep my heart rate going as I returned, now knowing what hazards there were, and how to deal with them, I was able to handle them much more efficiently, my feet were sore by the time I came out, but otherwise I was good. I had a drink mixed with 'after workout' powder I like, which usually helps me not wake up like a stick man the next morning after a hike... and headed back to my camp site still about a 40 minute drive from where I was. I was pretty darn hungry by the time I got back to camp at around 3:40PM so I made my last batch of macaroni and cheese, and put a hot dog in there with it. I had worn my heart monitor and watch, and it said I had done 4030ish calories today, and It would take 88 hours to recover from the workout. Nice, don't tell it about tomorrow!
