David Usher Rocks The Horseshoe

At least I think it is the Horseshoe, it might have been the Mod Club or well somewhere. It was a bar in Toronto near to the old Maple Leaf Gardens. The Concert was awesome. Gabe took most of the pictures, but I thought this one could be mine because it looks like whoever took it was shorter than the people in front of them.. but I could by wrong... so credit possibly to Gabe because I'm not sure I took any that weren't blurry. This is part of my catching up on the last few months on things other than my trip to Thunder Bay.

And I'm really having trouble with English this morning... sorry about the discombobulated post. Good concert - we met up with Geoff and Erin... it was a blast.

Tobogganing Lives On

One of the best parts of my christmas break was rediscovering my love for tobogganing. With private access to better hills and snow that my childhood ever knew (save maybe Lowville - but it was always crowded) - I had a blast and proved (to myself anyways) that all the new fangled sledding devices really can't beat the original wooden toboggan for speed and manouverability. Riding single, double and triple we blazed a trail down the hill - at one point with headlamps and moonlight only to guide us. It was just awesome and probably the best excercise I got the entire break too... running up the hill for the next slide down.

Skiing the Mulmer Hills in Mansfield

I needed to stop sitting behind my computer for a few hours so I drove up to Mansfield Outdoor Center and finally got some good cross country skiing in this year. Actually, noting the impending rain and above freezing temperatures forcast for most of the eastern half of Ontario.. I figured I'd better get out, because it could be weeks before there was skiing again. I did the 9.5 km blue trail - which starts off with a lot of hills... going up, coming down etc. However, a little ways in the terrain levels out and there are about 5 or 6 km of wonderful skiing in the woods. There was a nice couple who provided me some advice on good places to try skiing around here. I'd really like to go to Hardwood Hills, Wasage and Scenic Caves before the winter is out - truthfully... I'd really like to go to Algonquin Park, Silent Lake and the Gatineau and I wouldn't mind some skiing in Thunder Bay - but none of those are likely to happen - so I'll settle for the accomplishable. I finished up with an easy ski on the 2km orange loop that follows the edge of a river - but in the fading sun it was charming and I saw a doe, which was nice.

Its been years since I've skied much. Most of it came back - I'm sure my technique was never fabulous - but a lot of it is natural... the one thing I'm struggling with is hills which is funny - since I've done more down hill skiing in the last 10 years than cross country by a wide margin, but maybe that is the cause... I don't know how to ski down a narrow path on a hill with narrow skis. I was getting better by the end. I can snow plow okay, but I think my body purposely flops over when I get going to fast becuase I feel nervous about it. I think once I feel more confident about steering and turning and build up a few muscles I'll be okay. I will however stop skiing in jeans until I cut back on my falls significantly. They get wet and cold.

Last Trip Post

 

 

 

 

I guess like the hike, I'm just going nuts with the photo - I can't believe I'm actually all the way through my trip (in a posting sense). I was shocked at how busy Arrowhead was on the long weekend. I guess a lot of people come up from TO. Coincidently - they are holding the Muskoka Loppet there this weekend - although I won't be there yet. I've hardly been skiing yet, so I figured it would be persumptuous to make my first major ski trip to be a race. This weekend, I'm sincerely hoping to get out and do some skiing now that there is some snow and also to add some ski links to the blog.

For upcoming stories - well, I do have some back logged stuff - like the snowstorm in TO when our original trip to the Vinyl Cafe was in vain and some pretty wintery pics of the credit. I guess I'm going to have to get my butt in gear and take some new pictures.

Thanks for sharing my journey with my - I don't think I expected to still be posting so many months later... but it was a fantastic trip full of great moments, good lookouts for contemplation and some decent challanges...and back to my current challange for me.

Natural Beauty

I think I took as many pictures at Arrowhead as I had in the preceding day - there was a definate feeling of it being the last chance. I actually almost didn't stop, but I'm glad I did. Although the trail I did was only about 3 km, it was good get out and walk and enjoy the grade A colours.

Arrowhead Hike

My last breath of fall colours before heading back to the city on a calm, cool and overcast day.

The Beautiful Blue Yonder

 

View from the Tower

 

Here is the distant shoreline, visible from the tower. It was breathtaking - and just plain beautiful

Where the road leads and we follow

 

An afternoon ski, turned into a quick spontaneous trip (the kind where you end up somewhere with no change of clothes or toothpaste). Here we are up the tower near the Bruce Peninsula park tower

Final Stop Before Home

 

At some point I decided that I needed to be home before dark - that I'd had a lovely trip, but another night of camping and more driving just really wasn't in me - so home I went, but to compensate for not making it to Algonquin - I stopped at Arrowhead Park for one last short hike up and down the river - and for the first time in days I was somewhere crowded with people - which left me feeling grateful to the Park Warden for convincing me to stop and stay at Restoule where there were far fewer people. Still there were lots of beautiful natural things to take pictures of at Arrowhead.

I'm stopping my tale here for today - I'll leave shuffling through my 100 or so Arrowhead photos for later. But I wanted to make a few unrelated comments.

First - you will note that I broke the 10,000 hits barrier in my stats below (at least for one of the 2 counters). Secondly, you'll note that I added 2 new links - one to the vinyl cafe (which I was lucky enough to see at convocation hall last weekend and one to Dala - who was one of two musical guests on the vinyl cafe. There is some back story here as we were supposed to go the Sunday before we left for NB - but a snow storm whomped Toronto leaving it eerily quiet and the vinyl cafe cancelled. I do have some pictures of that which perhaps I'll get to post in a week as I start catching up to January.

Finally, you'll knote a knew knitting lynx section - I'm still working on this, but it'll take me a while to fully develop it.

I think that is all for now.

Cheers,

Jennith

Another Gratuitous picture of the Doe Lake Shoreline

 

The Glorious Doe Lake Birch Tree

 

Drapped in robes of gold this Doe Lake Icon never fails to tug at my heart-strings. I couldn't find the director, so my visit here was short - but I've rarely seen Doe in the fall.

Highway 11 Gas Station South of Burk's Falls

 

There is a restaurant/gas station where we used to get milk shakes at camp. (the name eluding me) - and it was also the place where I saw some of the best fall colours.

Mikisew Provincial Park

 

 

I think my intention was to park on the road and explore more, but I was definately ready for home at this point... so I took a couple of pictures of the enterance way and headed on to Burk's Falls and Doe Lake.

The road goes on

 

My mishap with the not so continous Rye Road ended me up on highway 11. I visited a little store in Trout Creek - asking after Thelma - but perhaps I have the wrong town. There was a huge dog show going on in the arena and dogs everywhere. I think in Sundridge (but possibly before) I ended up back on back roads and travelled around Eagle Lake - on roads that were a single lane of dirt in places... but again.. beautiful country

Quiet Lands and Yesterdays Farm

 

I suspect actually that this barn is still in use - but it made a great picture nestled in the back roads between highways 69 and 11. I did some good getting turned about - or rather finding that the roads on my map were not the same as the ones on the ground requiring me to adjust my route accordingly. I was heading through the back roads toward Doe Lake and Mikisew Provincial Park. It was quiet and peaceful and beautiful. I love backroads.

River in Restoule Park

 

 

My last day on my fantastic road trip was gloomy and foggy. Had it been sunny I would have redone the hike from the day before and take some pictures, but it wasn't so I opted for a short and easy little jaunt through the woods along this river between Stormy and Restoule Lakes.

I was up early enough that it was nearly deserted and I enjoyed the fall colours.

Restoule Lake

I'm on shaky ground with the name of the lake - there are actually 2 there are 2 lakes and this actually may be stormy lake. Here is the map - the little lake to the north is Stormy Lake and the larger lake to the south is Restoule Lake.

View Larger Map

Restoule Provincial Park

Restoule has been on my list of parks to visit for a long time. I arrived there about 2 hours before dark. I was tired, cold wet and trying to decide if I could make my last planned stop (Algonquin). The park's warden was a right con artist, and recommended that I try this lookout firetower hike (8 km return and on challanging terrain). He worked hard to conivince me to stay there rather than at Arrowhead and described the trail as 4 km. Of course, that was only one way. I read the little blurb before I started and realized that I was about to embark on an steep hike, 2 hours before dark on a rainy, miserable day that was twice as long as I'd bargained for. I sighed, though about it, inventoried by backpack to ensure that I had 2 flashlights (with batteries) and some food and water and decided to go for it. Actually, I speed walked it and finished all 8 km in just over an hour (as the guy at the desk suggested), but I felt that either he'd looked at me and figured I knew what I was about, or was crazy, because I wouldn't have sent most people on that trail at that time of day in that weather. I think the worst part is that I realized just as I got to the lookout that I wasn't going to be able to see anything because of the fog.... and so without even trying to take a picture until I was halfway back down (part of how I kept my time down) I turned around and headed downhill incredibly thankful for my hiking poles given the slippery rocks. Everyone should hike with poles. Its not only safer for your knees and ankles but it turns hiking into a whole body affair and certainly made a lot of things easier. By the time I got down, I was running out of steam and light. I was also the kind of damp that you can only get from vigourous exercise on a rediculously humid day, so I decided that I was convinced and headed back to the desk to pick my site. I took one suggested to me, but in the end I opted for a site accross from the bathroom, where I could take advantage of the light from a street lamp. Then I pulled out the wood that I'd been dragging from my first night in Lake Superior Park and decided to have a fire since it was my last night and began struggling to split it into kindling sized pieces. This quickly became frustrating until a kindly man appeared at my site with an armload of softwood saying little more than "you'll have a tough time getting that hardwood started, here is some night dry pine." The man made my evening with his act of kindness - saving me from a long and dangerous struggle with my questionably sharp axe and some insanely tough hardwood. I easily split the softwood (I'm actually okay at spliting normal wood) and built one of the best fires I've ever had and kept it going until 11 singing campfire songs. It was a nice last night. I can explain in words how I felt - kind of independent and triumphant and reminiscent. I sang all the campfire songs I could remember and parts of ones that I could only remember parts and then I sang some Depeche Mode songs and some songs from the days when I was in the Gr. 7/8 choir at Davis and here I shall stop for today... saving the last few stops of my trip for another posting, and then perhaps I'll get a chance to catch up to where things are today.

Highway 522

This road definately left an impression on me. The day was misty and quiet and there was almost no traffic and few signs of people for the first stretch. It was beautiful in a wild sort of way. As I got closer to Restoule Park, my ultimate destination - there were a few villages and cottage towns nestled by lakes and a few more farms, but it remained pleasantly wild.

Next Stop: Grundy Lake

My stop here was extremely short - about long enough to scramble the already scrambled contents of my car in a hunt for my cell phone. I had feared that it was left somewhere or lost on a trail. I can't remember where I found it, but I think I'd looked there and it was where I'd expected it to be, but somehow I hadn't been able to see it or some such nonsense.. it reappeared, I took a couple of pictures... checked the map, packed up the mess and headed down highway 522. Grundy Lake is another place I'll have to come back to and spend more time.