I think I mentioned the plummeting temperatures, followed by an unseasonably warm spell last time. +10degC apparently thaws ice relatively quickly, however it was still pretty frozen the following weekend when Coops and I got out into the countryside of southern Ontario on our way to Kingston. At this time of year its quite pretty anywhere where the snow is thick and still pristine. Unfortunately that's mostly on the lakes and rivers in these parts.
Kingston sits at the mouth of the Lawrence River from Lake Ontario. Its an old fort town, no doubt trying to keep those pesky Americans on their own side of the lake. I find it interesting that the national and provincial borders here split the lakes and rivers in two, as opposed to say, New South Wales claiming the entire width of the Murray River for itself. I guess it makes things easier to own a boat in your home country, rather than harbouring it internationally... Following the river east from Lake Ontario is a 35km stretch, give or take, of what's known as Thousand Islands, however the figure is closer to 2,000 islands, that dot the Lawrence River. The islands vary in size from a rock or two poking out of the water, to a land mass big enough to sustain half a dozen summer cottages for those who can afford Canadian lifestyles of the rich and famous. Not a fancy boat in sight however, as they have all been taken out of the water and shrink wrapped ready for next summer, rather than suffering the horrible of being crushed by the expanding ice. We noticed even some jetties had been pulled up to escape the ice.
We stopped at Land O' Lakes on the way to put cracks on the frozen shore.
Skiing, again. My apologies to anyone who is violently opposed to the sport, but its my latest craze. And, not feeling like I have to defend its validity at all, but I guess it is up there with Rock climbing and Diving in terms of the awesome things you can do to get you out to see the most amazing spots on the planet; if you're hard core, or just happen to be living in the general area for a bit that is. Our weekends generally start with a complete disregard for what most of you will know as a sleep in. I used to enjoy those... So the start of the day usually heralds an open road and a big sky something like this:
We often head for Mont Saint Marie, which is about an hour and a half from Ottawa, and we always pass this field of rolled up hay, which I think is just darn cool, really.
Weekend before last we headed up to Mont Tremblant which is the premier ski hill for Quebec, if not all of Eastern Canada, without heading down into the States. To give you an idea, Tremblant was developed by the same crowd as Whistler, so its big, crazy and expensive. A little world unto its own, where you can't sit and have a hot chocolate without being pitched to about the benefits of owning Timeshare (which is why Whistler is better cause its now too big to canvas for new suckers, er I mean investors). But bless them for thinking we look rich...
I can't say I loved Tremblant. I don't know, maybe it was the 5am start, or the ungroomed, lumpy as all hell black run that I misguidedly thought I could navigate on my 2nd run of the day while my legs were still fresh but by the end of it felt like they'd been skiing for 3 days straight, I just don't know. The intermediate runs were either crowded (the sheer volume of skiers and boarders had scraped patches of ice everywhere, so that if you could manage to hold through it, you'd get to an accumulation of snow the other side that you now had to navigate) or ran through the board park (so you had to watch for skiers or boarders left and right as well as above). I can usually handle that stuff, but maybe I was just having an off day. Oddly the quieter green runs had the nicest snow coverage.
Photo courtesy of Coops.
It snowed most of the day at Tremblant, which was really quite nice, particularly when you were on the chair lift, and it was quiet, and the snow would just drift around you. Towards the end of the day the snow cleared and the clouds lifted just a bit to see down towards the frozen river.
Photo courtesy of Coops.
We've discovered that one of the more local mountains (30 minutes) has a great midweek night skiing deal and its still not too busy. After 6pm its only $11 for a lift ticket, which run until 10pm. The only downfall is that they have snow making at that time, so you'll often ski through a cloud of snow which will then stick to your goggles for the rest of the night. It also creates patches of granular snow about the size of golf balls which isn't that much fun either. But its a pretty good deal, so we've been getting our fix regularly.
Yesterday we headed back up to Mont Ste-Marie, and the snow was great. It was probably the warmest it has been while we've been skiing, so much so that my hands were little balls of sweat inside my new gloves - the extreme opposite of my old gloves, which were children's gloves, and in which my fingers would ache with cold. It was a great day for skiing. There was little wind, and the mountain wasn't all the busy which is always good if and when if happens. I was feeling good and the snow was near perfect so I decided to try my hand, or feet as it were, at a black run. Now this is the black run that I should have gone down rather than the double black that I did go down a few weeks back. Subsequently I was nervous, but I'd not fallen over in a while, and some of the blue runs were getting a little ho-hum, so I was keen for something new. Besides, the section we passed over the lift didn't look that bad.....
At the top the run wasn't all that steep, however it was mostly ice. You had to ski from small patch of snow to small patch of snow, which amazingly, and enjoyably I managed to do. After a few corners it got steeper and steeper, but thankfully there was more and more snow on the run the further we got down. By the time we were at the half way point I had decided that if my time happened to be up on this run, it would be the funnest thing I could die doing. There was a series of three huge steps down that as I watched, the 'experts' would fly over with huge air. You could not even see the landing below, but if all else failed I'll get to the bottom somehow. When I took off, I started with a slow sliding turn, then pretty much straightened up, lent further down the mountain and felt the snow flick up from the front of my skis into my face. It was awesome. I didn't even come a gutser! By the second run I barely even paused at the steps. We ran that black 4 or 5 times, and maybe it was beginners luck that I stuck it every time, but I think its the most fun I've had on a run to date! It was just unfortunate that I had a massive stack not long afterwards that put about 20m between me and one of my skis. Subsequently I spent quite a while icing my knee last night so that I can get back out there later this week. Hey, it was a black section also, so I don't feel so bad about it.
On the way home we could not believe how many deer we were spotting along the roads. I guess the sun was getting down and they were all out for dinner or something. Here, instead of road signs for kangaroos for the next 10km, its deer. They are probably the size of a big roo, and have equal ability to get enough height in a bound to clear your grill and come straight through your windscreen. Basically the same theory applies - avoid wherever safer to do so. I guess we spotted at least a dozen, thankfully none at close range.
I did however spot a strange ball of something up in a tree. Quickly having a guess - as illogical as it seemed, I got Coops to swing the car around and head back for a closer look. It wasn't all that unlike one of those balls of spitfires you'd come across as a kid, and then poke with a stick to see if they really would spit fire at you. (Spitfires are black, furry caterpillars about an inch and a bit long and about as thick as a pencil for those who didn't have the pleasure.) As we drove back past it, here in this three, hanging underneath the branch was a porcupine. I was astounded firstly, because I hadn't seen a porcupine in the wild yet, and secondly that it was in a tree which I just didn't realise they did at all! We were obviously disturbing its nap, so it crawled around to the top of the branch and just sat there checking us out, probably in the same way we were checking it out. It was amazing. It really did look deceptively cute and cuddly. Thrilled with out unexpected wildlife spotting for the day we headed home.
Photos courtesy of Coops.
The Rideau Canal is now partially open for skating. I've not been yet, so action shots to come, but its now every day you get to see a tractor driving on top of a frozen river.
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