Geocaching

Today, I had a meeting on the outskirts of the city. In the case of Ottawa this means a heavily wooded area. I decided to pack my GPS and to do some geocaching after the meeting. Over the course of a couple of hours I found five geocaches. The forth find was the most memorable. I had hiked down to the end of the trail to find my third cache and noticed that the next one was 1,500 meters away in a southerly direction. This is where the fun begins! I set a reference point for the next cache and started walking through the woods. Along my trek south I spotted a couple of cotton-tail deer, I navigated around a beaver bog, hiked through a couple of (cedar) deer-feeding yards, spotted a couple of deer hunting platforms and finally forded a couple of streams by walking across downed trees. It was a fun afternoon.

Fiddleheads and swing

While out geocaching on the weekend I spotted another sign of Spring, fiddleheads. They are one of the first ferns to appear in the Spring and grow very quickly before disappearing. They are a delicacy and have a unique taste when prepared properly.

Last night I had a really fun time swing dancing. It was great for a couple of reasons, a live 20-piece jazz band, a new venue with a dance floor that has a new bounce, dancing a record number of dances in an evening (15) and dancing with many of the folks that I dance with regularly on Friday night. One of the organizer, swing dynamite, showcased their latest dance troupe submission to the upcoming Canadian Swing Championship in Montreal in May. I think that they will win an award as their dancing rocked. I am hoping to check out their dance lessons in the future.

The Maze in the Grass

In one of my blogs last week I presented a couple of mysterious pictures (one, two, three) taken in the grass near where I live. I had first seen the phenomena when I was growing up and this was the first time I had seen it in Ottawa. The picture is of mouse trails and tunnels in the grass and dirt. When a thick crust of snow forms mice burrow and hibernate underneath it eating the grass, weed and worms. Rather than stay in once place they dig through the grass and soil to form a maze that they can run through to keep warm and to expand their feeding ground.

Ottawa Spring Mystery

Today, I was heading along a trail that I take to the train and noticed something that made me stop. It is a spring-like phenomena common in Ottawa. I came back later in the day and took two more pictures (2, 3). The challenge is to try and figure out what want the pictures represents.

Time...time...what time is it?

Tonight (Friday) while running south along the Rideau Canal I had an
interesting experience. A runner was coming towards me from the
opposite direction as I fumbling with my GPS watch. He started
pointing at his wrist and shouted time, time, what time is it? I wasn't
sure what time he was interested in as my watch was showing that I was
18 minutes and 34 seconds into my workout as well as being 6:45pm. I
shouted back that it was 18:34 which seemed to satisfy him. On the way
back, I bumped into the speedsters that I run with on Wednesday night
who were doing their warmup. I sped up considerable and they responded
allow us to do the next two miles at a pace very close to slowest km
interval pace of 4:20. It felt good to burn off a day's worth of
stress. At the same time my legs were nicely limbered up for swing
dancing.

Last night, I had my first of six lindy swing dance lessons. We
reviewed some of the basic moves and spent much of the evening doing
slow step, slow step, followed by step - triple step - step, with the
s-ts-s being done on a eight count. They mentioned that it would be
frustrating at first but if we were patient the prize was out there
waiting.

Ice flows on the Ottawa River..but not for long...

I work in a tall building near the Ottawa River. Today, I was looking out the window and noticed another sign of spring, ice flows making there way down the river. In the winter the river freezes thick enough that you can snowshoe across to the province of Quebec. The chunks of ice are getting smaller so the water temperature is getting warmer. Further up the river a few brave soles are kayaking the rapids while protected by a thick wetsuit. Doing an Eskimo role in the frigid conditions could be a fatal paddle/outing if you don't recover quickly. I'll see if I can post pictures in a couple of days.

In the afternoon, I found myself in a bit of an emergency situation as the mercury had started to climb to an Ottawa warm 21C/70F. I was starting to cook but not for long as two zips later I was comfortably wearing shorts.

The 5-6-7 dancing mystery...

While darting across the uOttawa campus today I spotted a dance troupe doing their routine. As with swing dancing they counted off 5,6,7 and started their dance moves. The question I pose is why don't we say start off with 1,2,3 or 4,5,6. I also wonder what the origin of the of starting off with 5 as it seems that many other dances in addition to swing dancing use this protocol. Hmm...

Spring running

I did something spring last night and repeated it tonight, run in bare legs. The weather in Ottawa has finally turned for the better as the snow and ice piles are quickly melting away. There is so much snow melting away it is causing large puddles to form; my interval course is no exception. Tonight, I did 5x1km intervals on 60 second rest. The workout was made a little more difficult as there were two large puddles located on the course which we had to cross ten times. We would run hard/fast, hurdle over the first puddle, run hard/fast, hurdle over the second and then run to the finish and then repeat the process all over again. A crosswind made for uneven interval times. 4.16/3.52/4.16/4.04/4.18

Hazards of snowshoeing

This weekend I learned first hand about one of the perils of snowshoeing in the Spring, weak ice. We had an impromptu gathering of the people that went on the recent Adirondack trip. We headed up to Gatineau Park on the north side of the Ottawa River. The snow is melting quickly but there is still a thick base of granular snow. Our goal was to have lunch at Pink Lake. We initially started out by bushwacking in a northwesterly direction. After scrambling through a couple of thorn patches we decided to try and find the main trail. It was at this time that we ran into a wet problem. We had to trek between two lakes divided by a land bridge. The hump of the land bridge was quite steep. My first attempt at getting up the hill was unsuccessful. One of my legs slid down onto the weak ice breaking through the surface of the lake giving me a soaker. One foot was icy cold while the other was toasty warm for the recent exertion. As more and more people went up the slope it became more slippery. A couple of soakers later we decided to take an inland route rather than trying to scout along the edge of the lake. We made it to Pink Lake and took a more direct route back to the car.


Sent from my iPod

Adirondacks 2008

Friday March 28 2008

It was under spring-like conditions that the uOttawa Outdoors club headed south to the Adirondacks for a long weekend of winter camping, mountain climbing and snowshoeing. The weather conditions would be a mystery until we arrived at the trailhead. Ottawa is within a hare’s breath of setting a seasonal snowfall record. Would there be more snow in the Lake Placid? On our way south we stopped at Malone, NY for the traditional Friday fish and chips pre-trip meal. We briefly detoured to Price Chopper so I could buy fig newtons and pretzel goldfish.

As we headed south the condition grew worse. It started to snow. The snow was accumulating on the road. As we drove down the park access road we spotted wild turkeys grazing on a nearby field. Further along the road we had to make an emergency stop as a deer was in the middle of the road eating road salt. We arrived at the ADK Lodge and loaded our backpacks with group gear. This year we would split into two groups as there is a cap of nine people per campsite, we had 15. Under blustery conditions we headed out on the trail towards to Marcy Dam. We left at an inopportune time as they were four other groups that would be heading towards Marcy Dam at roughly the same time all in search of scarce lean-tos. I was asked to scout ahead and try to get first dibs on the largest lean-to, known as the “palace.” (N44 09.443 W073 57.079 e=2347 feet) It is the largest on Lake Marcy. I got lucky but by only five minutes before the next group arrived in search of an abode. The snowy conditions would work to our advantage keeping the evening temperatures in the mid-twenties. Despite the higher elevation of the Adirondacks had received there annual average amount of snow. For supper, we had started with a mixture Knorr Swiss soups mixed with coconut paste. The main course was pasta. While sitting around eating supper Steph, the leader, offered us some wisdom, what freezes will stay frozen over the weekend. This could mean that your toothbrush, toothpaste, liquid soap or water bottle might freeze and stay frozen. As we settled in for the night, I ditched my snowlion boots and donned my booties and gators. A pair of tights and Gore-Tex shell pants would keep my legs warm. As the conditions grew chillier, I applied more and more layers making it hard to bend forward. On top, I had base layer coolmax top, a REI lightweight shirt, 200 weight Polar fleece vest, a 300 weight Polar Fleece jacket and a Gore-tex shell. I felt toasty wearing all this gear. Before bedding down for the night I dropped a couple of layers.

Saturday

I awoke at 0500 to find it was still dark. I dozed off for a couple of hours before getting up at 0730. For breakfast we had a deluxe breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and bagels. A cup of black coffee would be all that was needed to restore one’s senses. After breakfast I had my first experience with the cold. It would take two hands to squeeze out toothpaste as it as had frozen overnight. As well, I had to de-thaw my toothbrush in my mouth as it was crunchy from freezing overnight. At 10:00 with bags packed we head west to pickup the Algonquin Peak trail (Junction N44 10.334 W073 57.528). Along the way we were passed by the other group traveling at a brisk place and they were eager to be the first to ascend the mountain. There speed would become a hazard. Over the course of the hike we would gain 3,000 feet. As we climbed we peeled off layers as we were working up a sweat. Along the way we eyed the frozen falls (N44 09.578 W073 58.779 e=3277 feet). This would be a water refilling stop on our return. We stopped at the Wright Peak trail junction (N44 09.156 W073 59.152 e=3994 feet) to put on warmer clothing. At this point we were close to the edge of the tree line. We could see the snow blowing near the peak. I headed out first and did a solo summit (Algonquin Peak summit solo @1400 N44 08.613 W073 59.206 e=5115 feet). (http://www.peakbagger.com/peak.aspx?pid=6022) On the way up, I had a weird experience as I was breathing hard and sweating profusely while receiving a blast of arctic cold air. The going got a little rough near the top and I was forced to bash my snowshoes’ crampons into the snow-ice base to get a purchase. A misstep could cause one to slide down the side of the peak. I took a self-portrait and headed down to lead the remainder of the group up to the summit. The going was challenging as the crampons on their rented snowshoes were not aggressive as mine. We would use rock carrons for navigation. There was much relief once we back into the shelter of the trees. It was at this point that the fun began. It was child like. We slide down the trail on our bums. Once back at the Wright Peak trail junction we took a lunch break. Our trek back to the waterfalls was a brisk one. Using a precarious method we refilled water bottles. We took another rest break at major trail junction and met Peter Fish, one of the early Park Rangers. We were arrived back in camp late in the afternoon to find a surprise. Something had attacked the food pack and left discarded package of brownies underneath the bag. A quick check of the bag revealed that the martin must have a penchant for chocolate. There was some discussion if it would pay us a visit overnight. Would the martin climb into someone’s sleeping bag for warmth? Steph came back to camp a little later to pass along news of the other group. They were a disappointed lot. They didn’t reach summit. Without a compass, a map, or GPS they decided to take a shortcut and see if they could summit by sighting the peak and snowshoeing off trail in hope of beating our group to the top. This wasn’t a wise idea. Midway up the slope they had to turn back as the snow was too deep. For supper we had a couscous stew along with a raspberry, apple flan for dessert. Tonight, would be a colder night as we had a healthy crop of stars visible overhead. In anticipation I added another layer of clothing, a down vest (-15C/5F overnight).

Sunday

Once again I was awake early but didn’t emerge from my toasty sleeping bag until there were others about. Breakfast was hot fruit mixed with a dry cereal. By mid-morning we were back on the trail heading in a southerly direction bound for Avalanche Lake. It would be a warm hike. The snow was melting and starting to gum up our snowshoes. We had lunch while sitting on the frozen Avalanche Lake. (N44 08.117 W073 57.883 e=2959 feet) The bright sun reflecting off the snow gave many of us the start of a tan on our faces. Once back at camp we had to peel off more layers as there was melt water dripping from the roof of the lean-to. With lighter packs we reached the van in record time. We stopped in Saranac Lake for a hearty post-trip meal.

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