User experiences...

Today, I was at Mountain Equipment Co-op (mec.com) buying some last minute provisions for my hiking/camping/climbing trip (a summer sleeping bag and Clif bars). It was during lunch hour so the checkout line was long and slow moving. I let my eye wander over to a computer screen that you can use to search the online catalog and order stuff from the mail order department. The flat screen was embedded in a wood frame and part of a wall where you could post notices. From a distance it looked like a touch screen. A person walked up and started to touch the screen thinking that it was a touch screen. They would double-click on an icon and nothing would happen. The mouse point was visible on the screen and they tried to move the pointer by dragging their finger across the screen and nothing would happen. It was sort of fun to watch while killing time in the queue. The problem is it wasn’t a touch screen. There was mouse and keyboard on a shelf underneath the screen but it was so low that most folks didn’t see or ignored it. Just as they were ready to bolt, a stranger nearby pointed to the mouse and keyboard and suggested that perhaps these were would be useful. I was at the cash by this point so didn’t see what happened next.

Mt Marcy

This coming weekend we celebrate Canada Day on July 1 which occurs on a Sunday this year, so most folks get Monday off as a holiday. I met with the people that I'm hiking in the Adirondacks on the weekend and we are planning on climbing three mountains, one of which is in the top 46 list. The plan is to climb Mt. Marcy whose elevation is 5,344 feet. It is the tallest mountain in the range. We will set out from camp early on Sunday to ascend the mountain. The other two mountains we want to hike up is Ampersand and Rooster Comb. I'm eager to sleep in my tent for the first time, to try the camelback in the day pack and break in a summer sleeping bag. As well, I'm getting low on fig newtons and will use the trip to stock up on them. Things are shaping up well for the adventure...

Minivacation

I've spent the last couple of days at my parent's place which has a panoramic view of Lake Ontario. On a clear day, I can look out and see the Toronto skyline which includes the Skydome. The weekend started off with me driving my father to the airport as he had a business trip in the states. I was able to get in some geocaching, home maintenance and catching up with my parents, brother and nephew. I fixed my nephew's mp3 player and usb drive which made him happy. I cut out the wooden frame of the four windows that my father and I will replace later this year. I bolted the aluminum storm windows on to act as temporary barriers until the vinyl insert windows arrive from the manufacturer. Today, I replaced the internal door lever on the screen door so that G couldn't push his nose against the door and accidentally get out. I finished my second Barry Eisler novel with another four waiting for me to read back in Ottawa. It has been hot with temperatures averaging in the hight 80s. I'm looking forward to heading back to Ottawa tomorrow where it is a little cooler. Once in town, I have to start preparing for my next adventure, a long weekend of hiking over the upcoming holiday weekend.

Windows

My parent's live in an old house and over the past couple of years we have been replacing the windows. Taking out the old wooden ones and replacing them with vinyl insert windows. They open at the bottom and the top and you can clean both sides of the window from the inside. This is handy. No more getting out the ladder to wash the outside of the windows. Today my father and I cut out two of the final four old wooden windows. I'll cut out the remaining two over the next couple of days. The vinyl inserts are being made at the factory now and we will install them in a couple of weeks. It is fun getting out all the power tools and getting covered in saw dust. It is a satisfying experience. My brother and his son are heading to my parent's place tomorrow and it will be great to catch up with and have a couple of BBQs.

The planning for my first Adirondacks trips is coming along slowly. Next week, I have to head to MEC to buy a summer sleeping bag and some freeze dried, just add water meals. The plan is to head down early Friday morning and to get in a short hike once we get to Lake Placid. I'll be hiking with 15 other folks and so, the other cars will be arriving throughout the day. We will set up a base camp at Adirondack Loj where they have car camping and to use it as our trailhead. The plan is to have two long hiking days, Saturday and Sunday. Monday is a holiday so hopefully we can climb another peak. Hmm, four days and three peaks is most likely to ambitous. I'll have a better feel when we have our group meeting on Tuesday. I'm looking forward the adventure...

Beignet au sucre

Tonight after my running workout, I stopped by a specialty food store in search of a protein-carbo recovery bar and was trolling the shelves a bit and found something that I had to buy. It was a beignet au sucre or a icing sugar coated beignet. In one of Jason's recent blog entries he talked about how they had gone out for beignets and coffee. The beignets were made in Tucker, GA and came in a package of four. There is a bit of an art to getting them out of the package and into your mouth with out getting coated in sugar and wearing a white moustache. When I'm in GA later this year, I hope that I can experience fresh beignets.

Summer reading...

One of the newspapers I read daily, the WSJ, recently had a book review of good books for summer reading. While in Montreal, I bought one of the books off the list, C.J.Box,Free Fire. I enjoyed reading the book over a couple of days and decided to read the rest of the Joe Pickett series. I headed over to local library web site and requested copies of his other books, Out of Range, Trophy Hunt, Savage Run , Open Season and Winter Kill. Over the last little while, I have read all of these books. I headed back to the book review and bought the next book in the list, Requiem for an assassin by Barry Eisler. Yesterday, I requested from the library all of Barry's other John Rain books and will read his other five books. One thing I liked about his book is that he goes into great details about John Rain's tradecraft such as his Spyderco knives, Surefire flashlights and Alon bulletproof windows. There is one other book that I'm reading analyically and clinicially, is George Tenet's , At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA. The book is taking longer to read that I thought as I read a chapter then think about what he says for a couple of hours before reading the next chapter. There is one more book on the book review list that I want to read, but it won't be published for another month. I mostly likely finish the summer off by reading the much sought after Harry Potter, final volumer.

Sore, tired, stiff and Adirondacks

Tonight, I did my first interval workout of the year in the arboretum. It took the form of a 25 minute warmup followed by 4*1km intervals on 90 seconds rest. It was great to be back in the arboretum again as we run around a 1,000 meter loop that features cinder underfoot which gives a great spring when you run on it. The conditions were a hot and sunny 88F. The cool down was a 30 minute jog along the Rideau Canal back to the UOttawa campus. As I write my legs are warm, sore and stiff.

At the end of the month, we have a holiday called Canada Day on July 1. Since it falls on Sunday this year Monday is a holiday. I'll be heading over to the Adirondacks for a long weekend hiking trip. It will give me a chance to try out a new summer sleeping bag, inaugurate my new REI tent and to try out the camelback-backpack combination for hiking. As well, I'm hoping to buy a stove whose fuel comes in a canister. We should have two solid days in which we can ascend at least two mountains. I recently developed this urge to become a 46r. It will involve a fair amount of hiking as you have to climb 46 peaks in the Adirondacks.

Butt Evacuators

Butt evacuators are topic that I have wanted to blog about for some time. These guys have been on my mind for quite some time. I guess it was one of the first things I noticed when I started working at the research facility. Every morning, I would see them with their gasoline powered vacuums sucking up discarded cigarette butts. The butt evacuator looks and sounds like a leaf blower but it sucks up things, rather than blowing them away. I would usually see them again after lunch sucking up more butts. The butt evacuators were two portly identical twins. One of them was more rotund than the other. They would have to butt evacuate the perimeters of 15 buildings that make up the research complex. Through spring, summer and fall they would be out there sucking up butts. After a while they changed their schedule so I didn’t see them quite so often. Then they had the cleaning staff walking around the building sweeping up the butts. While walking to work recently, I could hear this roar in the distance, they were back, the butt evacuators had returned and they were busily sucking up butts again.

Canoeing part 3

The past couple of days I have been thinking a little too much about my recent capsizing experiences. I have been canoeing since I was a small kid and have never capsized and here I was capsizing twice in one night. In the end it was fun using the skills I have picked over many years, how to swim with the canoe towards shore, and to do a canoe-to-canoe rescue. But the experience still bothers me. After talking to my father today, I think I know what might have happened on both occasions, we violated two tenets of canoeing, don't stand in the canoe and never paddle on the same side. The second tenet is easily resolved as the sternman will change his paddle side when the bowman switches.

After the course, I talked to Tim and they are offering white water canoeing course up the Ottawa River from where I live. This would involve paddling down a set of rapids using a canoe made about of ABS -tradename Royalex. These canoes are so indestructible that if hit them with a rock and put a dent in the side of the canoe all you do is give it a kick and it regains its shape.

Canoeing II - I dunked!

Last night I went down to the Ottawa River for the second part of my canoeing course. It would be the practical, on-water portion. For some reason, I decided to come prepared, I had wired my keys into my shorts, dressed in quick dry clothing and added a polar fleece vest. I decided to leave anything of value at home and to zip all my pockets shut. Before we headed out on the water I asked Tim if he could take some pictures throughout the lesson to document the adventure.

As promised, I took pictures of the two types of canoes that we would use, the quetico canoe sits lower in the water than the prospector. The prospector has a more pronounced rocker (front of the canoe) allowing it to carry heavier loads but is less stable when not weighted down. Here we see the first party getting ready to embark. While on the water, Tim explained that when you are paddling you are doing one of two motions pulling water (forward stroke) or pushing it (back stroke). The other strokes are known as corrective strokes. He demonstrated the “J” stroke, the draw (moving the paddle parallel to the canoe, drawing toward the side of the canoe), prying (moving the paddle parallel to the canoe, but pushing water away from the side of the canoe). It was time to try out these strokes. I should say first off, that it was Roger’s first time in the canoe and he was in the stern (back). We headed out onto the river and had fun paddling in circles for a while before we sorted our strokes out. I was a little nervous as the Ottawa River has a strong current and Roger wasn’t too concerned that we getting caught in the current leading towards the power dam. It took some aggressive paddling to get us back into the lee of the bay. After paddling around we headed into shore to change positions. I would be in the stern of the canoe. I careful working along the length of canoe and gently sat down in the canoe. When the canoe is partly on shore and it in the water it is unstable. As Roger got into the canoe backward and pushed used off shore somehow how is weight shifted. The canoe capsized. We were close to shore. The water waist deep but the experience was a little unsettling.

We paddled for about an hour and did a stroke drills by paddling around triangle . This was fun but at the same time a little challenging as Roger wanted to constantly flip his paddle to either side of the canoe every minute. Using the forward stroke, the J-stroke and the pry stroke, I was able to sight a couple of landmarks and get a hang of paddling in a straight line. This is an art. After a while you sort of become one with the canoe and get a feel how it responds to certain actions. Most of the motions are gradual. It was time to let Roger take the stern again. We headed out from port without event. I explained to Roger that if we wanted to head right, to use the J stroke and to head left, he would have to do a pry stroke. He started to get the knack of the stroke and we were able to head in a straight line to towards some trees on shore. Roger decided that we be a little more aggressive with the canoe. As we were heading through a confluence in the river he tried an aggressive J stroke. It didn’t go well, as moments later, we were both in the water. The Ottawa River was cold. In the nick of time, I grabbed my hat but wasn’t so lucky with my sunglasses. We were able to swim with the canoe towards another one nearby and to do a on-the-water canoe rescue. This involves pushing the upended canoe across the center point of another canoe. We hauled ourselves back into the canoe. For more reason, I packed my normal glasses in my vest and was able to see again. We paddled toward shore and emptied the canoe and to catch our breath and dry out a bit. At this point, there was an hour left in the lesson so Roger and I worked on canoe drills close to shore.

- Chris and his paddle.
- Chris in the shadows

Canoeing – part 1

In one of my earlier entries, I mentioned that I had signed up for a canoeing course to work on my paddling skills. The goal is gain enough skills to be able to paddle a canoe in a straight line under varying conditions. Later this summer, we will be taking two canoes into Algonquin Park for a long weekend canoeing trip. My father has two chemists visiting one from Akron and the other, from Sofia, Bulgaria. I will be the sternman in on canoe and my father in the other. Paddling in the stern position is not something I normally do, as I’m usually up front applying all the power to the canoe. The canoe course has been rescheduled a couple of times so we had our first session last night.

I’ll set the stage, it was 6C/42F and light continuous rain was falling and a brisk wind was coming off the Ottawa River and there was the threat of frost overnight. I was wearing my goretex jacket, a polar fleece jacket and a pair of goretex pants. If we were going out on the water it would be crisp. Tim had the moved the canoes down to the shore by the time I had arrived. There were three cars sitting in the parking lot with engines idling and fogged up windows. I was comfortable standing around in the elements waiting for the final folks to show up. It was sort of funny as Tim was in shorts and most folks thought I was the instructor.

Tim took the six of us down to the shore and started with the dry land portion of the course. He reviewed the parts of a paddle, grip-butt, shaft, throat, blade and tip. We would be using two types of canoes, a prospector and a quetico. The prospector has a more pronounced rocker which improves maneuverability and stability. (Curvature of the hull profile that rises up at the bow and stern) He talked about the parts of the canoe, bow, thwart, yoke, hull, gunwales and the stern. At this point, the wind started to whip up and it grew colder. Someone suggested that perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to go paddling tonight. Further up river, we could see a kayaking course doing Eskimo rolls in their kayaks and they were outfitted in wetsuits. They did not look comfortable.

The weather forecast for Thursday was 24C/75F, so we decided to wait a couple of days before hitting the water. We finished off the night by learning how to carry the canoe. The most common technique is called, “lunch boxing,” one person on the opposite side at either end of the canoe. The last thing we did was to review how to throw the canoe on top of your head.

In my next entry, I will post some links to pictures taken at both lessons.

Cycling, geocaching and rabies...

On Saturday, I went for my first cycle of the year and it was to Dairy Queen, on the other side of the Ottawa River, in Quebec. I was excited. It could have been that I was at Dairy Queen or my inaugural cycle. As I think about it, it was likely the cycle.

Today, I searched out a handful of new geocaches that were slightly out of the city. The plan is to go for progressively longer and longer cycling workout to build up my legs for a cycling tour in early August. I tried out my new camelback with my REI backpack which has a pouch for the camelback. The combination works great and now, I realize what I was missing out on during my Shenandoah hike. The camelback keeps your back cool while cycling and gives you hydration on demand.

At my second geocache, I met my first raccoon of the year, who I think was rabid. Raccoons are nocturnal and think one was walking along the trail in broad daylight, he looked emaciated and looked as if he had lost all of his inhibitions. He looked a little freaked out. I let him walk by using the bike as a barrier. On my way back from finding two other caches, I got my first flat tire of the year as I was cycling along a corduroy road. I brought along a spare tire, the tire levers and a pump so, I was back in business in about 15 minutes.