AP joint trip report
Day 1 Saturday August 25 2007br /br /div style=”text-align: center;”Left QR @1100 and stopped at a href=”http://www.sobeys.com/”Sobey’s/a for Q-cards, bananas and pop. Bought gas at Beamsville service station. Took the a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_407_%28Ontario%29″ETR 407 /aas far as we could then forced onto Highway 401. Took 410 back to ETR and thence onward. The traffic on highway 401 was exasperating. Uneventful trip to Huntsville and stopped at McDonalds for a late lunch. Arrived at the Portage Store at 4:30pm. The forecast was 70% chance of rain and at the Portage Store it did not disappoint. The rain came down as a deluge. While picking up the permit, the old biddy said, “I guess you folks didn’t pay the sunshine premium.” The a href=”http://www.portagestore.com/”Portage Store/a has a noteworthy change, they now have an outside area for canoe rental. Also, we saw Hispanics with a href=”http://www.maidofthemist.com/en/”Maid of the Mist/a blue slickers. Solo paddled the canoe with Sveti back to the car. Under the special wet mist of Algonquin, we loaded the canoe and headed north. The Joe Lake portage was virtually deserted. A few people we saw looked like drowned rats. As we continued the mist turned into rain and it began penetrate past our rain gear. A decision was made to take the first available campsite on Joe Lake. This was the site that Ryan’s church group had used last year and in short, it is not to be recommended. It was lacking in the most important essentials, no flat tent space and not a single tree branch on which to hoist the food pack. We arrived at the site at 6:30 pm. After the tent was up it started to rain more intensely and it started to grow dark. To boost morale we drank hot chocolate. The conditions grew worse by the minute. A number of attempts to light the fire proved futile. We hoisted one end of the canoe into a notch of a tree and ate steak sandwiches under the suspended canoe by the light of the candle lamp. Most romantic, but we were more concerned about keeping dry. CM’s new a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Algonquin_Park2007/photo#5104195414243310306″stove /aproved its mettle. Another attempt was made to start the fire but we gave up after burning all available paper. Around 9 pm we went into the tent. To our surprise, we were not alone. There was something small running around the tent and climbing up the walls. It was only when we shone with the light of the candle that we saw that a small mouse had entered the tent. After several attempts the critter was evicted.br //divbr /Day 2 Sunday August 26 2007br /br /Up @7:15 and spent a little while packing the sleeping bags and thermarest. The rain had stopped but it was overcast. Our attempt to secure the food pack from the local furry residences was unsuccessful as the evidence was clear. A line of milk powder dripped down the trunk of the tree. Our pack had been attacked by red squirrels! It was with some relief that the rucksack was undamaged and the food loss was minimal. Once again, we lit the stove and ate hot oatmeal and tea. With an ambitious day ahead we quickly mounted the canoe and started our trek north. Before lunch we had covered two of the eight portages between Big Joe Lake and Baby Joe Lake. Burnt Island Lake was a little choppy but with a little persistence we were able to reach the north end just in time for lunch hour. For lunch we had bagels, cheese and raisins all the while looking on the shimmering waters of the lake. As we were finishing lunch a couple of university students asked to borrow our park map and to take digital pictures of the campsites on Happy Isle, Merchant and Lake Opeongo. There map had blown away. Most of the afternoon was spent in the Otterslide family of lakes and portages. We arrived at the first Big Trout Lake campsite, the Smeyers campsite, at 5:30 pm. Once again we drank hot peach-flavoured ice tea upon our arrival. DM and SR setup the tent while CM cut down a tree. For supper we ate boiled carrots and yellow beans as starters and two boxes of Kraft Macroni and cheese for the main meal. For the record Kraft dinner prepared without milk is edible and somewhat palatable. This time we made doubly sure that the pack was suspended from the trees. When the coals reduced to embers we headed into the tent.br /br /Day 3 Monday August 27 2007br /br /The day started an hour earlier which helped combat the threat of strong winds that might be encountered on Big Trout and White Lakes. Our day started at 6:15 am. Breakfast took the form of hot oatmeal and hot ice tea. We were on the lake by 8:00 am. The lake was graced by smoky mist that hung above a glass-like surface. We were able to cross over the two bays before starting our southerly paddle down White Trout Lake. As we were passing the “Falcon cliffs” across from the log cabin homestead an osprey fly over the canoe. Once again we had favorable winds on White Trout Lake. We stopped for a a href=”http://www.clifbar.com/”Clif Bar/a break at the Island campsite near the entrance to Grassy Bay. One of the interesting aspects of the Grassy Bay paddle is the meanders grow ever shorter until you reach the Hawkins portage. At which point, the route starts to become less visible and one must rely more on intuition. They have a mini-portage direction sign hammered on a tree along the route. Of note, the reedy portions of the route is becoming smaller each year. To out surprise, the “Miss Mabel” beaver dam is visibly reduced and now can be surmounted without difficulty. The McIntosh Creek portage was a hive of activity. CM quickly recognized that two guys double-portaging a mountain of high quality gear that was adorned with decals from Burton snowboards and Ron Jon’s surf shop in Hawaii. The McIntosh island campsite was occupied and we opted to use the center of the three inline sites that point to the channel that leads to Ink Lake. We arrived at 12:30 pm and had a quick hot chocolate and a swim and then spent the afternoon relaxing. Of course, a oversize red pine had to be dealt with as this provided with more than enough wood for the day. As supper was constrained by the lack of powdered milk we combined the two Kraft dinners together with an added a can of Hunt’s tomato sauce. That evening a beaver swam within ten meters of the shoreline.br /br /Day 4 Tuesday August 28 2007br /br /We were up by 6:30 am and packed and away by 8:30 am. CM took the stern of the canoe and Svety in the bow. DM decided to assume the raj position and was guided through the twisting creek that led to Ink Lake. In ways, this is the highlight of the trip as this area is a tamarack swamp and contains many species that are unique to Algonquin Park. As we were completely rested we were able to appreciate the unusual surroundings. The McIntosh portage (2320 meters) was quickly disposed of. With light packs it was more like a walk in the woods. Tom Thomson, Little Doe, Fawn, Tepee and Joe Lake were traversed against a moderate head wind. The Joe Lake portage was a hive of activity with people coming and going. One group just did not fit into the canoeing mold. They had rented a cottage at the Canoe Lake entrance and paddled in for some sightseeing. Even against a constant headwind the paddle across Canoe Lake proceeded at 5.5 km/hr. This is compared with the average in the Tom Thomson lakes of 6.5 km/hr. The trip was rounded off with a trip to the visitor’s center for lunch.br /br /As a final note: the little foot stool equipped with a carabiner was a perfect solution for seating the middle paddler. A life jacket between the points of the yoke made this position completely comfortable. The other innovation was the candle lantern which we used to cook the steaks under the canoe in the rain. The third item was the MSR isobutane lightweight stove. This allowed for hot oatmeal and tea for breakfast.br /br /Canoeing distance:br /59 km or 36.6 milesbr /br /Portaging distance:br /7.5 km or 4.66 miles
Ap in brief
I’m back from a multi-day canoeing, camping and portaging trip to Algonquin Park. This is a quick summary as I’ll post a longer blog in a couple of days. The trip went well and started with rain and ended with a couple of days of bright sunshine. The rain on the first night forced us to cook steak sandwiches under a suspended canoe using my new a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Algonquin_Park2007/photo#5104195414243310306″stove/a. Our food bag was attacked by something and the attacker got covered by a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Algonquin_Park2007/photo#5104175678868584738″powdered milk/a with no damage to the backpack. On our first night, we had the fun experience of evicting a mouse that took refuge from the rain as we were heading to bed. The rest of the trek was uneventful as the warm sunny weather made paddling on the lakes effortlessly. We also what discovered what really a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Algonquin_Park2007/photo#5104197162294999938″killed /athe famous artist a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Thompson”Tom Thomson/a.br /br /Photo gallery:a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Algonquin_Park2007″br /http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Algonquin_Park2007/a
Where’s the tent?
I was talking with my father the other night and we trying to figure out who has what camping gear. I have some of it in Ottawa and my father has the rest at my folk’s place. The topic of the tent came up. My father could only find the tent poles and not fly or the tent body. I scoured my place and couldn’t find the tent. This was odd. My father checked the garage again and discovered that he had done too good a job when putting away the gear from our last adventure. The tent was in a box labeled Christmas decorations. I’ll head over to a href=”http://www.mec.ca/”MEC /a at lunch hour to buy another a href=”http://www.thermarest.com/”thermarest /amattress and an awl but very slowly the chores are getting finished. The weather looks a little spotty with some rain to start off the time with hot sunny conditions for the remainder of the weekend.
Algonquin Park #1
This coming weekend I am going to do something that I haven’t done for two years and that is, go canoeing, camping and portaging in a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algonquin_Park”Algonquin Park/a. It is sort of a tradition for my father and I to do a canoeing trip just before school starts. Health reasons prevented us from going for the past two years. This year we will do the standard trip which will take from Canoe Lake in the south up to Burnt Island, Big Trout and then back by McIntosh Lake. (a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Algonquin_Park2007/photo#5100970477919565986″the route/a) We will have one of my father’s international chemist from Bulgaria with us this year. I’ll spend the next couple of days visiting a href=”http://www.mec.ca”MEC /abuying last minute gear before I head south to my parent’s place. The goal is to have four days and three nights in the park. A couple of days ago, I made the online park reservation and still have to reserve a 17′ superlite canoe. This year we will try out my new superlight stove to do some cooking otherwise most of our food will be prepared over a fire. I am looking for using my a href=”http://www.turtlepaddle.com/site_content/algonquin_guide.php”turtle algonquin guide paddle/a which hopes to redeem itself from it misadventure in the Ottawa River earlier this year. One day in the future, I hope to take JL either hiking or canoeing in Algonquin Park. Dang, time to go find the tent….Pack on…
Sore for a good cause
As I type this entry my legs and bum are a little sore and tired. Yesterday, I cycled 90km/56 miles as part of the MS-Bike tour which took me and 600 other cyclists from Ottawa to a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemptville,_Ontario”Kemptville/a. We stayed overnight ata href=”http://www.kemptvillec.uoguelph.ca/” Kemptville College/a and cycled back today. Over the two days of cycling we covered close to 160km/100 miles. I was able to locate a couple of new a href=”http://www.geocaching.com”geocaches /athat were placed recently. Rather than stays in the dorms, I decided to camp and was able to use my solo tent which worked out great as they don’t have sufficient dorm space for all cyclists. In a couple of days, I’ll post a story about one of my first experiences with diesel fuel. While touring the campus I saw something that brought back memories of a misadventures in the occurred when I was in Grade 5.
Mt. Marcy 2007
Mt. Marcy, Adirondacks, NY June 29 – July 2 2007br /br /Short versionbr /br /Climbed a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Marcy_(New_York)”Mt. Marcy /a5344 feetbr /Climbed a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adirondack_High_Peaks”Mt. Phelps /a4161 feet (hiked solo)br /Climbed a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adirondack_High_Peaks”Tabletop/a 4427 feet (hiked solo)br /Ascended three more of 46 tallest mountains in the New Yorkbr /Met some great folks that want to climb the other 46 peaksbr /Met my first mountain stewardbr /Great hiking weather, cool and sunny – it only rained at night, but rained every nightbr /Ate some expensive lasagnabr /Missed the a href=”http://www.apple.com/iphone/”iPhone /areleasebr /Restocked on a href=”http://www.nabiscoworld.com/newtons/”fig newtons/abr /br /Long versionbr /br /Friday June 29 2007br /br /Over the weekend, I accomplished a goal that I long thought was unattainable which was to climb a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Marcy_(New_York)”Mt. Marcy/a, the tallest peak in New York at 5344 feet. I knew that I would eventually climb it but didn’t know under what circumstances. I had heard that it would be a long and hard climb but it seems that the rumors preceded the reality. Climbing Mt. Marcy would be a long day but with plenty of water, food and snacks, 250 people climb it during the peak summer season.br /br /On early Friday morning, Chris and Elaine picked me up and he took the long way to Lake Placid via Ogdensburg, New York. Normally, we would cross at Cornwall, Ontario but the native Indians were having there day of protest. The Cornwall border crossing runs through the Indian reservation. Rather than run the risk of delays due to the protest we opted for another nearby crossing. The US Custom/DHS were ready for the long weekend and pre-screened the cars in the queue which sped up the custom formalities. We cleared customs quickly and started our trek south. Four other cars in our group would cross at Cornwall at various points later in the day. Our first stop was a Price Chopper in Lake Placid where we bought lunch and provisions for the next couple of days. I bought pita bread, packaged tuna, fruit, soda, ice tea, propel and fig newtons. I also bought some new 3M bandages that come in a neat package. We arrived at our group campsite in the early afternoon and set up our tents. Over the next couple of hours fourteen more tents would be setup at our group campsite.br /br /I setup my new a href=”http://www.rei.com/product/731428″REI Chrysalis tent /aand footprint and pleased that it went up quickly. This would be it inaugural use in the wilderness. I have to thank a href=”http://www.jasonplancaster.com/”Jason /afor suggesting the tent as it worked great and kept me warm and dry through the three nights of rain that we got on the trip. The rain would collect and drain from the footprint and not accumulate in the tent. I next inflated my thermarest and unpacked my new MEC 7C down sleeping bag. Once the a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Mt_MarcyJuly2007OHOC/photo#5083044616938667922″tent /awas up I ate lunch. Chris, Elaine and I went to the registration office and did a hike around Heart Lake. Our goal was to find the trail head from Mt. Nye and Mt. Street (trail #25). Both peaks are part of the 46 series but have undocumented trails. We headed into Lake Placid for ribs and pulled pork. On our drive in we spotted the rib festival and decided to check it out. The food was expensive, minimal and I ate some of my lunches when back at camp. The plan for Saturday was to climb Mt. Marcy and leave camp at 0830. We would have to be up early (0545) to get everyone else ready to hike. A little after we got the fire going the elements acted against us. It started to rain. We headed to our a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Mt_MarcyJuly2007OHOC/photo#5083044659888340930″tents/a. It would rain for an hour.br /br /Saturday June 30 2007br /br /I awoke at 0545 and had the Coleman stove boiling water in a little while. It would take the smell of brewed coffee to get most folks to leave the comforts of their tent. The breakfast conversation was interesting. Normally, there is the discussion about who snores and not. A couple of folks were upset by the sound of zipper being opened and closed at various point during the night. We were given a stern warning to minimize our zipper interactions. The 12 folks that would hike up Mt. Marcy have different fitness levels. It was decided to break the group into a fast and a slow group. The slow group would leave an hour before the fast group. I was in the fast group and we left at 0830. Our first stop would be at a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Mt_MarcyJuly2007OHOC/photo#5083044672773242834″Marcy Dam /awhere we met the main trailhead. Before heading out I had filled my a href=”http://www.rei.com/product/733683″100 oz camelback /awith water and my 2 liter dromerdary bag. I think I was carrying the equivalent of a galloon. Kevin and I broke away from the main group and would work off each other for much of the day. We both have similar fitness levels and would change the lead when we got tired. Along the way, I eyed the Phelps peak trailhead and wonder whether I could climb it over the weekend. We stopped at the Indian Falls and checked out the view. As we were climbing over a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Mt_MarcyJuly2007OHOC/photo#5083044728607817762″little Mt. Marcy /awe passed the slower group. We would be at the top in about three hours and forty-five minutes. There was a cool wind blowing and I put on my shell. I took a picture of the a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Mt_MarcyJuly2007OHOC/photo#5083044715722915858″summit plaque /aand then the battery on my camera died which sucked. Over the next half hour, the remainder of our group would reach the summit. The summit steward, a summer student from PA, talked about the environmental sensitive conditions of the peak. Mt. Marcy was first climbed on August 5 1837. It was renamed in honor of Governor William Marcy. (N44 06.767 W077 55.415) (a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Mt_MarcyJuly2007OHOC/photo#5083069553518788658″Chris on top of Mt. Marcy/a) We spent about an hour eating lunch and chilling. The slow group started to head down a little after lunch. I followed a little while later. I spent much of the afternoon passing and being passed by the assistant forest ranger. We had met in March just after he had sprained his wrist skiing. The trek back to camp was equally as brisk as it took a little over four hours. The trip was made much easier as I sipped the camelback at will which meant that I never got dehydrated or needed to stop. My fuel for much of this hike would be Clif bars. Once back at camp I was bushed. I made myself a cup of strong tea and talked with Chris and Elaine. They had climbed Marcy last year and so they had hike a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adirondack_High_Peaks”Phelps /aand Tabletop instead. At this point, the idea of climbing two more of the 46 started to develop. I was happy that I had brought along my Keen Sandals as it was great to get out of the warm hiking boots. The hot shower felt good. The others would return over the next couple of hours. The Saturday evening meal was an interesting and expensive situation and even now, still puzzling.br /br /The group opted for an Italian restaurant in Lake Placid. While driving into town the group leaders described what a pain “group meals” can be as someone always comes up short. Before heading into the town there was a fair amount of beer being consumed. Folks were so bushed that they were being driven to the shower which was only 100 yards away. For supper, I opted for lasagna, a salad and soda. The folks I was sitting with decided on lasagna and a soda. The other 12 folks had a pizza and beer. We all had a ravenous appetite. Then next part is where things get interesting. It was time to tally up the individual bills. Calculating the bills for 15 people is hard, complex and difficult. I’ll say that we spent more time calculating the bill than ordering the food and eating it. It was like going through a forensic audit. I was initially asked to pay $41 for my lasagna, soda and salad. After much haggling and redoing the calculation we whittled the amount doing to $30 which is okay but still strange that the beer and pizza folks had bills of $13. I was little pissed. Kevin who also ordered lasagna less the salad was asked to pay $30. Somewhere along the line we had been double charged for the meal. Once back at camp the elements were not in our favor as it started to rain heavily. The plan for Sunday was an easy day hike.br /br /Sunday July 1 2007 (Canada Day)br /br /It had rained so hard overnight that any zipper concerns were masked by the sound of rain on the fly. I was up at 0630 and was eating breakfast once the water was boiled. I filled up my camelback, dromerdary bag and packed my lunch. I asked the leader whether I could opt out of the day hike and do something a little more strenuous. If I could get on the trail early enough I could ascend the mountains before the traffic started to build. I talked the day hike over with Chris and he gave me some tips on where to look for the Tabletop trail as it is an un-maintained trail. Kevin also wanted a more strenuous hike and set out to climb Mt. Colden. After putting along layer of tape on my heel (preventative taping with 3M Micropore) I headed out towards Marcy Dam. Forty-three minutes later I was at the dam. I talked to the sweet, assistant forest ranger and headed onwards to the Phelps trailhead. The trail up Phelps is a similar to the main trail. It was rocky and eventually takes you up to a ledge that gives you a panoramic view of the other mountains. I made up some Propel and had an apple for a snack. The view was weird as it was misty one moment and then clear the next. The morning mist was burning off ever so slowly. Phelps (4185 feet N44 09.409 W073 55.281) The descent was a little slower as I had to negotiate the rocks. I met six groups on my way down. I stopped for lunch at a bridge a little before Indian Falls. Pita, tuna, apple, fig newtons, ice tea and propel filled me up. At this point, I constantly consulted the map as the trail to Tabletop is unmarked. The sign for the summit is 25 yards down the trail and hidden behind a tree. I got the impression that they were trying to actively discourage folks from climbing the peak. Before heading out on the trail I used the GPS to set a reference point. This would come useful in the future. Climbing Tabletop was a fun and unique experience. Most of the hike is through conifer trees that are a shoulder width apart. There are downed tree and roots through the trail but they are all easily climbed over. There are no trail signs as you follow the opening in the trees. When the trail got too overgrown I powered up the GPS and it verified that I was at the summit. Tabletop (4427 feet N44 08.400 W073 54.958) At this point I was starting to tire. I used the GPS to give me a count down of the number of meters/yards to hike before I reached the main trailhead. Once back at the trailhead I keying in the GPS coordinates of Marcy Dam and watched the miles-to-go grow smaller and smaller. Along the way, I met a couple who asked how much further to Marcy Dam. The guy was happy knowing the distance in miles, meters or yards. I reset the GPS and it was 2.1 miles to go. The trek to the dam was uneventful as the trail was becoming familiar. After signing out at the Marcy Dam checkpoint it was time to head back to camp. At a brisk pace I hiked west getting into camp in the late afternoon. Chris, Elaine, Yuri, and Dimitri and headed into town for a meal at a local bar. We patiently smiled as we watched the skies open and the rain to come down in buckets. The other eleven folks were having chicken and salad in the rain. As we were leaving the sun came out. Once back at camp I decided to do a cool down workout and to walk around Heart Lake in the dark. I was curious to see how much of it I could hike in the dark without a flashlight. Some parts of the trail were easier than others as they had put down a bed of white cinder which is iridescent. It was like following a white line in the dark. The walk loosened up my legs as I had fears of cramps in bed if I cool them down. Just as I was getting into the tent it started to pelt again.br /br /Monday July 2 2007br /br /I was awake at 0500 but decided to lie in bed until 0630. Today we would be breaking camp so I packed the sleeping bag and thermarest before getting out of the tent. The goal was to have all 15 folks packed and ready to leave for 0930. After breakfast I refilled the camelback and put my lunch things together. I shook the excess water off the fly and was pleased that the tent itself was dry. The were a couple of pools of water in the footprint but less than expected as I had set the tent up so that it sloped downwards. After the tent was packed I helped Judy take down her tent. With a couple of minutes to spare we head north to Saranac Lake which is northwest of Lake Placid. Much of the morning was spent climbing Ampersand Mountain (3352 feet N44 14.075 W074 12.625). For lunch I had a log of fig newtons, 2 packages of tuna, pita bread and soda to wash it down. After lunch we headed down the mountain and started our trek north. Along the way we stopped at Price Chopper to buy five packages of a href=”http://www.nabiscoworld.com/newtons/”fig newtons /aand some Pretzel Goldfish. By early evening we were back in Ottawa.
User experiences…
Today, I was at Mountain Equipment Co-op (a href=”http://www.mec.ca/”mec.com/a) buying some last minute provisions for my hiking/camping/climbing trip (a href=”http://www.mec.ca/Products/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441775397″a summer sleeping bag /aand 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 a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_day”Canada Day /aon 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 a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Marcy_(New_York)”Mt. Marcy /a 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 span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_0″camelback/span 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 span class=”blsp-spelling-corrected” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_1″stock up/span on them. Things are shaping up well for the adventure…
Sore, tired, stiff and Adirondacks
Tonight, I did my first interval workout of the year in the a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Arboretum”arboretum/a. 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.br /br /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 a href=”http://www.adk46r.org/”46r/a. It will involve a fair amount of hiking as you have to climb a href=”http://www.adk46r.org/listf.html”46 peaks/a in the Adirondacks.
I fit!
It has been windy the last couple of days and I decided to wait for the wind to die down before following the instructions on my new tent, “Assemble your tent at home before doing so during a storm in the wilderness.” Late yesterday, the wind had died down so I headed over to a nearby field to assemble my tent for the first time. I connected the poles together until they formed a lattice and then inserted then into the corner slots. I next clipped the hooks onto the poles and the tent was up. It uses the same ideas as Jason’s tent so I used some tricks I learned from the Shenandoah trip. The fly has some Velcro fasteners that attach it to the poles. I opened up the vent at the top to get some air circulating in the inside. The final step was to attach the footprint to the tent. I did the next operation with a bit of apprehension, that is, to get into the tent. Why the apprehension? I’m a little over six feet tall and finding things to fit my long frame is always a challenge. I laid down in the tent and saw that I could position myself in three configuration, left diagonal, straight-down and right diagonal. The left diagonal position didn’t work as my head brushed against the door. The straight-down position was a little better. The right diagonal position was the best as it gave me a couple of inches of space near my feet as well as near my head. It was a big relief when I discovered that the tent would fit my long legs. The tent ships with a set of six guy ropes which I think are used to hold open the vestibule and other parts of the tent. I’m going to have to get Jason’s advice as where to attach the other ropes as the REI tents share similar designs. My next task is to get a lightweight sleeping bag that I can use over the summer months. I think that the “down” sleeping bag I use in the fall/winter is too warm for summer hiking.
