Our New Hampshire Vacation - Day 3 - Sunday Sept 17 2006

Installment #3

A Stinky Puppy, Tame Birds and Plans for Kilimanjaro.

The next morning we woke to the smell of cooking breakfast, making us feel that the $80 per night to stay in the hut might have been a good idea. We ate a quick breakfast of granola bars and carrot cake (left over - from the night before) and headed down the trail. Our objective was to get as far as we could before we had to turn around. I figured that leaving at 8:00AM we had until 6:30PM (sunset) and thus we would have to turn around at about 1:00 or 1:30 PM.

The trail was gentle at first but rose quickly as we came up to Mt Pierce. We passed the couple from the camp that had the two Malamute dogs. The male had a saddle pack loaded with about 20 pounds and the female had a nasty flatulence problem so it was either race to keep ahead of them or let them get farther ahead. As Michelle and I like to take our time we let the stinky puppy get far far ahead. The summit of Mt Pierce was relatively easy to get to and at the top I purposely searched out the Geological society benchmark to take a picture of it. I eventually found it but the mark had been so abused it was almost impossible to make out the elevation. It was nice to be above the tree line as we could now take off our caps for a while. Michelle was talking to the folks that run the AMC Hut and apparently the area has a tick and Limes disease problem, so we had to keep our hats on anytime we were in the woods. Also the breeze made the humidity somewhat more bearable.

As we passed to the next part of the ridge of mountains we caught a glimpse of the next summit Mount Eisenhower. When we hiked down to the saddle between the mountains clouds started to fill the Notch below us. Before the entire valley filled with clouds we had a great view of the Mount washington hotel in Bretton Woods, then within seconds the clouds covered the valley and began to spill over onto the Eastern slopes of the range. We literally walked thrrough the clouds as they spilled between the summits and onto the other slope of Eisenhower. The peaks of the mountains were visible through the clouds and the clouds looked like lakes of snow. As fast as the clouds came they tumbled over the Mountains and disappeared in the warm weather on the other side. There was one brief scramble as we approached the summit for about three metres we were on our hands and knees climbing a crevice like slope. When we got to the summit there was a crowd of hikers lazing in the sun. We met a couple of hikers coming the other direction that were locals but avid hikers. They talked about the best hikes in the area and we talked about hiking in general. One hike they described was one they took in the 90's to mount Kilimanjaro in Africa.. It seems that unlike everything that is said about it the hike is not that difficult but requires some acclimatisation due to thin atmosphere from the height of the climb, and doing it slow is a requirement by the guides. They gave us a good contact address to hire guides and such.. They also had a beautiful husky which licked our camera as Michelle tried to take a picture. Interesting picture ! After a brief stay at the summit and a few rolls of film later, we headed down the other side. The trail branched in several directions and we decided to take the trail around the other side of Mount Eisenhower on the way back. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake. There was no wind and the sun beat down on us as if it was mid summer. We hiked as quick as we could to get back to the saddle trail that headed back the way we came. When we came around the mountain the wid had picked up and we had some excellent views of the valley that we had missed due to the clouds on the way up. We hiked until we came to the summit of Peirce an stopped briefly for a snack, which we shared with a crowd of Grey Jays, which the Americans call Canadian Jays. Admittedly it is nice to have such a gregarious creature with the Canadian moniker but I have never heard them call this before. They swooped an landed near us one even took some crumbs directly from Michelle’s hand. As we headed back down the trail leaving our feathered friends to eat the remaining crumbs we left behind the sun started to get lower and the entire look of the trail changed. I was concerned that we might have taken the Crawford path trail instead of the trail to Mizpah hut but things became more familiar the farther we hiked. The trip down was far faster than we thought. With the exception of one slip we made it back in record time. Michelle seems to have developed a sizable bruise and I suspect it was from the trip down. When we go it back we were tired but not totally exhausted. I guess I was feeling my age as I voted to hang around the Hut and not try to tackle the Webster Cliff trail as Michelle suggested but given the length of time it took for the sun to set I suspect we could have easily made a quick trip to the cliff face and back before sun set but it was nice to relax and let my muscles heal before we headed back down the next morning. We ate a very disappointing dinner of dehydrated fettuccine and Black bean and corn chowder. The fettuccini was awful but the bean chowder wasn’t bad. That said when you are sleeping in a tent bean chowder is not a good idea. Enough said I hope. We stayed up late talking to some of the hikers and exchanging some Scouty stories and then called it a night. Luckily my sleeping bag had dried during the day and it was a much warmer nights sleep.

100 Reasons Why I love Michelle

Can you tell me 100 reasons you love your partner?
Here are 100 for mine but I could go on.

1. She listens to me even when I’m boring
2. She has the most amazing hazel eyes I have ever seen.
3. She encourages me when I need it
4. And knows when I am just being lazy.
5. She will hike on even when she hurts worse than me
6. Chocolate is one of our favourite foods
7. She cares what I think about her clothes
8. She cares how I dress (which is cool no one else has)
9. She never quits
10. She loves all seasons
11. She hikes
12. She bikes
13. She Snowshoes
14. She eats my cooking
15. Even when it’s BAD
16. History does not bore her
17. She is rarely as grumpy as me when she is tired.
18. She likes little children and small animals
19.To her Cuddling is a hobby.
20. She lets me sleep in on Saturday
21. She loves to cook
22. She loves to travel
23. We do most things together
24. We share allergies
25. She’s practical
26. She does not suffer fools well
27. She likes hot dogs
28. She can draw.
29. She likes my dated folksy taste in music
30. She likes Disney movies
31. She looks good in an evening dress
32. She looks good in Jeans
33. She looks good in most things
34. She doesn’t like Stephen Harper, Tony Blair or George W Bush
35. She may even vote NDP
36. She loves Christmas
37. She loves Thanksgiving
38. She dresses up for Halloween
39. She loves hot tubs and spas
40. If it's cute she likes it
41. Freckles rock (need I say more)
42. She talks as much as I do (most time unless she is mad at me)
43. She can take a good photo of me
44. She gets excided about vacations
45. She has dreams
46. I’m in some of them
47. She trusts me
48. She has faith in me
49. She believes in herself
50.She keeps learning
51. She has dimples when she smiles
52. She loves roses
53. She sends me roses
54.We like the same TV shows
55. She reads a lot (but sometimes reads novels more than once - I don’t understand that)
56. She loves the stuff toys I buy her
57.She doesn’t like stinky perfume
58. She smells nice
59. She misses me when I’m away
60. She has a great voice
61. She recycles everything
62. She likes “Great Big Sea”
63. She loves Jazz
64. She loves walking in the rain
65. She loves to swim
66. And looks good in a swimsuit
67. Romance never bores her.
68. She loves to dance
69. She loves to camp
70. She loves nature
71. She has an amazing smile
72. She is loyal to her friends (even when they are being stupid)
73. Her favourite colour is yellow
74. She likes parties
75. She speaks French (that’s sexy)
76. She understands me If anyone does
77. She looks good in a T shirt (just a T shirt)
78. She is not afraid of much (except some heights)
79. She faces her fears
80. She is beautiful even when she is sad.
81. She loves Kites
82. She loves to play
83. She is young and refuses to act old.
84. Even when surrounded by old fuddy duddies like me
85. Her teeth are as white as new snow.
86. She will try most things once
87. She never loses her sense of wonder at natural beauty
88. She likes breakfast in bed
89. She will cook breakfast in bed for me
90. She’s spontaneous
91. She is whimsical
92. My arms fit nicely around her waist
93. She loves Hugs
94. She is a great kisser
95. Holding hands is not an option, it is an essential
96. Sharing comes naturally to her
97. She has a great laugh
98. She’s kind
99 She’s enthusiastic
100. She Loves me.

Name That Pond

I am now aware that I have a limited readership of this somewhat self centered little Blog. So to keep you entertained can any of you identify the body of water in the header for this blog?

Our New Hampshire Vacation - Day 2 - Saturday Sept 16 2006

Installment #2

Ash Trees, Kids in FlipFlops and the We Hate George W Bush Society

Saturday morning we learned a lesson in dehydrated food storage. Dehydrated food has a shelf life contrary to the one on the pack. We decided rather that our usual oatmeal breakfast we would try the last Blueberry cobbler pack we had. I started up the stove and put the water and fruit mix on to boil which was supposed to turn into a fruit syrup on which the biscuit mix bakes and hardens. So what you are supposed to get is a large, cookie like, biscuit with blueberry syrup running through it in veins. We have had it before, and it is quite good, BUT not this time. This time we got thin blueberry soup, no biscuit.

As we were going to be hiking 3 to 6 miles today (using miles as it was marked that way - why do American’s resist the metric system?) we went for a quick brunch at Willey house in the centre of the notch. Willey house is a snack bar and gift shop that sits on the site of a famous landslide. Looking at the cliff faces on either side of the notch, the idea of being in the valley during a landslide is terrifying. There are large bare patches on the rock and I was left wondering just how much rock fell in the slide. We stopped at the AMC centre and talked to an older gent who told us if we wanted a good view of the notch to climb Mount Williard at the entrance to the notch, but as we had limited time, we decide to hike into Mizpah Spring Hut starting around noon. Michelle wanted to do the Webster Cliff trail that goes along the side of the notch, but seeing as there is a lot of scrambling (hands and knees) involved we decided to take the Crawford path which is much shorter 3 to 4 miles rather than the 6 miles along the cliff.

We bought a weekly parking pass, parked at the trail head to the Crawford path, loaded our packs lighter than usual and headed off down the trail just into the trail we came across an elegant little waterfall that made a very interesting bubbling noise and left the air, cool and moist. The trail then followed the creek that fed the falls for about 1.5 miles through a rather open deciduous bush which had lots of Mountain Ashes growing that were dropping copious amounts of bright red berries. Having never seen Mountain Ash trees I had to ask one of the other passing hikers what they were. Along this section of trail there were many hikers. We were passed by the young employees of the AMC that service the huts. All the supplies are hiked in on the backs of these kids. Yes, they look like kids, no more than 15 or 16 yrs old. Being the end of the season they are in incredible shape not an once of fat on any of them. The first two that passed us were carrying supplies on a simple ladder pack that consisted of a ladder frame held together with canvas and tied to it by twine was stacks of boxes of food. This was no backpack, just a simple frame which the hiker holds by reaching downward and grasping the bottom of the ladder. The pack is not tied to the hikers back it is just held like you might hold a person piggy back. Along the trail we had to stop a couple times to take a breather but these kids just plowed on by, at top speed, some wearing nothing more than shorts, T Shirts and flipflops no hiking boots or quick dry clothes. If Michelle and I have kids, this is a summer job I hope they think about. I would have loved to have done this, for a summer.(had I not been such a lazy little bugger as a kid)

Having left a bit late (1PM) we reached the hut just about dinner time. The tenting area was entirely taken up but they had opened a couple over flow sites one being in a spruce grove behind the hut and another on a grassy meadow in front of the hut. We were put in the spruce grove but as it turns out this was the better site because the meadow site is over the waste reclamation system that dries human waste and turns it into soil. Interesting system which uses manual labour the AMC kids again, to aerate the waste. Only one problem is it STINKS.

The hut was full of children of various ages some from a school group and some from a scout group. Luckily the spruce grove sheltered us from the noise as the cubs and school kids were LOUD. They did however, quiet down about 9:30 PM. Several other tenters came out of the bush to set up their stoves on the rocks by the hut. One couple had a back pack stove much like ours (MSR product) they were cooking dehydrated stuff again much like ours, we agreed that the Alpine Aire Pineapple chicken was a good choice. We realised that George W Bush seems to be the common enemy of tree huggers in the US. I made the mistake of saying something positive about him and got an earful, from one of the hikers. In reality I am no great fan of him but I thought it impolite to say negative things about a countries president while a guest in the country.

The smell of the dinner at the hut made our simple meal seem inadequate but after the hike it was appreciated. Michelle and I have decided that one day wee are going to go back and hike the trail using the huts (a chain of them run along the range) as meals and lodging are proved and thus you have to carry less as you hike. Bunk beds with mattresses are provided and the water is drinkable at the huts so you don’t have to pack as much water. Water is one of the heaviest things you carry hiking.

We ate and talked about what we were going to do the next day as it was getting to late to hike without headlamps (ours seem to be missing). We decided that rather than moving our tent to a new site we would use this site as our base camp and hike away from the notch into the presidential range, as far as we could and return in a day. After making plans, we called it a night and headed off to bed in the spruce grove. I hung the bear bin with our food in it in the tree not far from the tent. As my sleeping bag was wet from our leaking camel back hydration pack, I slept in just the fleece liner. Thank God it was warm when I went to sleep but it got very cold during the night. I got up once during the night, to move the bear bin farther from the tent, because there were odd noises in the bush. However it was not bears but die hard through hikers doing the Appalachian trail AT NIGHT. I could say I was impressed but I kept thinking just what would you see doing that. Oh well whatever turns your crank. Thus ended our first day.

Our New Hampshire Vacation - Day 1 - Friday Sept 15 2006

Installment #1

Fingernails Dehydrated Muck and a Million Stars




This past weekend Michelle and I took a short vacation to the white mountains of New Hampshire. It is one of our favourite hiking spots. A number of years ago we climbed Mount Washington from the Great Gulf Wilderness trail and became totally captivated by the place. Unfortunately money and time have kept us from returning until this week.

We packed as much dehydrated food as we could find and warm clothes because it is after all September (our Mistake) and headed off to New Hampshire. Actually the adventure began the night before as we went off to Mountain Equipment Coop MEC and bought fresh (if you can use the term here) dehydrated food and a new backpack for Michelle.

We packed our gear Thursday night trying, without much luck to keep it light. We left about 7 AM in the morning and headed to the US by way of Montreal Sherbrooke Magog Vermont and I93 to Crawford Notch New Hampshire. That was the condensed version of the trip in actuality we headed out without really planning the route. Most of our planning was done while we ate a very disappointing Breakfast at Casselman Ontario. I say disappointing, because we stopped at McDonalds thinking it would be fast easy and relatively safe food. At least you know what your getting right? Wrong we ordered two sausage and egg Mcbagels (or whatever) and got one BLT bagel and one sausage and egg mc bagel. Oh and as a bonus I found a finger nail in my BLT bagel but by the time we noticed the error and extra human protein we were on the road. I was lucky I did not eat the fingernail I found it in the wrapper of the bagel after I had munched half the thing. I checked all my nails first and I knew it wasn’t Michelle’s as it wasn’t metallic burgundy. YUCK YUCK YUCK ETC....

It was a bit cloudy and grey as we went through Quebec but began to clear and get surprisingly warm as we went south we crossed into Vermont at Darby Line. This was the first time I have ever been asked if I have been finger printed as I crossed the border and I think the guard was surprised when I said yes without even thinking about it. Then I quicky added it was when I was working for the RCMP as a student. As usual we passed through customs with little or no problem. The fall colours were beginning to show but most of them were yellow with a few hints of red. The weather in the east has been very mild I am not sure we even have had our first frost of the year. The countryside in Vermont is some of the loveliest in the east and the people are incredibly friendly. One thing I like is that every roadside info stop in Vermont has coffee available by donation (but I tend to donate as much as the cost because I feel guilty giving less.

We stopped in a small town were I93 enters New Hampshire for a late lunch. I am not sure if we were in Vermont or New Hampshire at this point, I will have to ask Michelle as her synapses being somewhat younger than mine work much better. As an American Blogger friend of mine (49erdweet) noted in New Hampshire "those sturdy Yankee's [have a] practice of eschewing public eateries - or else hiding them in obscure locations, far from tourists' eyes." So finding lunch was not as easy as we thought, and Unfortunately the easy going nature of residents of New England extends to customer service, they are very friendly but none too fast. As we finished our somewhat late lunch a train passed just behind the balcony. It was a small freight train and the sound of the whistle echoing through the mountain air seemed to fit well into the ambience of the warm autumn afternoon. I don't know why but trains seem to remind me of late summer or fall, possibly because as a kid I tried to make summer last as long as I could by taking long walks along the train tracks to the Mad river to fish or just throw rocks off the trestle bridge.

We arrived in Crawford Notch in the afternoon and decided to spend our first night at Zealand campsite before we hiked into the back-country areas. Our eventual destination was Mizpah Hut run by the Appalachian Mountain Club. We planned to tent on the tent platforms available but as it was three miles in and would be dark when we arrived, so we pitched our tent at Zealand campground and took a short hike into the bush and saw the silhouette of Sugar loaf against the night sky. A deer wandered into the brush as we walked up the trail, but we only got a brief look at it before it disappeared. We went back to the campsite and had our first dehydrated meal (I am having serious second thoughts on this dehydrated camping food - most of it tastes like stall mash potatoes) The night was warm and there were millions of stars to count the perfect end to a nice day.

My Accidental Life

49erdweet started me thinking about how our jobs define us, as he outlined his career path or phases of life in a blog article. I thought it might be interesting to followup his article with one that outlined my career path, if you can call it that.

The unfortunate thing about my life is there have been so many small jobs and times when I have done more than one thing at a time it is hard to define what really defines me at any time in my life. I was not even sure that my jobs related to the definition of me, and I am still not sure. Then I came up with the best way to describe my life / career path that did not portray me as self serving, although I admit to a large degree in choosing my life path I was being self serving.

My life up to a point could be best described as the accidental life.

The semi goal oriented phase

In my early years I wanted to go into youth ministries (a surprise to some I am sure) To that end I worked as a camp counsellor for 3 summers as a teen. I worked part time at a daycare run by the Methodist church in Barrie Then in my last year of highschool I did a short placement at the Barrie Banner newspaper as I entered the “I want to be a journalist phase” In this journalist phase I even went to Loyalist Community College for just over a year and dropped out for several reasons the main one being I was getting so bored that I wasn’t bothering to do the work. (And I had one of my first serious failed relationships) I have always been interested in photography so I went on to try Advertising at Georgian College again that did not interest me. I became so disillusioned with education that I decided screw this I will just take things as they come.

The no goal or floating years phase

So I got into cleaning (buildings) which sounds boring but enabled me to earn money so that I could travel one month out of every year . Basically started to float between vacations saving every nickel so I could take that all important trip to Europe or Egypt or Israel.(14 years - 10 or more trips overseas)

The epiphany !

I woke up ! I noticed I was travelling but really going no where. I didn’t have a life, life had me. I had been telling everyone that one day I was going to go back to school and finish a program maybe even university. However I was almost 34 and the likelihood of going to university was getting slimmer and slimmer. So with the money I saved for my next big trip and having developed a loathing for my life I decided just for the hell of it to apply to university. I chose something I thought would be interesting and that was to work toward a career as a history teacher starting with a history BA. I sent out applications to four universities and was accepted at all of them I chose the one farthest from home and applied for student loans,

I spent 4.5 years studying history in the coop program at the university of Ottawa and graduated Cum Laude with an honours degree and some how acquired a wife along the rout.

I was out of work for two months and then was picked up by a the Canadian government full time as a policy analyst and have been here ever since. (4 years)

Conclusion

Did any of these Jobs define me, does my current job do so, not really, and I have left out all the part time stuff I have done on rout. (Cadet instructor, construction worker, carpet layer, carpet cleaner, printing press operator, part time photography instructor, Fridge delivery person, mover etc.... and a million volunteer things) What defines me is me. If I have any real goals It is to be the best I can be in any situation I find myself and since I headed back to school in the nineties I think I have done that.

Welcome to my accidental life.

Our Vacation to the East Coast: A Piper, Forts, a Phony Indian and why I hate the Sûreté du Québec.

(Final Installment #7 - Saturday - Sunday)
Photos and many edits to follow.

Our next stop now on the way home was at the info centre on the border between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick where we stopped and watched a piper play sending eerie wails of Celtic history over the Bay of Fundy. After a brief stop to fly a kite in the ever present Fundy winds we headed off to Fort Beausejour.

Fort Beauséjour National Historic Site of Canada commemorates the role of the Fort in the struggle between France and Britain, and between Britain and the American colonies, for North America, 1751-1783. At Fort Beauséjour England and France were caught up in a tug-of-war for supremacy in Acadia.

Today the Fort’s ruins sit atop a hill overlooking the Isthmus of Chignecto, the land bridge between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Watching only the occasional passing train which traverses the low land below the Fort. As we wandered around the fort a VIA Rail passenger train passed below the fort making a wide arch around the low lands it was an incredible site to see the contrast of history and modernity. The powder magazines have been recreated realistically with some of the original stones, thus there are inscriptions (graffiti) on the walls dating back to the 1700's.

In an effort to find a campsite during the daylight hours we headed off stopping only once in Edmondston New Brunswick to look at Fortin du P'tit Sault Blockhouse

Constructed in 1841 at the height of the hostilities between the United States and England, The P'tit Sault Blockhouse was one element in a long line of defence installations stretching all the way to the province of Québec. It was destroyed by a lightning strike in 1855 and reconstructed, thanks to the generosity of the community, in 2000. Unfortunately we were only able to take a look from the outside as the Blockhouse was closed when we got there.

Our final campsite of the vacation was at Camping Cabano out side the village of Cabano this area is another historic one with echos of the War of 1812 all around there is an interesting but underfunded fort named fort Ingle just across the road from the Camp ground. This area was also made famous by Archibald Belaney AKA Grey Owl. Belaney adopted an Indian identity and the name Grey Owl, married an Anishinaabe woman, Angele Egwuna, worked as a fur trapper, wilderness guide and forest ranger. He told everyone he was a child of a Scottish father and Apache mother and had emigrated from the US to join the Ojibwa. Even though he was a total fraud his writings had an impact on environmental conservation in Canada. If you can find a copy of his writings read them they are inspiring. The Fort was interesting but small and so underfunded the uniforms used by the animators looked like Children’s Halloween costumes.

The rest of the trip home was not so pleasant. I have to admit that I am a bit lead footed when on the highway so I go on average 120 kph (which 7 out of 10 people do) but I neglected to remember that the Quebec police are not so forgiving of speeders as the Ontario police and especially unforgiving of speeders with Ontario plates. While I KNOW I was driving 120 kph I passed a Quebec provincial police car and quickly slowed and moved into the right lane, which was my mistake because it was then he followed me and pulled me over. He addressed me in French and when I said I did not speak French he grunted and said “I clocked you at 132 KPH” this he repeated 5 times as he handed me the ticket. I kept my cool and explained that I must have been watching the speed of traffic not the speedometer (but wisely I did not argue). I could have pointed out that every other freaking car on the road which was bumper to bumper was going the same damn speed but what the heck it was not worth it. I could have argued the speed on his radar was wrong but this guy seemed to be waiting for me to disagree, I suspect so because he kept repeating the speed to me.

So from now on in the province of Quebec I drive at the speed limit, no more no less.

Knowing we now had a sizable fine and a small bank account I headed Due west Arriving in Ottawa around 9:00 PM I would have made better time if I drove the speed of traffic but that as you have read was not an option.