Early morning reflection on the French River.

This is a small island reached just after going through Canoe Pass on the French River. The whitish line above the dark coloured rock close to the water shows where the water level is normally. It's down about 3 feet from the normal water level.

Senor Jubilado

Here we are with UC just prior to feting him on his retirement while the Toronto G20 was in full swing.

On Saturday we drove down to Toronto for the Urban Cowboy's retirement bash. Yes, I know, it was also the G8 and G20 weekend. We were delayed in Huntsville for the G8 as they closed Highway 11 and 400 south for the various motorcades. I have never seen so many OPP officers or OPP vehicles. Every exit and entrance to the highway on the south side from Huntsville to Toronto was blocked by OPP vehicles for more than 2 hours. We finally were allowed on the highway in Huntsville, and we proceeded on our merry way. There was very little traffic. All the on ramps were full of cars blocked by OPP vehicles. Near Bracebridge we, foolishly it turned out, exited the highway to answer nature's call. When we tried to return to the highway we were now part of the crowds that were being blocked from getting on the highway even though we were just on it and there were regular vehicles on it moving south. The officer said he wasn't allowed to let us return. About 10 minutes later an OPP cruiser with 2 "older" officers came by and removed the barrier, and we again were on our way. To our bewilderment, all the way to Toronto the on ramps were still blocked and the cars were piling up waiting to get on. We felt "privileged" to be moving. The usually busy highway was anything but and we sped along well over the speed limit passing all the blocked on ramps and lines of cars, knowing the OPP were not going to give chase to us speeding. Even Highway 69 south from Sudbury at Barrie was blocked. We arrived in Toronto and then went through G20 chaos effects on the subway lines. This was at the same time that the protesters torched a police cruiser and smashed and destroyed downtown property. We were again lucky as all north and south subways were just shut down, and we were going west to east on our "trek" to Yorkville. At the Younge Street exit as we disembarked, the cars on the north/south line were crammed with people with the car doors open, going nowhere. The folks looked like they'd been there a while, and it looked like they were going nowhere soon. We made it to the UC's condo finally, and had a fabulous evening/night revelling in UC's retirement while in Yorkville, away from the G20 nonsense a few blocks south of us.

The weather on Day 2 of our French River trip was in a word crummy. It rained all day, and it was cool and windy. The only good thing was the wind was at our backs, and we were paddling down river. We were soaked through before we even got into our canoes and kayak for the day's paddle. This was the most scenic portion of the river, but the weather put a damper on it. I sealed my camera in the water tight compartment of my kayak for the day. We had about 6 rapids and portages to navigate. The portages were brutally hard as the rain made the rocks and boulders as slippery as ice. It took us 4 hours to go the first kilometer because of the treacherous conditions of the portages.

Day 2 of the French River canoe/kayak trip was cool and rain filled. Prior to breaking camp and continuing our trek, the rain proved helpful as an automatic dishwasher, although a tad slower than your average house dishwasher. The rain would build up on the tarp, and every couple of minutes it would drain off the tarp in a heavy flow. We put the dirty dishes on the rocks where the rain drained from the tarp, put some soap on the dishes, and waited for the water to plunge down and clean the dishes.

French River Campsite Reflections

Again, here is a view from our first campsite on our canoe trip down the French River.

Cloud reflection at the base of our campsite.

Nice campsite sign with the "correct" message.

Glen and Mike tackle the second rapids and first set of rapids that was "shoot-able."

Oh yeah! Here we go now!

Mike hangs on for dear life.

The guys did a swell job, only looking like they were close to tipping at the finish. The other canoe and my kayak were walked down the rapids due to the low water and rocks. The red beater canoe was the rapids' toy.

And after sunset and a few "pops" this is the view from our 1st night campsite.

After our first day of paddling, 2 or 3 rapids (can't remember total number), one spilled canoe and contents, this was the view from our first campsite. It was a great first day of river trekking and a great first night. The tale continues on day 2 when we wake up to a long day of heavy rain, wind, cool temperatures and many portages.

Wow, what a trip!!

We returned yesterday afternoon from the inaugural "Killer Strawberries' Stroke & Stroke" down the French River. The 3-day, 2-night trip turned into a 4-day, 3-night excursion. We put in at Wolsley Bay and paddled west for about 50 kilometers to our finish point near Alban. Everything was spectacular and fabulous! Even the cool, windy and rain drenched Wednesday of paddling and portaging was awesome; although quite difficult and exhausting. More pictures will follow as I sift through them all.

I'm off on a canoe/kayak trip down the French River for the next few days, and I sure hope the weather "reflects" this photo.

Last evening we had a great putt-putt cruise around the lake. The lake was calm, there were great clouds and the temperature was perfect.

After some spectacular summer weather in May, we are back to a normal weather pattern for June - some days of rain, some days of clouds, some days of sun, some of those days with wind, and most days comfortable temperatures.

There's a doctor in the house.

Mist and, mostly, tree pollen make a ring around this island.

Sunny really is a "boat dog."

Last week was Renewal Week at the college, so some of us "renewed" by biking from the North Bay waterfront to the Callander Bay waterfront and back (30km round trip). I biked in to town from our place beforehand and had a flat tire on the way which I had to stop and repair; after the "renewal" trip, I biked home, good for a 60km biking day.

Taking pictures of a full moon is a daunting task at the best of times. Invariably you wind up with a small white pinhole image that is supposed to be the moon. If you are not using a tripod, then you often get an image like the one above, as the shutter stays open longer than you'd think, and the camera moves or trembles.

With the 2 images above, I "wised up" and supported the camera on our deck railing to steady it while the shutter remained open. Next time I s'pose I'll get the tripod and the cable release cord out.

My buddy Mike (check out the link to Silverpixel) has posted some reflection photos recently. Now I really like reflection photos, and his are great. Here's a reflection of the sunset on Lake Nipissing I took while fishing just over a week ago.

This is an early morning photo of a small point on Regal Road on Trout Lake.

I like when rock cliffs intersect lakes or rivers. This one is on the west side of Trout Lake across the lake from our place. The cliff rises up about 50 feet, and the depth of water at the edge is about 40 feet, so if one were inclined, a dive from the cliff would be safe, but definitely not something I'd be doing.

At a rest stop yesterday while on my bike trip this stringer of an ad for tequila caught my eye; however, I wasn't moved by the worm, and I opted for beer instead.

See the little birdies up in the tree? Ok, so they're not so little.

They are cormorants, and this tree is their home base and nesting site on Trout Lake. I really find it odd that a bird that swims, and dives and swims underwater for its food makes its nest and home high up in a tree. How do they do that, considering they have webbed feet like a loon or duck?