Out On the Water

Good morning all!  It's early in the day on Wednesday and I'm getting down to doing a wrap-up of yesterday's activities.  We were finally able to get in some kayaks and get out on the water, and we ended up with a beautiful day for it.  The weather report was dicey for the morning, but we had some luck and it didn't start raining until we'd got back to shore and had some lunch.

We did a guided tour with Gros Morne Adventures, largely because they seem to be more confident about letting people go out when they're with a guide and we didn't want to get our plans derailed by the wind again.  The guides were great to have with us though because the one guide was terrific at spotting birds that we likely would have missed, and they both knew some neat geographical features that they were able to point out.  We started in a shallow bay and were able to just bob around on the surface looking down into the beautifully clear water.  We were probably only in about 2-3 metres of water and you could see right to the bottom, spotting little fish and even a few lobsters.  We then swung along the coast line and saw a few bald eagles, which is always a thrill.  We paddled down a ways to an interesting spot where two large rocks at the shore form a small cave, just wide enough to get a kayak down.  Once everyone had a chance to get their kayak into the cave we headed back.  It was a two hour tour which was just perfect for me.  They had the whole group outfitted in tandem kayaks, so Euphy was able to sit up front with Finn in her lap and let me do the paddling.  It was (remarkably) Finn's first time in a kayak and he loved every minute of it.

Finn's face when we told him that he'd have to get out of the boat eventually.

It was a great paddle, and I'd love to get out on the water again if I find myself back in the area.  In fact, if I was to come here again I'd be tempted to bring along snorkelling gear because I think you could have a blast in that shallow bay just across from Norris Point.  It was shallow enough for snorkelling, the water was crystal clear, and it was full of life.  It really made me want to get in the water.  The only issue would be the small matter of not freezing to death, as the water was pretty chilly.  Still, that's what wet suits are for.

I had my action camera, with the underwater lens on, and at several points in the trip I would just dunk my hand into the water while holding the camera.  I got some pretty neat footage and when we get home I'll try my hand at video editing.  I've never attempted that, so we'll see how it goes, but if I can get the various clips all edited together into a short video I'll throw it on YouTube and post the link here for everyone.  I'm going to need to do a photo roundup once we're home anyway since the bulk of my photos still haven't been uploaded.

After lunch in Norris Point we headed into Rocky Harbour to get some last souvenirs and then made our way back to the house for a quiet afternoon.  The sun is coming up here and its starting to look like our last day here will be a nice one.  I'm not sure what's on the menu, but I'm hoping to get in one last hike.  We fly out very early tomorrow morning, and I'll see what I can do about getting those photos online once I'm home.  Talk to you then!

The Peculiarities of Newfie Place Names

We kicked the day off early today because we had a long drive and a schedule to keep.  We were heading up to Western Brook Pond for a boat tour, and it's over an hour's drive to get to the parking lot, and a good 45 minute hike to get to the boat dock.  Now, before I go any further in my description of the day I'll need to explain something about the place names we've encountered in Newfoundland, specifically what constitutes a "pond" around these parts.  Most people would be confused by the notion of taking a boat tour in a pond, as the word usually suggests a small body of water, ranking below the status of a lake.  However, there seems to be sense of humour woven through Newfie place names, and ponds here can be mighty lakes, carved by glaciers millennia ago.  As evidence of this I give you Western Brook Pond.

Exhibit A

At 16 km long and with a maximum depth of 165 metres Western Brook Pond slightly exceeds what I would normally classify as a pond.  The beauty of this place really cannot be overstated, and the roughly two hour cruise is well worth a spot on anyone's itinerary.  Bon Tours runs the cruise regularly throughout the day, and each boat can accommodate a lot of people, but they still recommend reservations.  The boat is equipped with a PA system and the guides chime in regularly with interesting information about the area.  This should be part of any trip out to Gros Morne.

We had a rough hike back to the car since Finn fell asleep just before we reached the dock, and carrying a kid of his size is even more challenging when they're a limp noodle in your arms.  Euphy and I took turns, but it was still quite the slog, and it didn't get any better when he woke up and would only accept Euphy as his mode of transportation.  I get the impression that the hike out usually isn't that bad for most travellers though.

We got back to the parking lot and availed ourselves of the picnic tables to have lunch before getting back out on the road.  It's only about another half an hour drive north of Western Brook Pond to get out of Gros Morne park and reach The Arches Provincial Park.  Since we were already so far north it just made sense to continue up to see The Arches.  It's a small park, but the distinctive titular feature is immediately off the parking lot, so it's a cool sight to see without any physical strain.

The rock formation for which the park is named.

We actually spent a lot of time just hanging around the park.  I poked around the arches and shot a few photos of the surf.

One heck of a beach.

Once we'd taken the photos we were after we just enjoyed lounging around the grassy lawn above the beach.  Finn had a blast running around and throwing little scraps of wood that were laying around.  I'm feeling a bit wind burned since the typical Newfoundland gusts were in full effect, but it was a great chance to just relax and enjoy some sunshine.

We headed back and decided on a restaurant near Woody Point.  The Blue Room is attached to the Bonne Bay Inn, and we hadn't checked it out yet.  It was a spectacular restaurant with huge windows looking out over the bay.  If nothing else it would have been a beautiful place to eat, but they were also bringing their A game when it came to the food.  Honestly it was probably a bit fancy of a place to be bringing a three year old, but it wasn't too busy in there, and Finn behaved himself, so the meal managed to pass without embarrassment.  The food was stunning, the drinks were great (Newfie Caesar, the classic drink but made with Screech rum,) and the desserts were decadent.  Just based off the beauty of the bar and dinning room I have to feel like the inn is probably a pretty nice place to stay, and I'll definitely consider it if I find my way back here.

I'm off to bed now, it's been a long day, and we've got another early start tomorrow.  Be well my friends, and we'll talk again soon.

A Return To The Tablelands and Previous Disasters May Have Been Overstated

Okay folks, so I may have fallen slightly behind on the blogging.  I forgot that we had an early start to the day today, so I didn't get a chance to write in the morning, which means that I haven't covered yesterday or today.  Here's a catch up:

Yesterday we kicked the day off with a return to the Tablelands trail.  As I previously mentioned this is one of those rare areas where you're not asked to stay on the trial, and some suggestions were made for off-trail routes that could be hiked.  We went in a bit on the main trail and then headed out into the rocky wasteland, aiming up toward the area known as the Ice Cream Bowl.  Is a depression near the top of the plateau that routinely has some snow in it year round.  We all made it to different points in the hike; Mom and Euphy turned back with Finn when the little guy started to get too cold, and Dad stopped when things started to get pretty steep.  Jay and I managed to get into "the bowl" but we didn't make it far enough up the sides to hit snow.  It was a beautiful hike with great views of waterfalls cascading down the barren landscape.  Well worth the effort.

We took it pretty easy for the rest of the day, hanging mostly around the house.  At one point I went out with Jay and Dad into the woods behind the house.  Things get vertical pretty quickly back there and we were able to get about 70 m of altitude in a fairly short hike.  That was the extent of our adventuring for the afternoon though.

Today we got on the road early with the hope of getting to Gros Morne Adventures in Norris Point right as they opened.  They do kayak rentals on a first-come-first-served basis and we wanted our best possible shot of getting everyone in a boat.  What we hadn't counted on was that they would be very gun shy when it comes to the weather.  Apparently the forecast was calling for a significant increase in the wind speeds and they were concerned about us going out without a guide.  We ended up booking a guided tour for Tuesday to maximise our chances of actually getting out there, but it was still disappointing to have the day's plans derailed.  The wind eventually did pick up today, but long after we would have been finished our paddle.  I get where they're coming from though, as I'm sure plenty of people would be willing to overstate their kayaking experience, and the weather is an unpredictable force.  We'll hope for better luck on Tuesday.

We made the best of the situation though and hit up some short trails around Norris Point.  This is where all the photography fans in the audience are in for something of a treat.  As previously noted I've busted the lens on my phone's primary camera, and I'm having a lot of trouble getting photos uploaded to Google Photos from my computer.  Well, as it turns out the camera on my phone still has some tricks up its sleeve.  I peeled off the broken glass, but there's still another piece of the lens underneath.  I had done a quick field test and found that this prevented it from properly focusing, so I gave up.  However, upon further examination it seems that it only has trouble focusing on close objects, and if I aim at something far away the camera works fairly well.  The end result of all that is that I'm still able to take some half-decent landscape photos!

Norris Point from the first trail we hit.

The staff at Gros Morne Adventures directed us just down the road to a lovely little trail that loops along the coast and then curves steeply upward to get back down to the parking lot.  There's a side trial that could have taken us to the height of land, but none of us were particularly keen on more climbing, so we just took it easy.  The trail offers great views of Norris Point and Bonne Bay.  It gets steep at times, but the worst parts of it had stairs and boardwalks to take the edge off.

Euphy particularly liked this cool bench.

Once we got back to the car we headed a little way up the road to a trail that starts just off Main St. and then winds gently down to Wild Cove.  Euphy and Finn opted not to join us for that for that hike for fear of the local wildlife; they were reporting a bear sighting in the area, and far more terrifyingly the trail was said to be a bit marshy and there was concern about the mosquitoes.  It wasn't prohibitively buggy, but given Euphy and Finn's strong reactions to mosquito bites it was probably best that they stayed clear.  Also, it was decidedly clear of bears.

Wild Cove was wild.

The hike down was very easy, but that was fine for everyone involved.  We made it down to Wild Cove, which is really beautiful.  By the time we got down there the wind had picked up significantly and the cove was getting hit directly.  It's an amazing thing to stand by the water and get the full force of a strong wind, especially knowing that we were just getting a small taste of what the area has to offer.

We've spent most of the rest of the day puttering around; we hit Rocky Harbour for lunch and souvenir shopping, then Wood Point for groceries, and swung back toward the house for gas and additional supplies.  By the time we got back to the house we only had a short time to kick back and relax before it was time to head back out again in search of dinner.  Everything we've done has been pretty light, but we've stayed busy today.

Tomorrow will be another very early day, so I wouldn't anticipate a post until the evening.  I'll do my best to get something posted tomorrow rather than waiting until Tuesday.  Stay tuned!

Staying Dry

Good morning everyone!  This will be a short post as yesterday we didn't get up to much.  It was the first day of the trip where we got a significant amount of rain and it kept us a bit hunkered down.  We still went out to see the town of Rocky Harbour, which Jay and I missed while we were hiking Gros Morne.  It's a nice little town that seems to be a popular base of operations for people exploring the park.  There are lots of little cabins and B&Bs scattered around town, and all the groceries and supplies that you'd need.  We did a bit of shopping and had lunch at Java Jack's where the fishcakes are worth the flight to Newfoundland.

After lunch we made our way back to the house, stopping briefly in Woody Point to grab some lobster for dinner.  All told a pretty relaxing day, and my legs appreciated the rest.  With any luck I'll be able to do a hike today without whimpering.  I'll let you know how that goes...

Pull Up To The Table(lands)

Okay, so I find myself once again writing in the morning and reflecting on what I did the day before.  This might just be my rhythm for this trip.  It seems like I'm frequently up before much of the group and these quiet moments before the day really starts are great for writing.

Yesterday we kicked the day off by going to an area of Gros Morne park called The Tablelands which sits on the western edge of the park, very close to where we're staying.  Every morning during the busy season Parks Canada puts on guided tours of the area, so we headed out to join the tour.  If you find yourself out here I'd highly recommend the tour; our guide was engaging and very knowledgeable, and we walked away with an understanding of the area that we wouldn't have got by just walking the short, easy trail on our own.  The Tablelands were formed as part of the cycle of plate tectonics that forced a section of the Earth's mantle upwards.  After millennia of erosion wore down the mountains that piece of mantle was exposed.  The rarity of exposed mantle in our world, and the fact that The Tablelands were fundamental in establishing scientific theories around tectonics was instrumental in getting the park a UNESCO World Heritage designation.

As previously noted, the selfie cam still works.  Here are The Tablelands.

As you can see, the area is covered in distinctively ochre coloured rocks, punctuated by sparse patches of vegetation.  The rock is rich in iron which oxidises to give it that colour, and it's also rich in heavy metals, creating a toxicity that prevents the vegetation from getting more established.  Another interesting thing here is that unlike most parks you can just wander freely off the path; the flora is sparse and the fauna are virtually nonexistent, so there's not a lot you can hurt by walking around.

The tour lasted about 1.5 hours and even if you aren't a geology nerd I'd recommend it as a great way of learning something new.  It's a fascinating area and the tour was really illuminating.

After our hike we headed in to Trout River for lunch.  There's a terrific seafood restaurant there called the Seaside Restaurant and we had a great meal.  True to the name, the restaurant is right on the beach, and we got a seat on the second story which offered a great view of the ocean.  After lunch we headed over to the Eastern Point trail, which is directly across the wide Trout River Bay from the Lighthouse Trail we hiked at the beginning of our trip.  It's a stunning walk along the top of the cliffs, but it's very exposed so the wind absolutely screams up there.  Jay did his best to fly his kite on an open grassy area up there, but I think the wind was a bit too much and it became nearly impossible to keep the lines from getting tangled.  We'll have to give that another go somewhere more calm.

We capped off the day back at the house.  There's a small charcoal BBQ here and Dad grilled up some halibut that we bought the previous day.  This area is famous for its seafood, but it's still remarkable how well we've been eating on this trip.  Halibut cooked over charcoal is a triumph, and it made for a great dinner.

We haven't established any plans for today, and the weather report is looking grim, so this might be a nice, quiet one.  We'll see what the day brings!

Didn't Skip Leg Day

Howdy folks!  My apologies for being radio silent for the last couple of days.  I haven't found myself with copious amounts of free time in the evenings and what time I have has been spent wrestling with my equipment.  Google provides a whole host of amazing tools to help an intrepid blogger, but it all falls apart if that blogger's internet connection is anything less than spectacular.  With the recent demise of my phone's camera I no longer have photos automagically finding their way up to Google Photos, and for whatever reason I'm finding that the upload function on the Google Photos website is nonfunctional.  I don't know if that's a result of a bug or the poor quality internet connection, but after a few days of monkeying around I'm going to just have to call it quits.  I always enjoy throwing photos into the mix on these posts, but for the remainder of the trip I'm afraid they're going to have to be pretty sparse.  Anyway, on with the show!

I last posted on Tuesday morning, just before we got our day started.  The forecast for that day was calling for rain in the morning, tapering off through the afternoon, so we decided to take the drive into Corner Brook while it was still wet outside and hope for improved weather by the time we got there.  It was a strategy that paid off spectacularly.  We rolled into Corner Brook and made for the train museum on the closest end of town.  It was still a little bit drizzly outside, but the bulk of that museum is spent on a train, out of the weather.  I'm happy to report that despite all initial indications Finn was willing to return home with us and I still have my son here; I genuinely believed that I was going to have to leave him there for the remainder of the trip and grab him before our flight home next week.  My boy loves trains, and they've got some beauties.  The centrepiece of the whole museum is the Newfie Bullet, a steam train that will be turning 100 years old next year.  You can't get up into the engine, but they've got several cars hooked up that you can explore, and they offer a guided tour with the cost of admission, which was well worthwhile.  Our guide provided a huge amount of insight into what we were looking at, and I would strongly recommend opting for the tour if you visit here.

When we were ready to leave the train museum our guide recommended a small "train" (actually an automobile) that drives tourists around Corner Brook's downtown.  We used the promise of more trains to lure Finn away from the museum and headed out to find the train.  We had to wander around for awhile, but we eventually found the stop when Jay popped into a pizza shop to ask directions.  The tourist train is $2 to ride and putters around the downtown area playing lively local music.  It was a fun ride, and an opportunity to see a bit of Corner Brook while staying off your feet.

My selfie camera still works, so you'll occasionally get some of those shots.

We grabbed some lunch at a nearby restaurant and then made our way to Margaret Bowater Park, which is a lovely spot on the bank of a small river.  They've got a splash pad and playground equipment for the kids, as well as a really nice facility with a snack bar, washrooms, and changing areas.  They also have lifeguards on duty at the river if the splash pad just isn't doing it for you.  Jay and I went out for a swim, which was really nice since by that point the sun was out and it had got quite warm.  We even coaxed Finn out into the water for a bit, although I think the splash pad was more his speed.  All told it was a great day in Corner Brook.

Yesterday was considerably less relaxing, but ratcheted up the AWESOME!  Since we got here we'd been aiming at Wednesday for our trip up Gros Morne, and we managed to make it happen.  When we woke up the forecast had deteriorated somewhat and was calling for more cloud cover than original.  This can be problematic for Gros Morne since at 800 m over sea level the top can get covered in clouds fairly easily, and if the top is obscured it's considered unsafe to climb.  Jay and I decided to head to that section of the park anyway to try our luck; the weather has been consistently better than what's being predicted, and there's a 4 km hike to the base of the mountain that gives the weather a chance to clear.  The rest of the family walked briefly down the trail with us and then left to go do something less strenuous.  Our strategy paid off and by the time we drove out to the trail head and hiked in to the viewing platform at the base the clouds were very obviously clearing.  There were still some scattered wisps near the top, but they were blowing away and we were confident that we'd be safe at the top.

The trail at Gros Morne is an interesting beast.  Once you've got to the base of the mountain you've gained a little altitude, but the bulk of the climbing happens all in one shot.  The trail runs right up a rocky slope, and in less than two kilometres of hiking you've gained enough altitude to hit the 800 m peak.  It's a tough scramble up loose rock, but it gets you to the top very quickly.  The mountains on the east coast are very different animals from their cousins in the Rockies and don't come to the sharp peaks that you see on the west coast.  Out here the mountains are older and worn down to gently rounded tops by the elements.  The top of Gros Morne is a broad plain of low plants amongst great swathes of small rocks.  This is the reason that you can't make the climb if there's any significant cloud cover, as it would be incredibly easy to get lost if the visibility was poor.

Jay and I at the peak.

Someone has constructed small, semi-circular walls of rocks at the top that you can sit behind to keep out of the wind, and we claimed one of these to cook our lunch in.  Jay had scored some interesting hiking meals that self-heat in the bag via chemical reaction with the addition of some water.  Very interesting stuff, and a great way to have a warm, hearty meal while adding very little weight to your pack.

After lunch we set off for the rest of the hike.  One of the more challenging aspects of the Gros Morne hike is that because the ascent is so steep and rocky it would be ludicrously dangerous to come down the way you came up, and so the trail continues on across the top of the mountain and winds gently down the southeastern slope until it loops back around to the original 4 km stretch of trail.  This adds a lot to the hike; the total loop from the base and back is about 9 km, after which point you're retracing your steps through the original 4 km hike in.  It makes for a whole lot of walking, and by the end of it we were both pretty cooked.  The views are absolutely stunning through the whole thing though, and it was one hundred percent worthwhile.

Okay, I'm finally caught up.  I'll try to do my usual routine of writing tonight, without getting too caught up in monkeying around with my photos.  I'm not sure what the plan is for today; the weather isn't supposed to be great, and my calves are killing me, so probably not a hike.  Stay tuned for more updates to find out where we end up!

Disaster Strikes (my equipment)

Good morning all!

Sorry about the lack of a post last night, but I was feeling a little rough by the time we got back to the house, and just didn't have it in me to get on and do some writing.  Also, the internet here is atrocious, so it took a long while to get my photos uploaded.

We headed out to the Coastal Trial yesterday, which is an easy little stroll along a rocky beach.  Unfortunately with the backpack I use to carry Finn my pockets were blocked, so I was fumbling with my phone the whole time trying to get photos, which lead to me dropping it on the gravel path.  It was just from waist height, which really shouldn't have been a significant issue, but it must have landed perfectly on a rock because I managed to shatter the camera lens.  This is a significant setback as I was planning on using that as my primary camera for the trip.  In fact, the only other camera equipment I've got are my action video camera and my good Pentax, but only with my long lens.  I'd intended to use the phone for scenery and the Pentax for wildlife.  Leaving my short lens at home has put me in a situation where I've got no backup plan.  Shakespeare would have something to say about my hubris, I'm sure.

Fortunately between Dad and Jay we've got a decent amount of photography still happening.  Jay's been routinely uploading his shots to Google Photos, so I should be able to integrate those into the blog with minimal effort.

The long lens comes in handy sometimes.

The last photo I took before destroying my camera phone.

After our hike we headed into Deer Lake to pick a few things up, and we hit the Insectarium, which is a small but delightful museum just on the outskirts of town.  They're breeding all manner of butterflies there and you can walk around checking them out.  They've also got exhibits dedicated to various other forms of insect life.  It was very interesting, and Finn had a blast running around there.  I'll grab some of Jay's photos just as soon as I figure out how...

Well, I'm going to get my day started, I'll try to check in again tonight.

Look What I Found!

Salutation friends!

We're off on another adventure, this time to Newfoundland.  Gros Mourne park has been on my bucket list since I first saw photos of it, and I've decided that it's high time that I get it checked off the list.  Long-time readers will remember that my trip to Iceland in 2009 was timed such that I spent the last week of my twenties on an epic trip and returned home for my thirtieth birthday.  Well I'm here in the same spirit; the next two weeks(ish) will be the last of my thirties and I'll fly home just in time to celebrate my fortieth.

I'm fortunate to once again be surrounded by family on a trip; Euphy, Finn, Mom, Dad, and Jay are all with me for this one.  As Euphy and I were in the very early days of planning we found a promising AirBnB that we jumped on, and having a whole house at our disposal meant that we could accommodate other adventurers.  It's great to have family with you for these trips, and I'm excited that so many people could be here for this one.

We actually flew in to Deer Lake yesterday, but after clearing the airport, getting our rental car and some groceries, and making our way to the house it was getting close to dinner.  We grabbed some food in nearby Woody Point, but that was about the extent of our day, so I waited until today to start blogging about the trip.

The view from our front yard.

They've got good cod here!  Who knew?

A view back from Woody Point towards the Tablelands.

Gros Morne is a massive park, and it's split by significant bays.  We're at the western end of the park, near the area called the Tablelands.  We haven't got out that way to thoroughly explore, but we've driven past the area and it's a spectacular geological sight.  The otherwise lush landscape gives way dramatically to towering mounds of red rock.  We're hoping to get out and take a guided tour in the near future.

A lot of our plans are going to be dependent on the notoriously unpredictable weather.  Today was mostly overcast, and while there were drizzly periods it wasn't enough to keep us locked indoors.  After breakfast we headed towards the small town of Trout River to hike an easy coastal trail.  We stopped off in town to grab some sandwiches for the hike at a local deli and walked along the beach for a bit.

Know idea if you could swim here, but it's a gorgeous beach.

Once you get on the lighthouse trail you gain elevation pretty quickly via a combination of wooden stairs and some steep slopes.  That's over with pretty quickly and you find yourself walking along a grassy plateau for the rest of the short hike.

Terrific views of Trout River abound!

Also terrific views of precarious cliffs.  Staying back from the edge is advisable.

Dressed for the weather!

Lighthouse Trail: Little Man Approved

After leaving Trout River we took a quick trip down to the nearby lake to relax on the shoreline.  Finn was able to engage in his all-time favourite beach activity of throwing rocks into the water.

Chill.

We returned to the house early and I got some stretching done while Jay and Dad got the charcoal BBQ going.  I'm trying to stay limber and healthy since I've got some big hikes on the menu but I've been having a lot of trouble with my ankle.  With any luck I can get through this with a combination of stretching routines and taking it easy where I can.

The misty weather treated us to a stunning rainbow this evening.

I'm going to call it a night now.  We've got some mediocre weather on the forecast for the next couple of days, but that didn't slow us down too much today.  They're calling for good weather on Wednesday, so if that holds Jay and I will be tackling the big hike up Gros Mourne mountain.  The forecasts have been changing rapidly though, so at the end of the day we're just going to have to play this by ear and hope for some luck.

On that note: wish me luck!

That's a Wrap: Final Thoughts On Our Northern Adventure

Well folks, that's in for our trip to Yellowknife and Whitehorse.  I'm back in Toronto now, sitting at my dinning room table.  As is my custom I wanted to give some final thoughts on the trip before signing off.  I also typically do a write-up of the gear that I'll be using to capture the trip before I leave, and I didn't do that this time, so I'll use this space to go over my equipment for the trip (as it relates to writing this blog) and how it all worked out.

(**EDIT: Sorry folks, this post is going to be loooong!  I've been saving up a lot of miscellaneous thoughts that didn't make it in to any one post, so here they all are!)

Let's start with that gear posting that I just mentioned.  This was easily my best trip for blogging, based on my ability to consistently write and provide pictures; I don't think I missed a day, and I only had a couple SNAFU's where I wasn't able to post images from the day.  That's actually down to a couple of things, the first being the fact that I didn't leave Canada and was therefore able to access all my Google services without issue.  Blogger is a Google product, and when I travel to China I'm not able to access it without some kind of a VPN service, and in other places I've had trouble accessing the internet all together.  The internet speeds in Yellowknife were abysmal, but I was still able to get consistently connected, so that eliminated the number one cause of missed blogs.

In terms of camera equipment, I brought my Pentax K-5II out for the ride, just like last time.  It remains a great camera, and I was happy to have it.  However, this time out the bulk of my photos actually came off my phone.  The last time I was in Whitehorse I adopted the practice of carrying my DSLR with the long lens on it, in the hopes that I'd be able to see wildlife.  Generally if you come across an elk, a moose, a two grizzly bears playing poker in the woods you aren't going to have time to switch lenses.  The last time I carried a second camera with a wide-angle lens on it, but this time I opted for the shooter on my Pixel 2 XL, which takes a great photo.  As I previously mentioned, the quality of my panorama shots can be directly attributed to Google's excellent camera and app.  The other benefit to this approach is that everything I shoot on my phone gets automatically uploaded to Google Photos as soon as I'm on WiFi, and Photos integrates directly with Blogger.  This made it a snap to add my photos to the blog posts each night.

The only remaining change-up to my gear bag was the additional of a Pixelbook.  A huge number of the posts on this blog were written on an extremely old Asus netbook which never got upgraded beyond Windows XP.  I'm happy to report that the old workhorse still turns on, and I've been using it to toy around with an Arduino I got recently, but with XP being long ago retired it's almost impossible to get anything meaningful done online with it.  The Pixelbook has been a magnificent piece of equipment.  There was one snag in Whitehorse where I wasn't able to access the photos from my camera, but aside from that it's made blogging a snap.  Jabbles got me an SD card reader that has USB-C and I was easily able to import the photos from my camera using that.  Once on here I was able to edit them using a free, compact version of Lightroom that came on the computer.  I've never incorporated post-processing in my workflow, and I didn't think I'd start while out of town, but it was a breeze to give my photos a quick boost.  I didn't play with them too much, but it was really helpful to be able to make adjustments if I'd missed the exposure by a little bit.

This really was the first time I felt like the equipment and available resources came together to allow me to just focus on writing the blog.

While not a piece of travel gear, I always need to give a big shout out to Airbnb.  It was my first time using the service, but that worked out magnificently.  I was dubious about staying in someone else's home, especially in the case of Yellowknife where the home owner was living in another part of the house, but it was great.  Adam was an interesting guy to talk to, and provided some great local insight and information.  Bolstered by confidence from how quiet Whitehorse was the last time we visited, I left booking a hotel in Yellowknife until about a month in advance.  Turns out there's a massive shortage of hotels in Yellowknife (so much so that it made the news recently) and I could find nothing in a conventional hotel for a visit.  It's not hyperbolic to say that by offering the main floor of his house on Airbnb Adam saved that portion of our trip.  Anyone heading that direction should look him up, and I'll aid in that venture by linking to his Airbnb listing here.

The place in Whitehorse was also fantastic.  Having a whole house to yourself is great when you're travelling with a big group.  I believe I'd already touted the benefits of being able to coordinate with each other, and having a place to hang out while Finn was napping.  Beyond that though, it was just nice having a spot to relax.  Sometimes on a vacation you just want to dial down the adventure and put your feet up, and doing that in a hotel room never quite fits the bill.  Kicking back on a couch in a proper living room really seems to recharge the battery like nothing else.

During the entire trip we only stayed in a hotel twice; the first night in Ottawa, and the last night in Whitehorse.  The Hilton by the airport in Ottawa is lovely, and very conveniently located.  The Best Value Inn - River View in Whitehorse, on the other hand, was a horror show.  The website mentions that it is "newly renovated" and apparently the rooms on the first floor legitimately are.  However, the second floor rooms that we were substantially less than delightful.  Euphy and I actually had to change rooms because the first one stank, and the baseboard heater had exposed wiring.  If anything the River View was a spectacular endorsement of Airbnb.

Wrapping up the gear section, I'm going to write a bit that is probably exclusively for the enjoyment of Jabbles: it's Car Review time!  In Yellowknife we got a Dodge Grand Caravan.  Euphy was registered on that one, so she did all the driving, but she really enjoyed it.  I was critical of it at first when comparing it to my Kia Sedona, but there's enough of a price difference between the two that it becomes an unfair comparison.  I've become a fan of minivans, and I think if you've got a family and you're working on a budget that the Caravan would serve you well.

Now for the vehicle I can really comment on, the Ford Escape that I rented in Whitehorse.  I'm not sure of the exact model, but it had some upgrades like leather seats, which were nice.  It handled itself very well climbing Grey Mountain, and was nice around town.  I did feel like there was a distressing lack of power when passing on the highway though.  By all initial appearances it's not a bad vehicle, but you're talking to a tech geek here, so we have to look at software, user experience, and the infotainment system.  For in-dash infotainment Ford uses Microsoft SYNC, which is a dumpster fire.  In my vehicle when I hook up my phone it detects that it's an Android and launches Android Auto.  Done.  This hateful piece of malignant bloatware has Android Auto as an option, but would constantly pull me out of that interface to display an error letting me know that my phone wasn't compatible with SYNC.  Thanks, good to know, can I go back to the software that works now please?  Another quirk showed up about half way through the trip when the car hit the mileage limit where it starts warning you that you're going to be due for an oil change soon.  In my car when I hit that point it will display a message when I start the vehicle and let me know how many kilometres I've got left.  The Escape makes an irritating ding and displays a similar message, but it has that feature when the engine turns off when you've come to a complete stop, and it considers that a restart and so you get the ding and the warning every time you accelerate away from a stop sign.  Grows tiring quickly.  Also, and I thought this was terrifying, when you come to a stop and it kills the engine, it also locks the steering wheel.  I noticed that when someone in front of me stopped, I waited for the lane beside me to clear, and then went to pass them and my wheel wouldn't turn!  Not sure what the logic is behind that, but it was unsettling.  On their own those are all small irritations, but they added up enough that I've become soured on the notion of Fords in general.

So, as a gear summary, everything worked out brilliantly except Best Value Inn and Ford, which should be avoided like the plague.  I will take a moment for you all to applaud me on reviewing both without profanity.

Okay, I think with that out of the way we can finally talk about those final thoughts I mentioned in the title.  This was, in short, a brilliant trip.  I love Northern Canada, and seeing it with my family was great.  Finn handled himself really well, but I think that a flight of that duration is more than you can ask of any toddler, and we'll probably give him a few years before asking him to sit through that again.  I can see myself repeating this voyage down the line when he's old enough to really take something away from it all.  Yellowknife is an amazing place to visit as a launching off point from which to take in all the natural beauty that surrounds it.  I'd love to go back with a little more time to just explore the vastness beyond the city borders.  Whitehorse has a lot more to offer within the confines of the city, but what like Yellowknife it really is all about what's outside the city that counts.  Having barely poked my head in the door of Kluane I feel compelled to go back and explore it in more detail.  It's a big enough area that you could base an entire trip on that alone.  I do feel the same way about the trails around Whitehorse though, and could love to spend more time wandering around the trail system near Grey Mountain.  The North's greatest treasure is its vastness, which makes it a destination great for returning to.

I think I've made you all sit through enough, so I'm going to wrap this up.  I'm not going to make any foolish promises of continued writing - I think history has shown us how that will go.  This is a travel blog, and there isn't much to say without the requisite leaving of one's house.  Rest assured that I will be back, the next time I go adventuring, and I look forward to writing here again.

Sunday. Closed.

Howdy everyone!  I hope everyone has had a good weekend.  We started our day early since Gray and Susan had an early flight and we had to clear out of the rental place.  We've got a hotel for our last night in Whitehorse, and we're flying out tomorrow morning.

We weren't able to check in to the hotel that early, but they let us drop our luggage off, and we headed out to a place called Ricky's for a very good breakfast.  After that we made a brief stop at the Visitor's Centre to get some ideas of what to do with our last day.  We settled on taking a drive north along Highway 2 to just see the sights.  It's a beautiful drive, especially with the fall colours, and we made lots of stops to check things out.

I seem to be having issues loading my pictures into the blog right now.  I'm not sure if it's Chrome, Blogger, or the slow internet here, but I guess I'll have to share my photos from the day later.

When we returned from our drive we were able to check in to the hotel and go for some lunch.  We ran into some issues yesterday trying to find lunch, and it was worse today.  A surprising number of businesses in downtown are closed Sunday, or sometimes all weekend.  Whitehorse is a beautiful place, but they aren't terribly efficient at separating tourists from their cash.  Sometimes that's refreshing, but it can become an aggravation when it gets difficult to find something to eat.  We eventually found something to eat, and headed out to the park to let Finn run around for awhile.

In the afternoon we did a little bit of last minute souvenir shopping, which also highlighted just how many of the stores downtown are closed on a Sunday.  Fortunately we were able to hit the ones we wanted, but it's worth noting that if you're going to be in Whitehorse over a weekend you'll really want to plan for a lot to be closed.  Definitely plan to do a hiking trip on Sunday, those tend to not be regulated by hours.

Well, I should get going, I've got a very early morning tomorrow, and a lot of travel ahead of me, so I need to get some sleep.  We're flying out at 6:15 tomorrow, and thanks to a combination of the distance and the time difference it will be around dinner time in Ottawa by the time we touch down.  From there I still have a drive to Bancroft ahead of me.  I suspect that you won't here from me tomorrow, but I'll do my best to get on here Tuesday so that I can do my customary wrap-up post.  Until then, have fun everyone.

I Don't Know Who Miles Is, But I Like His Canyon

Good evening all!  I hope this posting finds you well.

This morning we headed out to Miles Canyon, just south of Whitehorse.  It's an area where the Yukon River cuts through a narrow canyon before flowing into Schwatka Lake, and it's very picturesque.  Euphy and I had visited briefly on our first trip to Whitehorse, but we didn't really explore the area, so I was eager to get on some of the trails, of which there are many.  We did a nice walk to the southern end of the lake and back, which took up the morning.

A glimpse of the trail system around Miles Canyon.

A suspension bridge takes you from the parking area to the side of the canyon that features most of the trails.

The colour of the water is truly incredible.  It looks like it would be a lovely place for a swim if not for the intense current.  As it is I suspect there would be an unpleasant level of fatality involved.

A view from the trail above Schwatka Lake.

It's a climb to get up here, but then the trail runs along this ridge line, giving you a fantastic view.

After our hike we headed downtown to get some lunch, which proved challenging.  I was surprised at how many restaurants are closed on weekends, or during the day, or during the off-season.  We eventually got some grub, and by the time we got back to the house Finn was pretty much KO'd.  I was still feeling energised though, so while he napped I wandered around the forest behind the house.  I found a trail that I hadn't been on before and came across an unusual natural wonder.

This was easily a five minute walk from any trail that would be big enough to support a car.  Human ingenuity is amazing.

It was mid-to-late afternoon by the time I found this, and there's still a thin layer of ice there.  It must have just stayed in the shadows all day.

I got completely psyched out by this flooded stretch of trail since the water was still enough that it looked like the crest of a hill until I was practically on top of it.

Neat fungus!

Again!

So, that was the bulk of my day.  Gray and Susan are heading out tomorrow and we're downsizing to smaller accommodations for our last day, so there was some packing up and tidying up to be done around here.  It's late now, but I'm going to poke my head outside and see if the aurora are up to anything.  Have a good evening everyone, I'll check in again tomorrow.

Who Feels Like a Nice, Relaxing Drive Up a Mountain?

Good evening esteemed peers!  How are you all doing today?  I hope this finds you well, as always.  My day started off early; I'm very nearly over this cold, but I just had a brief coughing spell around 5:00 this morning that was enough to wake me up.  Since it was still fully dark I decided to go outside to see if the aurora were active.  There wasn't much going on in the northern sky, but as I waited to see if I'd get a show I started to hear the howling of wolves, which is a magnificent thing to hear.  Happy I took the time to stand outside.

We didn't really have a game-plan for today, but I've had my eyes set on Grey Mountain for some time now.  It was actually on my to-do list the last time we were in Whitehorse but I didn't have the chance to get up there.  It was appealing because it's immediately to the southeast of Whitehorse, so it's accessible from here and offers good views.  Also you can drive a considerable distance up the mountain, so it's not a strenuous hike once you set out on foot.  The last time we were here we just didn't find the time, but I was hoping to fit it in on this trip, and so I suggested it this morning.

We set out after breakfast and headed for the mountain.  I'd heard that the road can be a bit rough, so I was prepared for that.  It's about 11 km from the start of the road until the parking lot at a communication tower on the mountain.  Two kilometres in the road turns to gravel, and I was skipping along nicely, wondering what all the fuss was about.  It was the point where we were 5 km from the parking lot that things started to get dicey.  The potholes and rocky protrusions started to become more frequent and treacherous looking, and I was spending a lot of time working the angles to ensure the smoothest ride possible.  With just a few kilometres left I was crawling.  There were points where I caught up to hikers and took easily one hundred metres just to get past them as the road was too narrow to safely pass, and I wasn't really going that much faster than they were.  With only five hundred metres to go we approached a bend, just wide enough for the car and with a sheer drop on the one side.  I was keen to make it to the parking lot, but given that we had an easy spot to pull over just behind me, my driving companions informed me that they had no wish to die in order to satisfy my need for completion.  So we parked the car and did the last stretch on foot.

Once you (bravely) get to the comm towers there's a clearly marked trail leading to the first of three peaks that make up the mountain.  Our aim was just to get to the first one as it's a decent hike to get there, and working your way along the entire ridge line was more than any of us was willing to sign up for.  From the trail head it's actually fairly easy hiking, except for one spot that had some decidedly unstable looking rocks next to a nasty looking drop off.  Euphy wasn't feeling up to that and decided to make her way back, so Dad relieved me of my Finn-laden backpack while Mom and I finished the accent.  It was a great hike and we had terrific weather for it today.

Close to the parking lot.  This photo was taken from just enough roadway for a single car.  The results of a misstep should be fairly obvious.

A view from the starting point, looking towards the first peak.

The view that I climbed up there for.

Mom proudly making it to the summit.

A view of one of Yukon's many stunning lakes below us.

You could clearly see some weather forming behind us as we finished the hike.

I got back just in time to stop Finn from driving off without me.

So, the long and short of it is that if you're looking for a good hike around Whitehorse you'll find one at Grey Mountain, but you should make sure you've got a larger vehicle.  I wouldn't have made it nearly as far as I did if I didn't have the kind of ground clearance that I was working with.

On the way back through Whitehorse we stopped off at The Deli.  Up, that's in capitals because that's the name of it.  I guess when you set up shop in a town the size of Whitehorse you can get away with just calling yourself The Deli without fear of that becoming ambiguous.  If you find yourself in Whitehorse and in need of a sandwich I'd highly recommend a stop there, you'll be well served.

After lunch we headed out to the Yukon Transportation Museum that we'd missed previously.  We had a lot of fun there, particularly Finn who was greatly enamoured with all the huge vehicles on display.  Trains, planes, and automobiles in abundance!

The museum is just outside the airport, and you can clearly see the mounted plane from the highway.

Cool old car is old and cool.

My own ceiling decor seems lacklustre in comparison.

A fair number of the exhibits are hands-off, but they scatter some interactive bits in there for the kids.  This is just the cockpit from a small plane that Finn is attempting to fly.

I loved this helicopter, mostly because it was clearly jury-rigged for a water landing.

Tons of cool old military vehicles around.

Old Mounty car!

And then there's this behemoth.  I have no idea what it is, no plaque was present to explain it, but it's gigantic and labelled as US Army vehicle.

This selfie is presented not for vanity (clearly) but as my only convenient way of demonstrating the size of the wheels on this beast.

Lastly there's this thing, which I have to assume is standard equipment for the day-to-day fighting of zombies.

There were some great stories spread throughout the museum, and a ton of cool vehicles.  Lots of military stuff from around WWII, as I think that the war and consequent building of the Alaska Highway really shaped Whitehorse.

After all that I was cooked.  I was still pretty pumped up after a nice hike on the mountain, but a little bit of lunch and calm walk around the museum helped me realise that I'd had a long day.  I've spent the rest of the day just chilling out at the house.  On that note actually, I think it's time for me to call it a night.  Have a good one, and I'll talk to you all soon.