CelticCowpokes

Whole lot of photos goin on...

We're catching up on our photos again for this month.

Rebecca and Abigail had some Hallowe'en prep fun at school one day, then the next day came home with their butterfly witch outfits.  Rebecca wa really happy to have a skull wand (!).  The following three days were spent wearing these outfits.

Rebecca is now a tree climber, can you spot her in the tree?  This is one of her favorite maples in our backwoods, their 'secret woods'.  She likes climbing, but doesn't want to go too high (yet).

This past week saw us traveling to Kingston Peninsula to visit Nail Factory Falls.  While trying to find the falls, we found two big stone wheels in the woods near the river. 

Rebecca finds a leaf to throw in soon enough...

Last weekend, Sheena and I took a camping trip to Fundy National Park.  There's one campground open (headquarters) during this time of year.  Our campsite had a neat view of Alma and the wharf.  In the brisk morning, Sheena enjoyed a cup of oatmeal...

...while I enjoyed a pan of fried eggs and oatmeal.  What an excellent combination!

We spent two days hiking the wilderness of the Fundy highlands.  Most of the leaves had already fallen, but some were still hanging on.  This is a photo of the trail descending to Black Hole and the Little Salmon River.

 

On the same trail on the way back, there were sections of only hardwood trees.  It made for a mesmorizing view of the forest.

After our hikes, we took walks through the nearby village of Alma.  Here we see the boats in Alma's harbour resting on the bottom during low tide.  Alma is a dry dock, as the Bay of Fundy tides leave the wharf area completely during low water.  I was trying to figure out how the little wooden stilts go so perfectly into place.

On Thursday, I took Willow back to the Mary Pitcher Falls area, near Hammondvale.  Kris and I visited in August during an epic 32 kilometre trip of hiking and biking in the hot sun.  We had spent some time trying to find the falls and missed out on the bigger one that was in the same area.  This time, I wanted to get to the final and biggest waterfall and had a bit of different weather with frost and chilly temperatures.  These upper falls are the second largest on the Mary Pitcher stream. 

Getting to the largest of the Mary Pitcher falls (below) was fairly straightforward, except for the very end.  There was a sheer cliff at the end of the trail -- and in order to see the falls as pictured below, you have to go around the cliff, descend an old rockslide and wade a cold (and somewhat too fast) flowing Big Salmon River.  Needless to say, there was a bit of work involved to get this photo!

After soaking myself to get the photo, the below is a distanced shot of skivvy biking the return trip of 13 kilometres to my car.  Willow didn't seem to mind, but it was a bit awkward once I got closer to the well-travelled deer hunting grounds.  (And yes, that is a hunting vest on -- preventative as I was wearing a brown fleece!).

 

 

 

Two Weekends

 Two weekends ago, Sheena was away for the weekend and I decided to take the kids back to Fundy Park for a little hike.   It rained for most of the day, but we all had fun hiking through the woods to Laverty Falls. Rebecca and Abby picked leaves along the way and jumped over roots and rock to get there.  The girls did really well, hiking on their own for most of the 5 kilometre return trip.

Last weekend, while we were in Halifax for Kris and Michelle's Wedding and on the same morning that they did their usual 5am wakeup, I took the girls on a 'secret hike'.  We packed in the car and drove to Crystal Crescent Beach (one of my favorite beaches in the Halifax area) to see the sunrise.  Our timing was perfect as we arrived just as the sun was breaking the horizon. It was Abby and Rebecca's first sunrise! It was so also warm (16C) at that time of the morning, that we played on the beach and ran through the breaking surf.  What a treat it was for an adventure at the start of the day.

Enjoying the last bits of summer

Here's some photos updating everyone on some more recent things going on with us.  We've been trying to get out and enjoy the nice weather before winter comes! 

Kris came up a couple of weekends ago (a day before we had our 3 day big power outage, thank you TS Irene!).  Kris and I had a classic bike and hike trip -- traveling 32 kilometres round trip to the Big Salmon River area of the Fundy highlands.  Willow came with us as well and was the star or the show, running along beside us while we bicycled the hot dirt roads and bushwacked our way down river toward Mary Pitcher Falls.  The picture below is Upper Mary Pitcher falls, one of 13 along the same stream.  A larger set of falls lies below these pictured ones -- but we saved those for another time due to the length of time it took to get to the upper ones.  More details of the falls are on our waterfalls site.

 

Rebecca and Abigail have been growing fast.  Rebecca is now fairly comfortable on a bike with training wheels.  For a couple of days last week, we took Rebecca on little bike rides down our road.  The road is quiet enough that she can ride, but still learn about traffic and such. We expect Abigail will be riding outside soon.  We've brought her flyer tricycle inside and daily she's seen ripping around the house with her fireman hat and/or dress on.  It's good to see she's well rounded!

This past weekend was the ever popular Balloon Fiesta in Sussex.  We made a couple of trips to see the hot air balloons and fair this year -- but due to fog and wind (thanks TS Katia), the balloons weren't able to take off while we were there.  They did some 'cold inflation' for the crowds though, which was nice.  The different designs were neat to see.

Abigail looks through her balloon book trying to find all the balloons pictured in it.

 

'Cold inflation' at work.

 

Outdoors in June!

 
We've been busy catching up on our outdoor activities in the past few weeks.  Sheena and I took off on a morning hike one weekday while the kids were at daycare.  We visited a little known area in Long Point, where falls can be found along a gully rich with cedar trees.

Willow and Sheena check out the lower falls.  This is one of the last few pictures we took with our camera after we dropped it off one of the rock ledges into the water. 

A week earlier, we took off to do some visiting and also take the kids to the Hopewell Rocks for some time in the red mud.  After a high tide visit on the first day, we made a trip back on our second day in Moncton to take the kids along low tide.

Rebecca and Abby wanted to walk on the seaweed, check out the little caves, collect snails and play on the 'beaches' during our morning visit.

Abby was very pleased that we stopped walking for a picture.

Last weekend, we met up with Kris and another friend in Parrsboro for a rainy day hike.  What did we do? Get wet in Jeffers Brook.  There were 5 big falls and quite a few small ones along our 5 hour trip up and down river.  The June temperatures of water in Nova Scotia aren't quite ready for bathing, but they did work well for jumping off waterfalls.

 

Sheena was pretty masterful with this last picture, especially on a point and shoot camera!

Keirsteadville Adventure: Reddin Falls

Fresh off the plane (yesterday), we were eager to get out as a family again for the first time in two  months!  We bundled up for a chilly morning, but were thankful of the cold temperatures keeping the black flies at bay for most of the day. 

I had heard about Reddin Falls from a couple of people in the Belleisle area -- finding out that it is a little known falls deep in the hills that rise behind Keirsteadville, along Belleisle Bay.  After arriving nearby and speaking with a neighbour, the five of us (Willow too!) walked into the woods and headed up river toward the hills.   
Rebecca walked for most of the way, as we passed by cow pastures (and dung!)  and began the many river crossings that lead you to the falls.  Abby took the high road for most of the way, riding in the backpack.  Rebecca did very well on her first long hike, taking the water with stride.  Rebecca collected leaves on her trip and Abby spent time pointing out all the interesting things in the forest.   We did see some poison ivy in bloom and the kids had fun pointing out "poison owie".   After about nine (!) river crossings along a meandering path, we reached a point where the cliffed walls began closing in -- and the girls noticed the familiar roar of the falls up ahead.  We stopped for lunch and threw many rocks for Willow.  Abby even tried following me across river to make my climb for the top, waving at Sheena, 
 
"Bye mom!"   Thankfully, Sheena rounded her up.  On the way back, Abby was clearly tuckered out and had a nap in the  backpack for the return trip. 

Our Cuban Vacation (Pt 2): Coffee, Underwater Gems and Waterfalls

(Continued from Pt. 1)

Our fifth day in Cuba was by far our most memorable.   After speaking with our resort representative, we had found out about a couple of excursions and one that caught our eye.  The trip we decided to take was called the 'Rambo Tour' and would lead us into the Topes De Collantes National Park in the Sierra del Escambrey.  These mountains (sierra) have unique history and were some of the areas that Fidel Castro, Che Guevera and others prepared for their revolution.  Ironically, it was also the location where other revolutionaries tried to revolt against Castro.  Now, the mountains house some of the best trekking adventures in Cuba.  Our planned trip was to see a coffee plantation, tour the national park and head to another adjacent Park de Guanayara to see Salto el Rocio Falls.  One of the surprises we had was that our transportation to the mountains would be on an open air African-imported Soviet troop carrier truck.  We would learn and appreciate that the monster of a truck was one of the only ways to travel in the dirt roads of the Escambrey mountains due to the steepness and sheer rough travel of the roads.

Once in Trinidad, we met our tour guide Asael and were immediately impressed.  Asael spoke five languages and had a mastery of English including the humor.  After some short   introductions between our other Canadian trip-mates, we left the surroundings of Trinidad and headed for the mountains.  As we went further into the mountains, we began to see road ahead of us simply by looking straight up.  On more than one occasion, we met other similar sized trucks and had to slowly sidestep our way around the other vehicle to pass safely on the narrow road. 

Our first visit was at Casa del Coffee, a coffee house  and farm found among the township in the national park.  After a tour, we began our 15 kilometre trip further into  the tropical jungle.  Truck travel became obviously necessary due to the conditions of roads, although an open truck was something Sheena didn't appreciate after we saw the size of the Cuban wasps!

We arrived at our trailhead, expecting a 3 kilometre hike through the river valley toward waterfalls, caves and our end destination at a house turned restaurant in the middle of the jungle.  We continued along the trail, realizing there were 'tourists' and 'hikers' on our walk.  The tourist group tended to pass over the fun stuff, such as a large cave we explored and  the main attraction -- the waterfall! Our guide Asael noticed this a bit and when I asked if we could swim in the falls, he at first said we needed to stay with the larger group.  Then to our surprise, as we continued to walk along the trail following the river and more falls, Asael asked me if I wanted to go down river with him and accept a Cuba vs Canada challenge. (He had earlier claimed that all Canadians do is go to all inclusive resorts, rather than hiking in Cuba).  Because he was so good at our humor, I thought that he was kidding at first.  But, when he started stripping off -- Sheena, myself and a couple of others were delighted to join him on a  rockhopping and waterfall jumping trip down river.  So, with the 'tourist group' following another guide to a lagoon about a half a km away, the six of us followed what seemed to be Asael's route that he's followed since he was a kid.  We laughed as we jumped off smaller waterfalls and enjoyed the jungle  like surroundings.  As we got to the lagoon and we found a way to repeatedly climb the small cliff to jump the falls, Asael looked at us and said, "I thought I was crazy, but you're crazy."  Hopefully we restored a bit of the Canadian outdoors reputation.  Once we made it to the lunch at the La Gallega jungle restaurant, it would have been easily the best meal we would eat all week.  You can't beat rural chickens!

The following two days, we tried to enjoy the beach as much as we could.      We also decided to brave  the heavily salty water and try snorkeling from the catamaran, a trip that takes you about 1km off shore to the nearby reef.  Strangely only about 15  feet deep and seeming like a deep pool, Sheena and I and a few others explored the wonders of tropical coral reefs, colourful fish and incredible sea life.  Watching the fish watching us was an incredible experience.  In returning to the beach, we realized we would like to try it again on our next trip -- maybe even scuba dive next time!  On our last day, we returned to our beach routine, enjoying the last few hours of warmth and meeting up with Alex and Leslee for  an evening of Chilean wine, salsa dancing  and great music. 

The trip home was long -- up at 3:30am, and finally home to Belleisle at 9:00pm with 2 feet of new snow.  How soon can a person forget you were in a sunny paradise?  Lets hope its not too long before we go back to Cuba to refresh our memory.

Our Cuban Vacation (Pt. 1): Sand, Sun and Trinidad

 The winter in the maritimes has been a bit of a long one, with storm after storm and only four feet of snow piled up in our yard (!).  During the last week of February, Sheena and I decided to go somewhere we've always dreamed of going with all its history, culture...maybe something about being able to relax on a beach in February: Cuba.

So, we booked our trip (through tripcentral.ca; which was surprisingly easy and well  organized mostly all through email) and left for Halifax after leaving the kids with Gramma and Grampy MacDonald.  Our flight on Cubana Airlines was a complete and pleasant surprise, totally different than the online reviews of the airline experience.  We were  treated with a nice airplane meal and free drinks, something unheard of in the Canadian airlines experience.  As we approached Cuba, I couldn't help but notice the amount of forest fires visible from the air. They would be something we'd see throughout the trip, although no one seems to be concerned about them.  

After a four hour flight, we landed in Santa Clara, which appeared to be an old military airport.  It was interesting to see the small concrete dome fighter plane hangers covered in overgrown grass and vines a sign of the old cold war, now being used as storage for the present commercial airport.  More importantly, we got off the plane and were greeted with a blast of warm air.

     One of the more interesting yet nerve racking events was the bus trip from the airport to the resort.  As we were in the Playa Ancon area, it was a  three hour drive (but only 140 kms) through Sancti Spirtus province's city and villages.  There is a shorter route, but it is impassable as it passes through the mountains a fact which we we would fully understand later on our mountain excursion.  The 140km drive we took on the bus was long due to the variety of traffic: a blend of new and old world transportation.  I've never seen a place where brand new Chinese made air conditioned buses drive on the same highway as pedestrians, bicycles, bicycles with more than one rider, horses, horse drawn cart taxis, mopeds, multirider motorcycles (we passed one with 3 riders), 1950s era cars, Russian trucks, modified transport trucks converted to buses, coco-taxis (coconut), and brand new European rental cars -- all on the same roadways.

After our first night, we woke up to the first of our daily morning beach walks, exploring  the Ancon peninsula.  Our resort area was situated on a peninsula with a several kilometre long beach on the south Caribbean ocean.  We found various types of shells and sea life on our walks.  We were amazed at the warmth of the air and the ocean, as well as the beautiful sunrises.  Along our walks, we also saw a few remnants of beach defences from some era (1950s?) and a couple of old and closed resorts, now used as hangouts for locals. 

The meals were interesting and different  at the same time.  Most food was similar to ours, although with an emphasis on fresh tropical fruits and juices and delicious seafood. The meats were unfortunately mostly lower grade meats, but still tasty.   With the exception of nationally produced items such as coffee, the challenges brought by the US embargo were especially exemplified in the food and beverages.  The lack of every day things such as spices or other items familiar to westerners.  If one were to use soft drinks as an example: finding a bottle of 'Diet Coke' is actually a difficult endeavour. We we did see some of it, but it was actually called 'Light Coke'...and we saw no Pepsi.  We tried the local 'refrescos' called 'Dietika'.  It tasted similar, but had very little carbonation.  In another example, chocolate was virtually non-existent in our area of Cuba.  As a result, you begin to really appreciate what was offered to you by the local restaurants.   The coffee was absolutely exceptional (and we brought back as much as we could!).

While on our first days at the resort, we met a couple from from PEI, Alex and Leslie.    Both have travelled a fair bit and Alex, originally hailing from Chile, speaks Spanish.  Meeting Alex and Leslie made our trip much more interesting as we had new friends to explore the area with and just share conversation and stories while enjoying the beach. Alex was also able to converse and share some of the locals conversation and experiences with us, which helped us to understand that much more about Cuba.   

On our third day, the four of us rented a taxi cab (use government taxis when possible) and travelled the 15 kilometres to Trinidad.  (Sheena and I had originally planned to rent bicycles for  this trip, but after bus ride into the resort, we decided to avoid taking our life in our hands in an unprotected bicycle!)   Arriving in Trinidad, we began to understand why it is  designated as a UNESCO heritage site.  The city is a colonial gem,  built during the sugar production boom of the early 1900s.  We walked on cobblestone streets and stopped to take in the market, local  musicians and artists.   One gentleman named Lorenzo sat with his   rooster Bancho watching the passers by.  We later found Lorenzo's son working as a painter in a nearby shop, painting a picture of his father.  Around midday, we got out of the hot sun for a while and stopped for lunch at a popular spot for salsa music, Casa de la Musica.  During our lunch, we were treated to a band playing music amplified by the natural acoustics of the restaurant and surrounding buildings in Plaza Mayor.  Afterward a delightful lunch a nd refreshing cerveza  (beer), we strolled through town -- eventually  leading us to an old convent turned revolutionary museum, Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco.  From the tower, we took photos of the surrounding town and mountains.

The following day, we spent most of our time on the beach and tried an excursion on the catarmaran with a friendly sailor named Alberto.  Alberto suggested we try the snorkelling offered at the resort and if we were willing to, he would take us out to the reef off shore.  We were relatively untested at the snorkelling, so we opted for some snorkelling nearby the shore.  It was fun to be able to see the white sandy bottom, mixed with eel grass -- but other than a few errant fish, we mostly only saw starfish.  It was a good refresher though, except one critical mistake  -- wearing my wedding ring while swimming.  Lets just say that it is now a permanent resident of Cuba.

 (continued part 2: Coffee, Underwater Gems and Waterfalls)

A trip to Wallace Falls

Yesterday the clan headed out to Wallace Falls southeast of Sussex  Corner.  It's a bit of a drive through dirt logging roads,  but really not as bad as I had once thought.  As it turns out, the roads we drove on were actually listed as 'snowmobile trails' in the backcountry map book -- but they would easily pass as normal dirt roads for anyone else.  Nevertheless, we arrived at the Quiddy after a couple of missed turns and set out on our hike.  With both girls  in backpacks, it made for a fun time walking along the short trail toward the falls.  The last part of our trail was a decent into a steep ravine, but with the new(er) installed stairs, it made for easier access.  Along the way, Abby kept saying to me, "Dad....beeee careful.  Be Caaareful, Dad."  It was funny. I've never had a talking backpack before. 

We arrived at the river bottom to find a nice little area to see the falls,   which was covered in broken glass and probably the most I've ever seen at a waterfall site.  So, naturally, we spent about an hour cleaning up the area so the kids could play without our worries for them.  Once it was cleaned up, we had a fun time throwing rocks for Willow and climbing around the rocks.  Abby is a natural, so much so that we had to watch she wasn't going to just dive into the water while exploring along with me. 

Overall, the weather was 20C and sunny, and all of us were glad to be outdoors! 

Here's the link to the Seeking Waterfalls version: http://macdonald.typepad.com/waterfalls/2010/11/wallace-falls.html

 

 

Busy Season

Since the end of September, we've had lots going on.  First, on October 2nd, Abigail celebrated her 2nd birthday with friends and family.  We had visitors from both families, Gramma and Grampa MacDonald, Nana and Papa Deroche and other friends and their kids.  Sheena had the novel idea of having little gifts for everyone, which made for quite a fun and all inclusive party!  

The Cape Breton MacDonalds also visited for the weekend of Abigail's birthday.   Besides the party, we had a couple of walks through the woods and on the trails nearby our house. The leaves had just started turning colours at the time and the girls loved to explore the fall colours and different shades of fall.  

Last weekend, Kris and I met in the Memramcook area of southeastern New Brunswick for a little Thanksgiving weekend bike riding.  Specifically, we biked around the peninsula of the Beaumont area, which is surrounded by the Petticodiac and Memramcook Rivers.  We had a whole mix of riding during our 22 kilometre day, from gravel road to technical up and downhill trails.  It was an interesting place to bike as one moment you were in the forest, the next you are a steep embankment away from fast flowing rivers into the Bay of Fundy.  It was our first time taking a trail from a book on mountain biking in Atlantic Canada. 

  This week, I took a vacation and Sheena and I spent the last three days painting up a storm (literally) in our house.  We finally had the chance after some long needed new house renos to put paint on our walls.  We have half the house done so far and half to go!  Wish us luck. (The wall colours in this photo had to be redone due to, well, the fact that they caused blindness!). 

Everything Gros Morne: A Newfoundland outdoor adventure (Part 2)

Day 5: We're in the midst of our backpacking trip around the North Rim traverse of Gros Morne National Park.  We've awoken to a bit of fog and a slight hint of sunlight. As we pack up, Matt and I reminisce and unknowingly recreate an old photo. Today would be the day we realized the full extent of the difficult travel for the rest of the backpacking trip.  Our travels for half the day would be over barrens, but the last part of the day was through tuckamore, a pseudonym for five foot high, intertwined, thick and virtually impenetrable spruce trees.  These old and weather stunted trees grow in the low parts between the high and rocky barrens of Newfoundland.  In order to travel, you must find either a way around it, a moose path through it or other terrain that tends to give relief from the trees including old rocky streams, lake shores, boggy hill tops.  If a person travels through it, such as on a moose path, expect your actual travel time to be 1 kilometre per hour or less.  At some points in our travel on this trip, it was easier to wade through knee deep water by a lake  shore, trudge through deep mud or climb narrow fields of endless rocks rather than traveling through the 'tuck'.  Navigating is also a challenge as landmarks disappear when you're in the midst of it, as well as straight line navigation.  Moose don't travel in straight lines! During the day and as the weather cleared, we also saw an abundance of snow in the horizon, which was a surprise for July. Our campsite was breezy which gave us welcome relief from the bugs.  The guys also had fun redoing another photo.

Day 6 began early that night with typical Gros Morne weather: heavy rain.  As a  matter of fact, it rained so steadily, we were lucky that our tents were perched on platforms because the boggy ground surrounding them was well drenched by morning.  With heavy wind and rain, we broke camp quickly with concerns of keeping our sleeping bags dry.  Unfortunately for Matt, his self-encapsulated bivvy was a bit sopping on the inside as he had no choice but to crawl out of it in the downpour.

This day had the majority of travel through tuckamore with little possibility of avoiding it.   For our long trek to the high point cairn marking our descent, there were quite a few sections where we were mired in the bush.  At one point, about 3 kilometres west of camp 2 and after a long swamp,  we desperately looked for a high point to resume our travel and give us some relief from struggling through the tuckamore. Once we  found the high point, it was relatively easier to navigate our way to the cairn, which is where things went somewhat awry.  We knew that we had to descend from the plateau and that it was marked with rock markers, but we missed the third marker and traveled down a section off route.  This lead to a 3 hour onslaught of thick brush, tuckamore and steep terrain.  We eventually reached Snug Harbour, somewhat wet and cold from the day's rain.  We took a break to contemplate an attempt at heading out to the road today, rather than camping in a literal wind and rain storm.  Matt had his own contemplations as well on this video.  After some talk, we ended up hiking out the last 8 kilometres and finished the trip a day early.  Especially fun (!) in the last hour was the waist deep Western Brook river crossing.  Luckily, Sheena and Karen were ready to pick us up in time for a warm meal at a local restaurant.

The following day, Kris, Matt and I were fairly wiped out and took most of the day to relax, play some Settlers of Catan and also try to clean our gear.  Sheena, Karen and I went to see Southeast Brook Falls and Middle Brook Falls in the south areas of the park.  The rocks around Middle Brook Falls were very unique and interesting to see.  

After our day of hiking rest, the next day was one of redemption for Matt and I.  Ten years ago on our visit, we didn't get the chance to do Gros Morne mountain for a couple of reasons, but mostly due to the memorably wet  and cold experience we had while on the Long Range backpacking trip (sound familiar?).  This time, we would have perfect weather and more than enough energy to hike the 16 kilometre trip, enjoy some views of Ten Mile Pond and even see some backpackers on their own final descent from the plateau.  We took the reverse route ascending the back side of Gros Morne, which created quite the talk with other hikers on the trail.  The descent gully reminded me of the Rockies a little bit, I only wish the scree was a  bit smaller.  While we were on Gros Morne, Sheena and Karen went kayaking in the Norris Point area.  They both seemed to have lots of fun, despite returning virtually ravenous from their afternoon on the water.

In a bid to keep up with Sheena and Karen who had already hiked all but 3 trails in the park while we were backpacking, the last hiking day of our trip to Newfoundland brought us to the Tablelands area.  This area is completely unique to the surrounding park and looks as if someone shaved the mountains of their trees, bogs and water.  Apparently, the Tablelands consist of rock brought from the earth's core during a millennium old geological upheaval. The material in the rocks prevents normal growth of vegetation. Now, the mountains stand apart with their distinct brown coloured rocks, devoid of the vegetation that grows lushly elsewhere.  When we visited the Tablelands, I saw with it a destination that I will certainly explore on a return trip to the area.  Also, according to the park information, there is a short backpacking trail that has been created in the area.

After 10 days of outdoors, leaving us full of our adventure and somewhat damp from 7 days from periodic rain, we packed up the hobo camp and started the long trip back to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.  After dropping off our airplane bound friends, Kris, Sheena and I met with our ferry -- the Vision, a new acquisition for Marine Atlantic.  With a 1 1/2hr shorter crossing and a games room, the ferry was a good denouement for a long vacation.

(Thanks again to Kris and Matt for some of their photos used in this post.)