Waiting and Hoping

Well I was out fishing last weekend...I know you're not surprised eh? My Dad and I ventured up to the headwaters of a nearby Creek and found an amazing scene of serenity. The water was cool and clear and when you think of a babbling brook this is what most of us think of. I work in watershed restoration and this is what we want all our streams to look like. There were waterfalls and chutes, boulders and bedrock, trees and shrubs, and most of all there was fish.

The fishing was great despite the fact that they were all a bit small. The best part about fishing an area like this is that you never know where that big catch might be lurking. Everytime you cast your line to a log you wait and hope. When the bait hits the bottom of a deep pool you wait and hope. As you reel through a back eddy you wait and hope. It is this anticipation that keeps you casting and plodding down the stream.

On this day we never caught what you would call a trophy, in fact we hardly caught anything of note. We sure found a new haven though and a stream that I will likely try again sometime just so I can see what it looks like. Just like when I cast my line into the stream I wait and hope, I now wait and hope to go back.

See you in the woods.

Rewards Worth Working For

So wow...yeah...ahhh...been reeeaal busy and haven't been able to keep up on my blog the way I was hoping. Maybe I should set more realistic goals eh? Truthfully though my life has become very rewarding lately, but to get the rewards I have had to work for it. Any reward worth having is worth working for right. Just look at the Stanley Cup for instance, those guys bust ass all season long just to hold the coveted grail. The hardest hiking trails often have the best rewards too.

I have added a couple of pics that I snapped while hiking a couple of my favorite hiking trails in the Atlantic Provinces and Maine. Mt. Katahdin, in Maine, is a hike everyone should do just so you can say you did it. You will find new strenght within yourself and a new inner peace while struggling up this east coast mountain, no matter what your capabilities are. Keyhole Brook on the Cape Chignecto Trail in Nova Scotia has a evangillical sense to it as you approach it from the north side meadow. You feel smaller somehow as you sit on the cliffside bank above the waterfall and watch the waves crash through the hole. The Kenomee Canyon, also in Nova Scotia is an enjoyable overnighter with many small streams and waterfalls to see.

The last pic is of the White Lakes Wilderness area in Nova Scotia which is rocky, wind stunted, terrain that offers many lookouts and bald hills to climb and play on. I got to thank my buddy Greg for taking this pic of me looking out over the Musquodoboit River and Bayers Lake.

All of these hiking areas are challenging but all of them have amazing scenery and even an auroa about them that will speak to anyone if they are willing to listen. Even when I go over my pics I can still hear them calling to me to come back and visit. Which I will.

More pics to come and hopefully not so slowly this time.

A good tent is a good friend

There are camping or backpacking trips where your tent is like your best roommate on a bad week. When you are trapped for a full day in a tent due to bad weather you want to make sure you have a well designed tent, or great roommate. So what makes a great tent on a bad week? Like all good roommates, your tent knows when to give you space. A well designed tent has lots of headroom and a spacious vestibule for gear storage. This will make your bad day seem a bit brighter.

I had a roommate once who was great at weathering my occasional rainstorms. My tent should do the same. A bad day can get worse if; when you open your door the rain gets in on your sleeping bag; or when your temper heats the tent and you get enough condensation to soak your last pair of dry socks. My best tent breathes well. It regulates the interior temperature without a lot of effort on my part and this reduces the amount of moisture build up. Most importantly though, it just does not leak, even during the heaviest rains.

A seamless relationship between you and your roommate depends on how well you blend together. Again, a good tent needs well blended seams to be effective. Stitching is crucial in providing a durable, waterproof tent. Even better, would be no seams but then where would you put your poles? Strong stitching around your pole loops is important and light weight poles make that wet tent a bit more bearable when lugging it back to the trail head.

A good roommate knows when to cover for you just like a good tent has a tarp that provides that extra cover when you need it. I like a tent that has a full tarp with a large vestibule. The tarp should also have a large door for easy entry and exit this will also allow the tent to be aired out on warmer days. If you can tie your tarp out from the tent frame it will allow it to breathe better as well. I’m sure you have wished you could tie up a roommate once or twice on a bad day.

Now, I know your tent isn’t a roommate but rather a room. Trust me though, on a cold, rainy, day you will get more intimate with your tent than you wish. Like I said about boots, you need to know what your needs are when tenting. If you are a car camper, I would go with a larger, heavier tent. If you are a backpacker, then you need to strongly consider weight and may want to sacrifice space to minimize the weight you have to carry from campsite to campsite.

A tent also needs maintenance in order to keep you happy and live a long life, again a lot like a good roommate. It is important to dry your tent out and clean off the floor and tent walls after every trip. This will prevent build up of damaging fungus on the tent materials so that the tent can more readily withstand the next stretch of bad weather. It would be terrible if a pole snapped in a wind storm and ripped your tarp and let the rain in on your sleeping bag.

Rainy Day Blues??

As much as people often gripe about the rain, deep down we all have a deep appreciation of it. Most people now don't live in a metal roofed house, at least not here. Metal roofs are making a come back though and everyone will tell you they love the sound of rain on a tin roof. Me, I love the rain on my tent. It is a calming sound that often lulls me to sleep while I read the latest trail guide or bird id book. I don't even mind having to wander out of my tent to pee in the rain. I love the feel of cool drops on a dry thin t-shirt. The cold drops seem to touch my inner body and sooth the aches I developed through my long hike, and it seems to happen in slow motion. The smell of the rain on the ferns permeates everything around me and makes its way into my stuffy tent even. This scent of renewal even overpowers the smell of my sweaty socks which I have hanging in my gear loft and makes my tent more bearable. I battle to break camp and carry on my way as I just want to sit in this scene of serenity and literally soak it all in.

I finally pack up and start my day off in the constant drip of the woods. Each step takes on the rythym of the rain and before long I am singing in my head..."I'm singing in the rain, oh I'm singing in the rain..." On a day where most people are griping about the weather I am out here living it up and enjoying it. Rainy days like this prove to me that backpacking, and outdoor adventure takes a special mind set, and am I ever glad I'm crazy.

My picture this week was taken after a rainy day along the Fundy Footpath. When the sky cleared just before sundown it revealed a double rainbow extending straight up off the Bay. It was a surreal moment when the earth seemed right and all those worries of work, economics, and environmental struggle just faded away.

A tribute to spring blooms

I have been a bit slack on posting my pics of the week, so lucky you, I am gonna post two this week. If I am not careful I will soon be out of good pics to post or I'll accidently post a pic a second time. Or at least I'll pretend it was an accident :) You'd never know. Ha ha.

These pics are to celebrate the arrival of all the spring flowers. I took a stroll along a nearby creek here and found these last summer. In a little while we should be seeing these again. Since I am not a botanist I am not sure what the proper names of these wonderful plants are. I do know however, that they are a great addition to the landscape around the rivers as they added some vibrant eye catching color. Maybe some one can identify them for me. Enjoy the pics and hope to see you in the woods or on the water.

Well I seem to be in a bit of a mood to rant this morning so this could get a bit winded. I am not even sure exactly what it is I am upset about. I just have this feeling of uneasiness in my gut. This feeling usually appears after I have a discussion about self-sufficiency, gas rates, mining, and big industry. Why is it that big industry continues to win the political battles in the war on envrionmental degradation? Why does our government continue to roll over to big industry just for the sake of a dollar or two when in reality they could be making tens of dollars if they were to take a firmer stance?

We have moved to a global economy and this has meant a greater environmental impact and a greater gap between middle and upper class society. Is this healthy for anyone? Really someone tell me? Why do we have to buy a 2x4 from another country when we have hundreds of mills that make them in our own? Why is it cheaper for us to buy that 2x4 from somewhere else? Can someone explain this market to me? What impact is this having on the environment? A company cuts a log 2km from my door, ships it to a mill 200km away, the mill packages it and sends it to a HomeDepot 2000km away. I go to a building supply store 5 km up the road and buy 2x4s that were cut down 5000km away. WTF???? I just don't get it.

People really need to start educating themselves on environmental, social, and econoimic issues and letting their appropriate government officials know their opinions. We have to start putting the environmental and social aspects, before the economic ones.

Well that is my rant...I need a trip to the wilderness where I can just ignore all the issues. Then again that is not a good solution either. Ignorance is not bliss, but sometimes it is a nice vacation.

Life Changes

It is funny how quickly your life can change, or maybe flow is a more appropriate term. One day you are having a rough go of it and you wonder if you'll ever make it the next sees blue skies and evening fires and things are great. In a few days time life is hellish again and you're scared to answer the phone. The last telemarketer that called probably reported you to the CIA as a potential terrorist just because he caught you on a bad day.

Recently my life has been great and it has been fun. My relationship with my family is continually growing while I continue to develop myself as a community leader, but I can't help but have this nagging feeling that the higher I reach the further I will fall. I keep myself grounded by getting out to the wilderness and tasting simple things again. This reminds me that no matter how far I fall, I will be able to survive and start my climb again. I have learned through my simplistic approach while exploring the wilderness, that life in the social world can be just as simple, and just as rewarding as long as I don't overthink things. Sometimes it is just as good to survive as thrive, or at least I think it is.

Here is my weekly pic, its a bit late but I've been busy surviving, and through that effort actually thriving.

See you in the woods.

2nd look

I am one of those people who needs to step away from things from time to time to get some clarity on it. I am sure that alot of us are that way, even if we don't know it. I can be writing a report and then come to a block, I step away for an hour or so and then I can hammer the rest of the report off and even touch up places I didn't like the first or second time through. Want another example? How about when you walk beside a rushing river with a fishing pole in your hand; you're fishing downstream and you think your hitting all the holes with atleast one cast and then you turn and look upstream and there it is a back eddy formed by a large boulder with a log jammed on it. You had casted to the upstream side of it but failed to hit the downstream side and so you lay out some line and let it slide gently against the breeze and as it hits the surface the rainbow trout you've been chasing all morning takes the hook.

There, for most who might read this blog, that should sum up the "second look" idea I have been contemplating lately. I have been real busy with work, and life in general so I haven't had time to take that second look. Then I realized something. The longer it is before looks, the more you notice differently. So what is the point of this rambling, well it had been a while since I looked over some pics that I took while backpacking the Fundy Coast and I realized that some of them are better than I thought, while some of them are more mediocre than I thought. Here is one (for my pic of the week) that I thought at first was only mediocre and now that I look at it, well....maybe it is still only mediocre, but it evokes something in me. Bringing me to my second point. Outlook depends so much on mood and mindset. Keep a positive mind set and things tend to look better and now that I am older (and supposedly more mature) I can more readily understand that.

The pic for this week is along the shore on one of the many streams that empties into the Bay of Fundy. I wouldn't normally consider this one of the best areas along the trail but this pic makes it look great. Then again, if I take a second view on it the whole trail is great.

Keep smiling and get out there. See you in the woods or on the water.

Respect the land

Why is it that some people can't simply enjoy something without destroying it. There are numerous walking and hiking trails, and parks near where I live and for some reason people need to litter, cut trees, make new trails, or burn things. Some of these trails are on private property and we are only allowed on there thanks to the generosity of the landowners. I thank them for their patience and stewardship, but I wouldn't blame them either if they decided to stop people from using their land for recreation.

I know that a fire is a great thing when outdoors, but please be smart when lighting a fire. Take a look at where you are. If you are on a wind blown, well drained, dry rock escarpment with no water then figure it best not to light a fire. When lighting a fire too, be sure that if a fire pit already exists to use it, if it is a mess, clean it up and then use it.

"Pack in, pack out." This simple mantra should be used by anyone venturing into the wilderness, no matter your mode of transportation. I try not only to pack out my waste, but if I see other waste I do my best to handle it as well. Those of you on four wheelers, this would be a great way to expend your fuel, a remote wilderness trail clean up. Don't burn the garbage either, unless that is the last option or you just can't carry it another five days. This tends to leave the fire pit in a mess for the next people who come along. Paper waste of course is good to burn as is cardboard, but cans, and plastics should definitely be carried out.

If we want to continue to use our woods then lets respect them and all that they have to offer.

My pic this week is one that I enjoy. I love tenting along the ocean and this place is heaven by the Bay. Enjoy.

Gas and Self Sufficiency

Here where I live the government has been talking a great deal about becoming self-sufficient. They have tossed around plenty of ideas on how to do that. Some of them very appealing but most I have come to find are not truly about becoming self-sufficient but rather about increasing our revenue. These are not the same. A week or so ago, I read in the local paper that it has been suggested that we need to triple our population by 2026 in order to become self-sufficient. WHAT? HELLO! If we triple our population we triple our needs and decrease the space in which to meet those needs. I think my government and I strongly disagree with the way self-sufficiency should be attained. I believe we need to quit looking at import and export markets but rather produce and buy locally. We are a resource rich area so there is no need for us to import energy, food, fuel, furniture, wood, and on and on. We need to start helping those within our area who need it before we start helping those from outside our area. We need to decrease the gap between low incomes and high incomes and this shared wealth will increase the tax base and thus provide us with the revenue to provide those services needed most, education and health care. But that is just me rambling this morning because I got upset at the gas pumps.

I thought ahead last night and filled my gas tank on our Ford Escort (A domestic car by the way.) and it was a good thing I did. I was shocked when I drove by the gas station today and read that the price had shot up 5cents since last night. 5CENTS! So much for gas price regulation halting price shock at the pumps as they said it would. Now I am ignorant when it comes to fuel prices, I have no idea how they are set, but really come on. You can't tell me that the gas I pumped last night cost 5cents less than that pumped by someone this morning? Someone is making a great deal of money. Can someone please explain how this system works to me?

Well that is my little rant this morning. I gotta head to the woods to clear my head. When I am there at least I feel self-sufficient. Hey maybe that is it? Maybe we should all go back to leading a simpler, more physical type of lifestyle where we walk everywhere not drive. This would increase public health, decreasing health costs, reduce pollution, reduce fuel and energy demands, and just make everything better....at least for me.

See you in the woods.