Today's fall colours

Here is a video taken today along highway 560 going west.  

Canoe trip to Ishpatina Ridge (Highest point in Ontario) Part 1

Started  the trip on the Montreal River at the Beauty Lake Bridge.  Brian (brother in law) and I have waited a long time to do this trip.  Loaded up the canoe and headed south, the whole trip by way of the crow is around 30 km.  We actually added another 33 km of portages in this trip, the reason for that is we took way to much gear.
We paddled up the Montreal River through Lady Dufferin Lake and into Smoothwater Lake. Smoothwater Lake is in the Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater Wilderness Park it is about 7km long with very clear water.  This lake can be very tricky  to paddle when there is high winds, luckily it was not too bad that day.  We paddled down the west side to a campsite about the middle of the lake set up the tent and called it a day.  Lots of pods of Loons gathering for their trip south

First Snow

Out hunting yesterday and the first snow seen this fall.  This morning a heavy frost that had to be scraped off the windshield.

Back from canoe trip

Will be posting more of the trip later but when we got back to Gowganda a Immature Bald Eagle was in the tree across the road. He has been sitting in this tree before too.

Split and Stacked

 Finished the wood today, very happy.

Great star gazing last nite

Last night the stars were bright and the Milky Way crossed the sky from south west to north east.  Very little haze and NO Mosquitos.  Took a few shots of the stars and Milky Way.  Best viewing of the whole summer.

The bright star in the last pic above the left tree is Altair and is the 12th brightest star in the night sky, it also rotates at 286km/sec at it's equator for anyone that really wants to know.

Now the splitting begins

Cutting the pile of wood was finished last week now the splitting begins.

Lots of activity at the Hummingbird feeder

It's a good thing there was action around the Hummingbird feeder the last few days, the weather has been cold and wet.  The waiting and looking out for supermoon's and comets after dark and 3:00am in the morning for the last few days have been a bust.  Clouds and lots of rain, this morning it was 7.5° C.  Finally went out and took some video of the close to 20 hummers that arrived.  I set the video to slow motion so you could see the action better. Click on the small square in the bottom right for full screen look.

Last nights moon

Were getting close to the August supermoon which will be the biggest moon for the year on Aug 10/14.  This is a pic from last nite at 11:00 pm. Don't know why it's red maybe smoke from the fires up north.

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Miller Lake area

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 Driving in from the Highway 560 to Miller Lake you would probably drive right past this wreck on the west side of the road.  It's down where the forest is still standing not in the cut.

August already

Here comes the last month of summer hope it's a bit better than July.  To most the cool weather and rain has dampened lots of plans but it's been fine for me. When it gets too hot I spend a lot of time in the basement where it's cool.
My load of firewood arrived last Thursday so I hope it will remain fairly cool so I can get it cut and split.

Cool and clear today

Lots of cool air today, very comfortable, leading up to a great sunset.

Yesterday's weather

Most of the afternoon the lake was pretty rough, a storm front arrived from the west with high winds knocking some branches down.  The rain didn't amount too much but with the winds it came down hard.
Before the storm I was taking some video of the lake just across the road.

Hedlund marsh last week

Just got the computer back from the mental hospital, had this pic on the desktop when it went crazy.  So I am trying to post again, looks like it found its brain again .

July's supermoon a couple of days late

Had been trying to get a pic of the July supermoon since it was full, cloud cover was the culprit.  Last night through a hoard of mosquitos I finally got a couple of shots.  Fortunately there will be another in August and one in September, this doesn't happen very often.  They claim that the August one will be the best, I'll be there.

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Boat launch at Longpoint Lake

Stopped into the public boat launch at Longpoint lake after taking a load of garbage to the dump.  Water's were calm, years ago we left from here and travelled up Longpoint lake in canoes to Sanderson Lake and portaged to the Montreal River to Sisseney Lake, from there down south on the Montreal River passing thru Tommy Lake, Crotch lake and into Obushkong right back down to Burk Lake in Gowganda. Walked into Gowganda to pic up the truck. Some of those pics are back on the blog in 2008 start of September. One of many good trips we have taken.

Rise of the blueberries

On a warm south facing rock today a first sign of some Blueberries trying to ripen.  Should be a good year again like last year.  Weather has certainly been good for them.

The big one in the picture tasted great, first one of the year.

Early morning on the road

Driving west early in the morn and looked into the mirror to see this shot.

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Trying to eat and I still have white feet and mosquito's all over my face

Here's one from early this morning a snowshoe hare eating with his white feet from winter and his face covered in mosquitos.

HAPPY CANADA DAY

Lots of whitecaps on the lake these days, the wind has been very strong and steady the last couple of days.  Lightning strikes yesterday may generate forest fires in the next day or so.  Here's a pic out the window.

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