Adventures in Kansas and Nova Scotia

As I sit here writing this it’s some five months since the events described. I have been absolutely useless at updating my blog! Thankfully I do have some notes, photos, etc. to help me remember what I was up to. Once again I’ll be faking dates as I think it’s far more useful to have the dates associated with a post be roughly when things happened rather than when I, finally, got round to writing about them.

My notes tell me that the Saturday after the end of the last post I went for a swim and then walked down to Wolfville in the early evening. Apparently it was nice earlier in the day but overcast and windy by the time I went for the walk. As I don’t remember it I’m just going to have to assume my notes are accurate. I do however remember the next day when I went and walked the Dynamite trail. I’d started to walk this trail towards the end of the last winter but it all turned a bit too sketchy with too much ice. This time there was no ice but quite a lot of, reasonably compacted snow, so walking was viable if hard work. Nearing the end end of the trail I decided to leave the snowy trail and join the snow-free road. This involved crossing quite a snowy bank. This turned out to be rather more difficult than expected due to sinking in some really quite deep snow and having to dig one foot out with the other. I suspect this is part of the reason I remember the day! Anyway by the time I got to the end of the trail I decided I’d had enough of walking on snow and walked back on the roads. Which was much easier even if it was more hilly. Still it was an enjoyable day, photos from which are here. Having a quick look at those photos reminds me how much I like that part of Nova Scotia.

Next weekend I went for a long (almost 16 mile) hike but as it was along an old railway line, and so flat, it wasn’t too hard. It was also almost completely snow free which helped quite a lot. The Saltwater trail started by crossing some marshes on a dyke like system and it was all rather attractive. After quite a while mostly in the woods, during which the trail changed to be the Atlantic View trail I come to the ocean and Lawrencetown Beach. Even in mid-April there were surfers. Not long after that I turned around and started the nearly 8 mile return trip. Highlights of the day included the views, seeing Herons and a photogenic squirrel. Of course I took photos! Sunday I went walking around Wolfville and on the dykes. There was still quite a lot of snow around here so I had to vary my normal walk a bit. There are a few photos of Wolfville in the snow including the frozen over reservoirs near me.

That Thursday saw me off to Kansas. This had originally meant to be my traditional birthday climbing trip but trying to find a date that worked for both me and my friends down there proved rather difficult so it turned out to be quite a while after my birthday. I’d hired a car as for various reasons this made the most sense so when I got there I did a bit of shopping before heading to Monster Mountain for some climbing at my old wall. I hadn’t told anyone I was going to be there – indeed I only decided to go once I was in Kansas – and it’s fair to say I surprised a few people. Still I had a good time as many people I used to climb with where there so I had no problem finding a belay. I didn’t go out for drinks with them as it had been a long day and I needed to drive to Lawrence where I was spending the night. Friday was spent hanging around Lawrence and hiking one of my old favourite spots at Clinton Lake before meeting up with Carol and Mary-Ashley for the drive down to Arkansas.

We stopped for Mexican on the way before turning up at Fern rather late at night. There then followed two wonderful days of climbing. I was a little disappointed with my stamina but really rather pleased with some of the moves I did – I was stronger and better than I was expecting. I suppose that was to be expected after doing nothing but bouldering for months. Fern is a lovely location and I did a couple of really nice climbs including redpointing a 10b. There are quite a few climbing photos, including a rather surprising number with me in! On the way back we stopped to get really good pizza and beer, even if it did take forever to arrive. On the Monday I got a buffer Indian lunch with MA before heading back to the airport and Nova Scotia. All in all a wonderful weekend. I was only in Nova Scotia a couple of days before heading back to the US, this time to upstate New York for work, but I’ll leave that to my next post.

The other big new from this period was I become an uncle – Eliana Money was born on 21 April. She is, of course, amazing!

On the Saturday after the end of my last post I went hiking at Black Rocks. I’d never hiked there before and I was rather glad that I’d ended up going during the winter as I think the rocky beach you walk along would have been a bit boring in the summer. In the winter however, with frozen waterfalls and ice everywhere it was very very cool and made for a rather enjoyable walk. After the beach I tried walking one of the last well-traveled paths. Up to that point all the trails had been nice and compacted and so I hadn’t brought snowshoes. Turns out they were rather required on the less popular trail so after slogging on without them for too long I turned round and re-traced my steps. All in a all a thoroughly enjoyable day, the photos form which are here.

Sunday it stormed. As it did on Wednesday. And the following Saturday. There had been some talk of the last of these being rain rather than snow but we only got snow where I am. On the Friday I went for a snowshoe around the local park (photos) and saw the Eagles again. On the Sunday I walked down to swimming but there’s not a whole lot more exciting to report.

The following week things started to get warmer so on the Wednesday afternoon I thought I’d get out for a snowshoe while I still could. I headed to Woodville again to explore some of the bits I hadn’t already. The highlight was seeing a little abandoned bird’s nest in a tree (photos). As per normal I bouldered on the Thursday evening but I ended up banging me knee which resulted in it hurting for a few days. As people may remember from previous posts my knees haven’t been quite right for a while and although they’re generally quite good again they still play up if I knock them in the wrong place, which I evidently did. This meant I didn’t boulder on the Friday but I did go and meet my friends – partly to plan the next evening – and we went to the pub afterwards which made for an enjoyable change.

The Saturday was the day before my birthday and we’d decided to do something that evening as it wasn’t a school night. After going for a swim in the early afternoon I met up with some of my friends from bouldering later in the afternoon for a few games of pool and ping pong and table tennis at a bar. After that we headed to the Port Pub for dinner and drinks. All in all I had a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Thanks everyone!

There was a bit of a slow start to my actual birthday but in the late afternoon I decided to visit Mount Uniacke – still my favourite local place to go hiking. Turns out there was rather ore snow left there than I was expecting and I was glad I had brought my snowshoes along. Was a very enjoyable couple of hours. Photos are here. Fed up with photos of snow yet? Well I’m starting to get fed up with snow although it mostly remained mild and the snow slowly decreased over the next week although there was still plenty left by Easter weekend.

Good Friday turned out to be a much nicer day than predicted. Thanks to the crappy forecast I had an incredibly lazy start to the day so didn’t have time to get up to anything too exciting. I decided I wanted to do something other than snowshoeing so instead went for a hike along the abandoned railway line reasonably near here. The section I hike was also used by snowmobiles so would hopefully be reasonably compact – which it was. Snowmobiling was technically banned after the end of March but I still saw one. For an abandoned railway line it was really quite scenic in a few places (photos). I’ve now hiked quite a few little bits of it and have generally been quite impressed.

Saturday the weather did indeed turn out to be a bit useless, as forecast, with rain and mist most of the day. Part of me was disappointed it was raining as it meant I couldn’t get out and do something exciting. On the other hand part of me was quit pleased, after all if it’s raining it’s not snowing! So instead I went to the bouldering gym where I had a good session. After a few weeks of not being into quite as much as I normally am I seem to have got back into the swing of things. I quite often go through little periods like that so it was no surprise, although it’s always nice when it’s over.

It would appear that getting one days forecast right was about all that they could manage. Sunday they forecast flurries but it started nice and sunny. After a semi-lazy start I drove about an hour away to go for a hike or snowshoe. Turned out the trail was pretty compacted so I didn’t use the snowshoes. One of the trails marked on the map didn’t appear to yet exist on the ground. I think I found where it broadly went but didn’t fancy the look of it without snowshoes, as the path that did exist went downhill quite steeply. That meant I ended up hiking in the woods rather than along the river and so it wasn’t very exciting. The further I walked in the worse the weather, and the less compacted the trail, got so eventually I decided to turn around. Good job I did as the weather continued to go down hill.

On the way out I heard some shouting and it was worrying enough that I had decided that I was going to do something about it when I got back to the parking lot. A bit further on however I met some people by where the trail by the river went and although they were a little way off they were shouting at their dogs that had come to investigate me and everything seemed fine. A bit further on again I came across a group of fireman as apparently someone was lost. I told them where I saw people and went on my way – I was under dressed for the conditions as it was certainly now much more than flurries and I wanted out!

When I got to the parking lot there was, unsurprisingly quite a lot of activity – including a stuck ambulance that meant I couldn’t currently go anywhere even if I wanted to! I told the fireman and police there what I knew about the group I’d seen but it was soon established they were camping there and not lost. I then wondered if the shouts I heard hadn’t been from them after all. They had seemed to have come from a different direction but it would have been easy to get that wrong in the conditions. Apparently the group that were lost were totally unequipped for the conditions and wearing jeans so it came as a relief when after about an hour they were found. As I could definitely no longer by of any help I got on my way – the ambulance by now having been moved.

So that was a bit of an exciting afternoon. And it seems to continue my run of having some dealings with search and rescue type people roughly every two years. All the previous ones have been climbing related but I hope this one counts and I can go for another two years before dealing with anything similar. Of course it would be great to go for longer, much, much longer, but I do seem to be set in some sort of pattern. I was always going to end this post today but all the excitement has turned it from possibly a short one into quite a long one. Hopefully I’ll be good and the next post will be prompt… seems unlikely though!

P.S. Definitely had enough of snow now!

Well once again I’ve left updating this blog waaaay too long. Although at least this time I’ve been keeping some notes on what I’ve been up to which should make writing this post easier. Snow had started to become a bit of a theme in the last post and that will continue and this one… and probably the next one!

I wrote the last post sat indoors on a day we had a shed load of snow. Next day was a bit of a write off from a get into work perspective and the highlight of the day turned out to be snowshoeing to downtown via a roundabout route. That Wednesday I went for a walk along the dykes in Wolfville. Can’t remember how that fitted in with work although I did start quite late in the afternoon. What I do remember was the lack of snow on the dykes. Everywhere else was still covered in at least several inches on snow but the dykes had pretty much none on top of them due to their exposed position and the wind. It was rather nice, for a change, doing a reasonably proper hike without dealing with snow. That day I also saw a pheasant in my car park (parking lot) which was cool although it had gone again too quickly to get any good photos – what I did take are here. The next day again it snowed in the afternoon and into the evening and I took the opportunity to go and take some photos of Wolfville in the snow before the wind removed the snow from the trees.

Saturday I went snowshoeing at the Woodville trails. Turns out that no one had snowshoed the first path I used so I was breaking trail, uphill, in more than a foot of snow. Which was hard work! Eventually I made it to the top of the hill and picked up trails where other people had already been which made things easier. Shortly afterwards I reached the viewpoint from which I took all my photos that day. Shortly after the view point I heard and finally spotted a woodpecker, which was very cool but unfortunately it spotted me and flew off before I had a chance to take any photos. Carrying on I soon reached the other main parking area and deciding to be adventurous I started off on another unbroken trail although I reasonably quickly looped back as time was getting on a bit. It was then that things started to get a bit interesting. I could not find a connecting trail that was meant to exist anywhere so eventually I walked down the road to where it intersected the main trail, which I found at the second attempt. It was obvious, although I’m not sure it officially exists anymore as it didn’t appear to be marked. After walking down it a bit I was close enough to a marked trail that I cut across to it but then couldn’t find where that trail intersected with the trail I had been on. That resulted in leaving the hiking area and a long walk back along roads to the car. Still just about made it before dark. A rather enjoyable day despite the mishaps.

I can only assume I did nothing interesting on the Sunday as I made no record of what I did. That Friday however I did do something interesting – I drove to New Brunswick for a three day weekend. Much of the write up of the trip is here but there are a couple of things I don’t mention there. Both were unfortunate but also quite lucky. First off someone drove into the back of me at a junction on the way to New Brunswick. Thankfully no damage was caused to either car so we just shock hands and went on our way. That could have been a lot worse. Secondly I stupidly left my camera gear at a parking lot on the Saturday and I think knocked the bag over with the car as I was leaving. I don’t believe I properly run it over as the only thing I damaged was one filter which I replace for 8 dollars. When I realised what I’d done I went back and found a couple that were just about to go snowshoeing and who it put the bag in their car for safekeeping. So that also could have gone a lot worse, both in the damage caused and in not finding the people there. So although both things were unfortunate I count myself lucky as they could have been so much worse!

The Saturday after New Brunswick I think the highlight of my day was going for a swim. I certainly don’t seem to have done anything exciting! Unlike the Sunday. Sunday I had arranged to go snowshoeing with some of the regulars at the boudlering gym. Wasn’t the longest snowshoe ever but I had a good time and took more photos. After snowshoeing we went to the pub for food before I headed to the bouldering wall for some route setting. All in all a fun day. The highlight of the next week was doing a timed km swim (breast stroke) for the first time in a couple of years. Turns out those swimming lessons I took in Kansas paid off as I was about four minutes faster than I used to be. And I think I’ve still got a little more in my. I was really rather pleased!

I was saying in my last post that winter had not arrived yet. Well it has now. Big style. We’ve had snow… lots of snow! But when it’s not been snowing we’ve had some OK days and I’ve got out and done stuff, including snowshoeing, so the last couple of weeks have actually been pretty good.

It first snowed the middle of the week after my last post, on both the Tuesday and Wednesday. It wasn’t a huge amount but it was enough to make the roads a little interesting at times although it did also things look rather prettier so it wasn’t all bad. I went out for a quick hike at lunchtime on Thursday and took some photos that I liked, including with the new lens I got for Christmas. I definitely like the bokeh you can get with it.

That weekend was the first of two Eagle watch weekends. They feed the eagles in the mornings and allow people to watch and take photos and it’s only about a half hour drive from me. I didn’t get a chance to properly see it last year as I’d only just moved here so this year I was determined to go. Turned out it wouldn’t be that Saturday though. The forecast was for quite a bit of snow and there was. They’d ploughed my street by the time I was awake but not my car park so there wasn’t much chance of me getting out. By the afternoon things had improved a bit, although driving still seemed a dumb idea so instead I walked down to the reservoir park and then used my snowshoes for the very first time. Ended up doing rather more walking than I thought I would. Not being that used to snowshoeing I decided to play it safe and not take my camera so no photos.

Sunday I woke up early to try and go and see the Eagles. The first time I woke up I couldn’t see the end of my street due to blowing snow so went back to sleep as if I couldn’t see the end of my street there didn’t seem to be much chance of seeing Eagles. I woke up again an hour later, still blowing snow. The same thing a little later. So I gave up and properly went back to sleep. Only to find that it had turned into a nice day when I got up around 10. So I drove out to the Eagle viewing place to see what was going on. The main event was clearly over but some of the Eagles were still hanging around and I did managed to get some decent photos.

After seeing the Eagles I went to go snowshoeing again. The first place I tried to go I couldn’t find anywhere to park due to the snow so instead went back to the trails through the woods at my work. Several other people were snowshoeing and it was clear a lot of others had been earlier as well and so the main trail was pretty compact and you probably didn’t need snowshoes. I went off trail to where someone else had also been at one point and there you most definitely did need them. I enjoyed that bit the most and it made me even more confident with snowshoes. I was already more confident after the day before so this time I took the camera and so there are photos.

Thursday things went a little wrong. It was mean to storm again Thursday evening so I decided to get a quick boulder in before it hit too bad. That was the wrong decision. The roads were horrible by the time I left and I couldn’t get up the hill to my apartment. It would appear that the slightly milder day had melted some of the snow which had then turned to ice, which now had a layer of snow on top. Several people were having fun! After quite a while trying every way I could think of to get home I dumped the car in a parking lot and walked home. That was a bad idea as they towed my car so they could plow the lot. That cost me a fair bit of money.

Not wanting that to happen again I decided to get winter tires so went to Walmart on the Friday to try and get some. I’d not needed them last year as there was no hill involved but this year it looked like I’d have to get them. On the plus side by leaving it so late I managed to get them on clearance. So even with the cost of the tow it was still cheaper than if I’d get them at the start of winter. So at least that was something. Walmart had some in stock but they were earmarked for a customer. However the customer had ordered them in December and still hadn’t actually had them fitted so the manager said he’d see if they actually wanted them and get back to me. In case they did he also ordered some in for me although they may have taken up to a week to arrive.

Saturday I once again woke up to maybe go and see the Eagles. The weather was OK but not great and as the forecast was better for Sunday and I was tired I decided to be lazy and go back to sleep. Thankfully I didn’t live to regret that decision. After lunch I made a quick visit to New Minas where I was able to arrange for snow tires to be fitted the next day – they would give me the tires earmarked for the other customer as they had never called back. Once that was done I headed to Mount Uniacke to go snowshoeing. Most of the trail had only had cross country skiers use it so snowshoeing was hard work – but good fun. Only did about three and a half miles but it felt like I’d done quite a bit more. While there I also played with the fisheye attachment lens thing I’d got for Christmas. Much cheaper than a real fisheye and obviously not as good but still fun to play with. Photos both with, and without, the fisheye convertor are here.

Sunday I finally went to see the Eagles at the proper time. It was bloody cold to be standing around and the Eagles didn’t actually come and get the (dead) chicken that had been put out for them for well over an hour. I got cold and went back to the car to warm up. I’d only been back at the viewing area about 5 minutes or less when they finally decided to start feeding. The wait and the cold had all been worth it. It was amazing. I took a stupid amount of photos. About half of them have made it into my gallery. At some point I really will have to edit them properly but until I do you’ll just have to cope with them all!

After seeing the Eagles I finally went and got my snow tires fitted. Hopefully no more expensive tows for me! That done I headed to Blomidon for another snow shoe. This one involved rather more uphill than any I’d done before and so was hard work. Still it was fun and there were some nice views. The weirdest bit was a section at the top of the hill where there was virtually no snow – I can only assume it was the effect of the wind as there was quite deep snow all around. I once again played with the fish eye a bit but all in all didn’t take that many photos.

Yesterday I went for a hike down on the South Shore. It was a bit of a drive but I wanted to go somewhere a little different, especially as I know I’d probably be stuck inside all day today due to the massive snow storm. I took the snowshoes with me but the snow really wasn’t deep enough to warrant them so just went for a hike instead. It was an enjoyable 6 mile hike along the coast and some of the frozen spray on the rocks was amazing. Not sure the photos really do it justice. The forecast for today was for a foot or more of snow, and we’ve certainly had that. As I write this in the afternoon things have calmed down a little but I still have no desire to go outdoors.

So I didn’t get away for either long weekend. The first one as I wanted to see the Eagles, this one due to the awful forecast for today. Am going try to do some work today and tomorrow and maybe get away for a long weekend next weekend if the weather’s nice. Still it’s been an enjoyable few weeks and I have managed to use my snowshoes quite a bit so they no longer seem like they may be a wasted buy. Especially now we’ve had even more snow!

By the time I’d got through immigration and picked up my car it was even later by the time I started driving back to Wolfville. I stopped in Windsor for a drink and it was then that my car decided it was going to misbehave. For the rest of the drive home it was semi-regularly misfiring. Given the time and how tired I was I chanced it and kept going and thankfully made it home. The car went in the garage on the Friday and turns out it needed a new coil for one of the cylinders. Thankfully not a very difficult or expensive repair so I soon had a working car again. Nothing much else exciting to report from the first few days back. Everything was much as it was before I left.

That Saturday I went for a walk around Wolfville. There was a little bit of snow on the ground and some really nice light so I got some photos which I really like. Sunday I started to feel a bit ill so didn’t get up to much and I ended up taking a day and a half off of work. Even after I was back in work I still wasn’t feeling right and it was the end of the week before I started feeling normal again so there’s nothing much to report.

That weekend the weather precluded me doing anything too exciting. I went bouldering on the Saturday and swam on the Sunday. Last January, just after I arrived here, it was proper wintery with lots of snow and a storm or two. This year the weather is broken and can’t decide whether it wants to do winter or not. Some days we’re get a little bit of snow, other days it will be well above freezing and it will all melt again. The end result of all this is there’s normally no snow, often ice and it’s often raining. And we only seem to get nice sunny days on work days. All of which doesn’t exactly make for the best conditions for doing something outdoors. 🙁

The last week has been more of the same. Got out this Saturday for a short walk around Wolfville before the rain hit. It was briefly snow but then turned to lots of rain instead. Wonderful! Sunday was I went for a swim. That was the highlight. Once again the weather was not wonderful.

What else can I report on. Works going OK and I’m starting to arrange a trip to Europe in the summer. My boss has decided to send me to SMBE, which is in Vienna this year at the beginning of July. I intend to combine it with some time in England seeing friends and the like. I’ve booked the hotel for the conference but haven’t booked flights yet as there’s some family stuff that needs sorting before I decide on dates. Once I have dates sorted I may well try and arrange a weekend climbing meet-up for while I’m back in England. Would be good to have a big meet up and climb in England as neither has happened in quite some time for me now.

I brought snow shoes before Christmas but this weather has meant I can’t use them. I have a couple of three day weekends coming up so I’m thinking of heading away for at least one of them so that I can do some snow shoeing and see somewhere new. The next two weekends are also when they feed the Eagles near me and I plan to go to at least one feeding and get some photos. Hopefully that will be cool. So there should be something more exciting to report in my next blog post. Assuming of course that the weather doesn’t muck everything up. Which seems likely.