ARCHIVE: June, 2007

----- 06.29.2007 --------
If you read my earlier post, then you are aware that I went on another canoe trip. This one was further then the last.... and although not solo, it still stood to be a pretty sizable trip! An old buddy from back home (Dave Burke) & I took on the lower Missinaibi River from Mattice to Moosonee! A 320 KM stretch I'll never forget! It was an awesome trip! Challenging, yet awesome. In fact, it was my first river trip and my first exposure to rapids. Yes, I've done lots of paddling, but lake paddling & river paddling are quite different. We finished in 8 days, 2 full days ahead of our 10 day plan. We were pretty happy with that! I got a lot of video & some pics too.... but I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to mix them up, sort them, and post them.

Tomorrow, Jen & I leave for Montreal to go to a wedding, and then on Sunday, we'll drive from MTL to Algonquin for a week of camping. This will be luxurious car-camping... where I'll be able to drink beer... cold beer! Yes, ice will be a short drive (or walk) away! Still in tents, but the tent will be much larger & I should have a full blow up mattress, as opposed to my 3/4 thermarest, which doesn't keep air (which I found out the hard way for the 2nd half of my trip!).

So, once back from Algonquin, I should have a chance to mix up some video and pics for you. Stay tuned.... and in the interim, have a happy & safe long weekend. And Happy Birthday Canada!!! :)

----- 06.17.2007 --------
To all of you Fathers out there.... Happy Father's Day! [Private Part Starts Here] And Dad.... Happy Father's day to you! You're the best Dad I've ever had.... and even if I had a ton of Dad's, you'd still come out on top! You've always been there for me and for that I thank you and love you a lot! I tried calling earlier today, but I guess you're out.... but I'll call you later today... which is my last chance before I leave for my trip tomorrow.[/Private Part].

And to any of you that may have been snooping on the "private message", you may have seen I'm leaving for a trip tomorrow. That's right! An old Friend of mine from back home (Dave), and I are heading out on a monster canoe trip. This will be my biggest undertaking to date, atleast in terms of a camping trip. We're leaving from Mattice, ON and paddling all the way up to Moosonee, ON, on James Bay! That's 320 KM's and we're going to do it in 10 days!!! A trip to top all of my others! Like before, I'll bring my camera (for stills & video), but this time I'll be thinking more of the finished product and hope to bring you a better video once it's all done. And since it's 10 days, I'm bound to get some more footage "outside" the tent. All I need are some gaps within the rain, or more then 1 whole day without rain to get "more" shooting time then my last trip!

We'll be travelling the Missinaibi River. I've got all the coordinates in my GPS and we're set to leave tomorrow morning. I may navigate with my GPS this trip (last trip I only used compass and map) for a couple reasons: 1. Waterfalls - There are a few sections where we need to get over to a specific side of the river to catch our portages, or we'd head over the falls (No thanks!). I've got lots of warning in my GPS to compliment our maps. And 2. The River is LONG! - In lakes, there are a lot of distinct shorelines, islands, rivers, and inlets to be able to comfortably guess where you are on the map. In a 320 KM stretch of a river that has sections of 50+ KM's where there appears to be no significant changes on the map, it may be hard to judge where we are otherwise. 3. Campsites - With so few campsites, we don't want to risk missing one because the next one could be 25 KM further.

So after our trip, I'll get back to Toronto, then Jen & I will rush up to Montreal for a wedding (Congratulations Sam & Dave!), and then right after that we go to Algonquin for a week camping with my family. Some good ol' car camping... it'll be luxury after this trip is through!!! Well, I guess that's all for now.... Don't expect another update for 2 weeks at the very earliest, but more likely in 3 weeks time. Until then.... I hope your summers are going great! :)

----- 06.12.2007 --------
So I decided to let youtube and facebook carry my video instead of hosting it here. They stream it better to give a better quality and have more bandwidth. Both have a 10 minute limit, and my video is 12 minutes, so I've broken it up into 2 parts. So, you can either find the video in my facebook profile (you need to add the video app), or view it on youtube. The link below (in yesterday's post) works, but the quality sucks. However, it is the only way to keep a local copy, if you wanted one. Here are the youtube links: Part 1, on Youtube.com and Part 2, on Youtube.com. Most browsers (but not all) will support embedded video, so here they are:

Enjoy!

----- 06.11.2007 --------
For someone currently out of work, I sure feel busy these days! This weekend was especially busy with Woofstock and everything. It meant an early morning setup and a couple long days. But that's all good... I still found the time to string together some (most) of the video clips I took when I was on my trip. It's a 12 minute video and I hope you enjoy it. However, to fit it up here and so you can download it at a reasonable speed, I have really compressed the hell out of it. The video is about 10 MB's... which should download a lot quicker then the 350 MB original. CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO. Enjoy!

----- 06.07.2007 --------

Well, this weekend was a very busy one! Jen & I were at "Woofstock" all weekend long manning the Tiny Paws Dog Rescue booth. I had a chance to walk around and enjoy the show. What an amazing event! This was the 5th year for it, and my 3rd. It gets bigger and bigger every year. I got a lot of great shots today and yesterday that I'll get around to posting at some point.

My next "project", before I can get to the woofstock pics, is finishing a video off that I started making. I took some video of myself while I was away on my solo trip. Partly it was to document, and partly (the larger part!) was to keep MYSELF company on the trip! After going so long without interaction with people, it feels good to talk to "someone", even if it is a piece of electronics! Anyway, I should have that ready by the end of the week. Just having some technical difficulties animating my route on the map... but it's nothing I won't be able to figure out! So far, it seems to be so time-consuming it may not be worth it... but I can't abandon the time I've already put it. Must... Finish... It.... :) OK, It's getting LATE, and I am exhausted! G'nite!

----- 06.07.2007 --------
I'm alive! No.... I'm REALLY alive! As alive as I've ever been! I got home today from my canoe trip! What a success! A solo trek... 75 KM's up in Algonquin park. For those of you who know the area, it was the "Big Trout Lake Loop", starting and ending at canoe lake, travelling clockwise (Canoe - Joe - Tepee - Little Doe - Tom Thompson - Ink - McIntosh - Grassy Bay - White Trout - Big Trout - Otterslide - Little Otterslide - Burnt Island - Baby Joe - Little Joe - Joe - Canoe). What a trip! I didn't take nearly as many photos as I would have liked due to "inclimate weather" (to put it lightly!). In fact, on Tuesday, the rain turned to sleet (or sleat... however you spell "rain with ice mixed in it!"). As I travelled through Otterslide creek, making my way over beaver dams, I had ice pellets collecting on my pack! That explained why all the lakes & rivers were steaming!!! I put in on Sunday, and it wasn't until Wednesday when I saw my first peak at the sun. It was a marvelous moment!!! When I got back to the ranger station this morning on canoe lake, I asked how cold it got and their readings were -1 degree C on Canoe.... but it may have been colder up in Big Trout where I was paddling through. Anyway... truly amazing trip. Not as many photos as I would have liked because it was raining 75% of the time, but that's OK... I still got some! I'll get around to posting & sorting them sometime over the weekend. For now... I'm off to bed... a very soft, comfy one! And when I get up tomorrow, I'll still be dry. And I won't have to venture into the cold to take down my site, and move onto the next... ahhh... city livin'! :) More to follow (stories, pics, a scan of my map, maybe some journal scans, and quite possible some survivor-man style video!). Stay tuned.....

----- 06.01.2007 [PART II] --------
So after I wrote today's update, Jen & I went down to St. Louis' Wings to have dinner. I was a little distracted by some moving lights I could see out the window, behind my old condo. So we leave and I realize it's a great opportunity to make some photos, so I ran upstairs, grabbed my camera and tripod, and then started shooting. I thought I'd shoot for about 5 minutes.... 2 hours later, I was satisfied with what I made. Check out my my pics of the strobe lights. enjoy!

----- 06.01.2007 --------
Today is a day of mixed emotions. It was my last day at work. After starting there in September of 1997 as a co-op, I spent almost 10 years working to get to where I'm at today. I've been though a few generations of infrastructure in the backend... from Netware 4.1 to NT4, to 2000, to 2003, and now today we're running Windows 2003, but everything is in VMWare ESX. It's been a really fun ride! Lots of late nights and weekends, but it all seemed worth it. So... today I start a new chapter in my life. And this one's going to be better then the last.... I can feel it! It's strange how natural this all feels. Tough? Yes. Especially saying my goodbyes to everyone.... and most of all to the guys in my department that we've been through SO much together.

SO, what better way to start this new chapter then by going on a soul-searching 5 day solo canoe trip. Yes.... solo. And this is my first solo trip. I've done a ton of camping & canoeing, but this is the first one all alone. And for 75 KM's :) I'm going to bring a journal and really explore what's inside me and get together a game plan for when I get back. So... stay tuned... one of the other purposes of my trip is to make some great photos. Come back next weekend and take a look... I hope to dazzle you with my photos.

And to all my former coleagues who may be new to my site (and to the ones that have been clicking here throughout the years): Welcome! If you see pics you like, let me know! Those are the ones I'll need to use as a reference for making even better ones. And I know I sent you all an email, but I want to say it again: You've been AWESOME to work with (and for). I'll miss you... but I'll see you all again around town. K... this is me, signing off for now... going to get a bit to eat. Without a job... should I go for the KD, or the Mr. Noodles? :) Cheers!

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