The Bluff in Carnival Style

Looking towards the lights of Poley Mountain ski hill while standing on the Bluff.

Recently the Village of Sussex Corner hosted their annual winter carnival.  The event was a huge success and drew people from across Kings County.  Families crammed into Sullivan Park, the Village's green space that borders Trout Creek, to enjoy all the activities on a seasonal Saturday.  My favorite activity though took place the night before with a much smaller crowd.

As players competed for the 3^rd Annual Corner Cup, a group of 14 people of various ages prepared to snowshoe to the Bluff.  The sky was clear and the air was crisp as we stepped into our snowshoes.  I was anxious to get going as I hadn't been to the Bluff in sometime and it has always been one of my favorite hikes.  With the clear conditions I anticipated that the view from the Bluff would be inspiring and I was looking forward to finding a nice spot to sit and enjoy a hot cup of tea while staring into the winter night sky.

John McNair from Outdoor Elements was to lead the group along this trek.  Once he got everyone to the trail head it was fairly easy to find the way as a well beaten track was already present.  I was glad to see that people were getting out and enjoying this great area.  The pace was modest and people talked happily as they trudged along the narrow trail.  Headlamps lit the woods ahead of us and the shadows in front constantly changed as the group moved past the various landmarks.  The trail to the Bluff has a number of landmarks that help you gauge how much farther you have to go before you reach the end.  The "elbow" tree is always a favorite to climb and have a portrait taken in.  The root jump indicates the end of the last small climb before making the climb to the face of the Bluff.

We make the last approach to the Bluff with only the darkness separating the group from the face.  I was close to the back of the group at this point but walked by a number of them before making the face and was shocked to learn that many were not going to step out onto the exposed summit to enjoy the view.  Some were timid of the height while others were worried about the cold wind.  I couldn't wait to get to the summit myself.

 I enjoyed a cup of tea while taking note of some of the constellations overhead.  The lights lower on the horizon seemed to have a brighter presence than normal.  The lights from Sullivan Park were cheerful and warmed my soul even from that great distance.  My participation in planning the Winter Carnival elevated my anticipation and with the event now upon me I was excited.  I pried my body from my warm seat and with Mike Coggan started the trek back to the cars.

As the group treks back to the trail head the lights of Sussex Corner and Sussex show the way.

On the return trip I took time to take a lot of photos in hopes that one or two would turn out.  The lack of natural light made it difficult to adequately capture the spirit of the night.  In the end, the group quietly enjoyed the trip, one that created a memory that will last at least until next year's Winter Carnival.

Nature as Lifting Therapy

Nature as Lifting Therapy

It was an incredible day today.  It is February 17, 2011 and the weather today had that first big hint of the coming of spring.  I couldn't sit in the office all day and write proposals and permit applications.  I had to get out and enjoy the weather.  I decided that we should go out and check on one of our aquatic habitat restoration sites to see what it looks like in winter time.  Chris McKnight, a colleague who has become a good friend, and I headed out to the large farm where in the summer of 2010 had worked at restoring the degraded riparian area.  The large fields spread far with virgin snow and the sun shining warm across my shoulders.  It was a great feeling. 

I snapped lots of pictures to illustrate the depth of snow which in places almost hid fence posts that hold a three strand barbed wire.  As we walked along a small tributary with steep banks I was amazed at the immensity of the drifts that heavily exaggerated the narrowness of the small ravine.  We easily walked over the fence in places and the brook in other places thanks to the drifting snow and ice.

As we complete the site assessment and start the journey back to the car I can't resist to walk across the field.  As I start up the hill I feel like I'm gliding.  The expansive, openness and the slight breeze seemed to push me across the field.  It started Chris and I talking and I came to a realization.  When our minds are tangled and stress has us tight as a drum we can lose it all in nature.  We can let the immensity of the beauty and the vastness of the open spaces, move us along and we can glide across the snow covered fields with no pain and little effort.

At a time in my life when I am dealing with a few things this was a great moment.  I'm glad that God gave me this moment and the ability to see it for what it was.  I pray that those who are struggling with their own lives can empty their minds and let nature take over for awhile.

Getting Through February with a Festival

Just a note this is an article that I had published in the Feb 1, 2011 Kings County Record.  The Sussex Corner Winter Carnival is this weekend and I hope to see you there.

Celebrations and festivals are great ways to bring people together in a community and allow them to enjoy the best their region has to offer.  Over the last few years the Village of Sussex Corner has revitalized their annual winter carnival to a point where the community now anticipates its arrival.  I am proud to be a part of this effort and I too look forward to its annual arrival which I am happy to say is February 11^th and 12^th.

The Sussex area is blessed with many such celebrations and there isn't a season that goes by without a reason to celebrate.  The festivities vary in size and activity but all of them provide the community with a reason to get out and socialize.  The Sussex Corner Winter Carnival is no different and it is a great way to break out of those winter time blues and enjoy what winter has to offer.  No matter what your interest is there is likely something for you to enjoy there.

As a Canadian you likely enjoy hockey so you might want to register a team for the Corner Cup pond hockey tournament or maybe compete in an "Amazing Race."  Maybe you like something slightly less competitive so you might be more into the snowshoe or cross country ski outings.  If your family isn't up for those you can simply enjoy the free skating and games that will be offered throughout the day on Saturday.  The kids will love Peter and Penny Penguin and get giddy with excitement while competing against them in the kid's games.  If you are into art and entertainment the Winter Carnival has you covered as well.  There will be snow sculpting contests, music, and magicians there to entertain you between all the other events.  Horse drawn sleigh rides cater to those looking to enjoy the old fashioned style winter fun and of course you can't have a winter carnival without having a sliding hill.

Likely the best thing the Sussex Corner Winter Carnival has going for it is that all these wonderful activities all take place in one location.  Unlike some similar festivals where you have to commute from activity to activity, the Sussex Corner Winter Carnival is situated so that you can park your car and take it all in with only a short walk, snowshoe, or cross country ski to the next activity.  By the end of the fireworks on Saturday evening you'll be asking yourself "Why don't we do this more often?"  You'll have talked to friends and neighbours and caught up on all the good things going on in their life and shared your latest news.  After the fireworks the community will be closer and if we happen to start to drift apart again, the next festival will draw us all closer again.  We really are lucky to live in such a close community where people step forward and organize events like the Sussex Corner Winter Carnival.

If you are looking for other events the Dairytown Classic basketball tournament, the Apohaqui Winter Fun Day, the annual Snowball tournament, plus many other events are waiting for you to wander through and all are coming up soon.  I hope to see you in the snow banks.

Outdoor Rink update

What a winter to try and create my first outdoor backyard rink.  I think I am ready to admit defeat.  I now have banks around the ice surface that are over 5 ft high all the way around.  To top it off, it is covered in snow once again.  We have skated on it a grand total of three times, for likely a total of 4 hours tops.  In those 4 hours though there was lots of fun and it has made it worth the effort.  Take a look at the smiles on the boys faces.

Before you ask "Where are their helmets?"  Let me defend by saying it was either frost bitten ears with a helmet on, or put on bulky hats to protect cheeks and ears from the bitter cold that day.

I might have to shovel it off at least one more time :)

Blessed Day

A little over a week ago I had one of those days.  You know the kind.  A day that memories are not really made, but life is none the less made richer.  A day where everything just seemed right.  A day where there just seemed to be God's light shining on everything you did.  By no stretch was the day special, but it was personally rewarding.  As I made my way home at the end of the day I knew exactly who to thank as I smiled to myself as everyone else slept during the drive.

In the morning I coached my son's hockey practice and the practice ran smoothly with the kids having lots of fun.  They smiled as the coaching team ran them through the drills and I felt a sense of pride and accomplishment with this simple task I was doing.  After practice my wife and I took the kids to Tim Horton's for a treat and we all laughed and relaxed while sitting in the eating area of the cafe.  At this point I thought to myself "What a great Canadian morning."

A memory in the making, thanks for the picture Michelle.

At home that afternoon I played and wrestled with the kids and that bright feeling continued.  My son's excitement for what was to come that night was growing.  As we loaded the car up, the kids and I dropped my wife off at work before heading to Saint John.  Before leaving Sussex though we stopped for a quick supper at McDonalds, my son's favorite place to eat.

The weather on the drive down was excellent and the kids laughed and sang as we enjoyed each others silliness.  Our first stop in Saint John was my sister and brother in-law's to drop off my daughter.  They had agreed to babysit her while my son and I headed to a hockey game.  Seth is a big Saint John Seadogs fan and was excited to go watch them play.  We walked through the pedway system in Saint John and Seth was amazed by all the people and by the fact we could walk inside, while seeming to be outside.  We obviously don't get him to the city enough.

This would be the second game he would see and the first one was too loud for him.  This time we went prepared with some earplugs.  As it would turn out he wouldn't need them.  He danced like a maniac trying to get himself up on the big screen to no avail but we had fun trying.  He pigged out on ice cream and cotton candy and head bobbed to the music throughout the entire game.  Even when the Seadogs scored one of the many goals they scored and the siren echoed inside the Station he cheered.  He no longer minded the noise that once bothered him as he was to enthralled by the blimp flying over head or by Fleaburn to be bothered by noise.  The Seadogs won handly that game with some great hockey but I didn't even notice the game as much as I was watching my son grow up in front of me.  Over the two hours we were there my son seemed to age his entire 5 years and I realized how thankful I was to have him in my life.

After the game we picked up Shaylee and did our best not to wake her for the ride home.  As Seth faded to sleep I turned on some light music and was overcome by that bright immense feeling of happiness again.  I said a little prayer with only my wife's absence being the only dark part of the day, but even that is worth being thankful for as we are both willing and capable of working to provide.

It was truly a blessing, this day I now write about.  I hope you can take the time to see these days when they happend and give thanks for all those small moments.

Outdoor rink update

I guess its time to update the status of our little outdoor rink project.  I have been busy shovelling snow off it and I was really wondering if it was ever going to come together.  Today however Seth and I were able to finally skate on it.  It is curently -22 with the windchill so it was a short skate but we were there.  It is still a bit uneven and bumpy but I skated on much worse as a kid.

I have gotten into a good flooding routine now and have become efficient at first working out the kinks and then finally flooding the surface.  The biggest challenge is thawing my outdoor faucet so I can flood.  This requires about 10-15minutes with the heat gun everytime.  This is not bad since I have devised a way to set the gun up and leave it while I prep the hose, scrape the ice, or what ever I need to do that day.  Then once the water is running it only takes me about 10-15minutes to flood the small area and I have to roll up the hose and take it inside for the next flood.  If its really cold like today, I have to go through the whole process again, which is no fun, but after today has been worth it.

Seth's favorite thing to do was jump into the snowbanks.  He wasn't much interested
in practicing stickhandling.

With the weather forecast calling for some clear skies and cold temperatures I am hoping that by the end of the weekend the ice will be much smoother and nicer.  My lower end is great right now but I still need more ice to cover the bumps at the upper end.  Still a work in progress as it likely will be throughout the winter.

Keep your head up :P

A Pleasant Trek around a Ridge

Icy Drop were dripping slowly back into Beatty Brook.

Pleasant Ridge has a warm and fuzzy feeling when you read the name on a map.  The name is well deserved as the area around these high hills makes my heart pump when I am anywhere near there.  No matter what time of year it is I get pumped about all the possibilities that abound.  During the summer months I can often be found wetting a line fishing for trout along one of the many streams that drain the hills that form the ridge.  More recently I decided to explore the Beatty Brook and one of its unnamed tributaries on snowshoes.

Beatty Brook is a steep and cold stream here.

Snowshoeing is my outdoor winter sport of choice because I have never been great at cross country skiing, and I played to much hockey to compete at downhill skiing as a kid.  I didn't need a groomed trail and I could easily carry my snowshoes in my car, so I could go any time or any where.  The goal of this trip was to show a friend of mine a small waterfall and then explore some new wilderness.  The weather man was calling for a mild winter day with a chance of flurries. 

We packed a light lunch and were looking forward to being able to eat it while sitting on the side of Pleasant Ridge.  We hit the woods around 9:30 or so and made our way along the left bank of Beatty Brook heading upstream.  The first thing I noticed was that there was not as much snow as a previous trip I made and this surprised me.  The second thing was how quiet it was.  You could hear the water gurgling under the ice and that was all unless you count your breathing.

The ice ledges along the Brook offered some great views up and down stream.

We approached the Steen Road and walked along the skidoo trail for a short time before taking off to the left up the unmapped ravine looking for water and ice.  The topographical mapping showed that the area had steep slopes but no water.  When I noticed this I was certain there was water but I wanted to see for myself.  We headed up the ravine which would circle around the back of the hill before it made the top at approximately 191m.  As we made the trek an impressive hardwood stand dominated the hill to our right and I was amazed at how crisp and majestic the stand appeared.  There was water in the creek throughout the hike even when we made the top, water was running but the topography was not as steep as we anticipated and the trek was relaxed. 

The view from the top of Pleasant Ridge looking southeast.

As we reached the top of the stream we had lunch and energized for the next lag of the hike was a bush whack across unmarked woodland.  We set our bearings on a steep tributary and were capable enough that we hit our mark and found ourselves looking out over the Millstream Valley while standing in a small natural clearing on the steep southeast side of the Pleasant Ridge. 

We were now faced with a difficult and treacherous descent back to Beatty Brook and the car.  The snow was thin in places with ice underneath and one step sent us glissading down the slope only to be slowed up by a steep drift.  The small and narrow creek bed was filled with many conglomerate boulders but very little water, even though it showed water on the maps.  Suddenly we found the source of the water as we noticed a small ladle hanging in a nearby tree where a spring flowed out from under some roots and rocks. 

The steep ravine we descended provided some challenges.

From this point I tried to stay on the creek bed and unfortunately this would cost me.  As I continued leaping from ice shelf to ice shelf over the small stream I got into a rhythm that flowed with the same resonance of the creek itself.  Without warning though the beat changed and I made a hard step to what looked like snow covered ice but it turned out to be a big boulder.  I only managed to get the toe of my snowshoe up on it and as my weight settled on the shoe the aluminum tube bent and then broke.  Luckily we were not that far from the bottom of the creek and the road and I was able to hobble the rest of the way.

Even with my snowshoe breaking it was a great day and to me it symbolized any normal day.  The little bumps shouldn't take away from all the progress we make along our journey.  I hope your journey is over smooth snow.  See you in the woods.

View Pleasant Ridge Snowshoe Trek in a larger map

Outdoor Rink Part III

Patients is needed when building an outdoor skating rink.  I have learned this over the last week.  That and a few other things about making a skating rink outside.  Just to be clear, I have never made ice indoors either so this has been a fun learning curve.  The location of my small rink is in my backyard which I thought was relatively flat, that was until I started putting water on it and it all flowed to one end.  I also learned that my yard drains quickly.  Since I didn't put a plastic cover down I put a great deal of water into the ground as opposed to on my ice surface.  This weighs heavily on my conscience as a watershed conservationist, but my son asked and I said we could, so what am I to do?

Don't get me wrong it is getting better but the weather is not as cold as I would like.  It is late into the evening before I can get the first flood on so the ice building has been slow.  Stay tuned though as I am sure I will get a skating rink before the end of winter.

A Winter Trek and Lesson



Mature spruce dwarf the younger hardwood stands at the top of a
ridge in the Mill Brook area.



Since the holidays I have been able to get out on two snowshoe hikes.  This entry is about the first of those trips.



How can you not feel blessed when a road like this
lay before you.  You simply say a prayer as you walk.



The weather was crisp and sunny and I had been thinking about a waterfall that I wanted to visit in winter.  I was thinking there might be some good ice for climbers in there and for me to take pictures of.  There was lots of snow in the woods and I knew it would be a great day for just getting out and stretching my legs and working off the Christmas turkey.  I had plotted a route that wouldn't take me directly there but rather bring me around the hill from the back side.  This would later prove to be a mistake, but I don't want to get ahead of myself.

I packed up a day bag with extra clothes, food, water, map, emergency kit, and of course my camera.  I made a quick stop at my parents to pick up their dog Kizmet and headed to the upper headwaters of Mill Brook.  The Cotter Holler road is a beautiful walk no matter the season but it is extra special in winter and that is why I wanted to start there.  There was also a ravine there that I hadn't yet explored so that is where I headed with the intent of following that ravine up to the crest and then crossing over to the other ravine.  This plan sounded good in my head but I was unprepared for how deep the snow was and how steep the first unknown ravine would be.



The Cotter Holler Stream is a photogenic presence anytime
of year but especially in the winter as its spring fed waters
tend to create great ice and water formations.



If you have ever been snowshoeing before it is not a simple task to climb up steep slopes that have a light upper layer of snow and a hard crusty lower layer.  You tend to have to crawl on all fours and push a trail of snow off ahead of you or to the sides.  It is an amazing workout and by the time I reached the top of the ravine I was climbing out I was tuckered out.  To be honest at that point I was beyond probably any point I have ever been, and it was going to get worse.  As I climbed the ravine I topped out into a clear cut area which had snow up to my waist and it was next to impossible to push through.  I decided to skirt around the clearing and find the access road and use that to cross over to the next drainage.

The Bluff is part of the landscape that is often used to orient yourself to
the rest of the surroundings.  Once I was provided this view I knew
instictively which direction I was looking.

One positive thing about the clearing was that it provided a great new perspective for me of the Bluff in Sussex Corner.  This local attraction is a photographers dream and if I had a better camera I could have snapped some great pics of the frosted tip evergreens as they revealed the Bluff through a grey sky.  I sat at the high point of the sloping clear cut and caught my breath while the dog sat on the back of my snowshoes.  She was so quiet I often had to turn around to see if she was still there.



The snow hung off everything and provided a nice
contrast to the clear, crisp blue of the sky.



We made our way to the back of the clearing where I was able to find an access trail that was leading in what I felt was the right direction.  If my hunch and my thought about where I was on my topo map were right I should be able to catch the main logging road and then from there drop over the other side of the mountain.  My problem was time and energy.  I had spent over half the daylight I needed and my energy reserves were running low.  I was seriously, for the first time in my life considering spending an unplanned night in the woods.  Not because I was in trouble, hurt, or lost, but simply because I was pushing my personal limits.

When I made what I thought was the main logging road I continued in the direction I needed to go but nothing looked familiar and I became uncertain.  Given the time of day I couldn't afford uncertainty, so I gave myself ten more minutes walking time, but even then I wasn't certain I was where I wanted to be so I had to turn around and head back the same way I came to get home.  I was sour and disappointed in my own inability to get to where I wanted.  It revealed to a certain extent my age, my arrogance, and my need to improve my skills.  It was a humbling day, but one that rewarded me by simply being outside.  I was shown many things from a different perspective, the least of which was myself.  Once again the wilderness of this great area has exposed its strength to be that not only of beauty but of a fabric of life and persistence on multiple levels.

Outdoor Rink?? Part II

If you follow the weather at all you likely know that we have had a run of warmer weather which slowed my progress on our outdoor rink.  Tonight however, it was a cold -9 celsius with the wind chill, so I headed out with "my hood up."  Get it?  "hood up"; "head up?"  I know.  Groan. 

With the snow this morning, I had to give the area a quick shovel.  I also compacted the snow layer by laying down some plywood and jumping on it.  Good thing I didn't make a big surface because my legs would have been sore after I was done with that task.  Once I got the water running again I flooded the surface twice with a good base forming again before I called it quits.   With a forecast of four more cold days before the temps start to rise again, I might get a good surface for a late evening skate by Thursday.  Maybe??
   
It was such a nice night out that I wandered out into the nearby field and laid on my back to look at the stars.  A great deal of jets were flying overhead tonight as well.  Being outside and enjoying the cold is rewarding and purifying.  My head clears, my body relaxes, and a calmness comes over me.  Flooding the ice is a simple task that allows my head to wander and I enjoy it.  This started off as a way for me to hopefully spend more time outside with my kids, but the reward will be more than that.