Adventures in Kansas and Nova Scotia

Well it turns out that I got rather more done before my parents turned up than I was expecting, including a new crag point and some more exploring of Nova Scotia. The first weekend after Cape Breton was not so exciting but I still wasn’t idle. I ended up staying local all weekend and on the Saturday went for a walk where I worked. Now I should explain that this isn’t quite as strange as it may seem as the research station has a rather large wooded area that is open to the public. I went walking in the afternoon and was really not that sure what to expect but I ended up being rather pleasantly surprised as it was really quite an attractive wood to walk through. As is normal I took some photos. I also met an old man that had originally been from England. It was obvious he’d lived here for some time as I would never have guessed from his accent.

Next day I finally walked the whole of the dyke between Wolfville and Port Williams. I had started out to do this once in the winter but the snow and cold wind made me give up. I’ve wandered along the Wolfville end of it several times now but this time I started in Port Williams and intended to walk back to Wolfville. When I reached Wolfville I started to walk back towards Port Williams along the old railway line. Turns out that just outside Wolfville this is no longer a path and gets stupidly overgrown so after a detour through a farmers field and someone’s garden (yard) I eventually made it back to the main road and then my car – in the rain as it had started raining when I reached the main road. Still wasn’t a bad way to get some exercise. It would also appear that, for once, I took no photos.

After work the next weekend I went to one of my favourite spots in Wolfville and took some photos as the sun set. The rest of the weekend I spent climbing with Dan and Emily south of Digby. They picked me up in Wolfville Saturday morning and we headed South. Saturday we spent bouldering by the sea. Yes, I know, I bouldered outside and even rather enjoyed myself. The bouldering isn’t really described in any guidebook but I feel like I wasn’t doing badly. Photos are here. That evening we camped on the beach which I believe is a first for me – although I’ve camped in many places I don’t think I’ve ever camped on a beach before.

Next day we headed to the nearby sports crag. This only has about ten routes, only a few of which were within my grade. I led two routes and top-roped a third – we all top-roped that one as the bolts looked a bit exciting. My first lead I found quite difficult but so did everyone else – at least for it’s grade – so it seems it was a bit of a sandbag. The top roped route was meant to be a bit harder and was definitely somewhat overhanging. Given that I was rather pleased by my attempt even if I did, just, have to take one rest. The last route was definitely the easiest but still quite steep at once place and I have to rest on the rope while working out the move. Photos from the day are here. We were done climbing quite early so after getting dinner in Digby I was back home at a reasonable time.

The next weekend I was unable to arrange any climbing so instead went off exploring more of Nova Scotia. This time I headed more south, towards Yarmouth. After a not particularly early start on Saturday I headed to Thomas Radall Park where I went for a about 5 mile hike. The park is by the sea and I enjoyed walking along several beaches and generally close to the shore. Completing the loop through the woods was considerably less fun as it was obvious the path wasn’t used that often and so there was a fair amount of vegetation in the way. I also saw a part of the park’s campground and as a result decided to camp at the park that night rather than another park I was considering. Photos from the hike are here. After completing the hike, and getting a camping site, I drove along the coast for a bit before a short hike along an abandoned railway line (there are a lot of these in Nova Scotia). After grabbing some food I headed back to my campsite. The site next to me was running a generator outside of allowed hours but I’ll assume it was unintentional as they turned it off as soon as they were told and were pretty quiet after that. Definitely one of my favourite camping sites so far.

The next day I explored further along the coast heading towards Yarmouth. I was a little disappointed as I did not find this bit of coast was not as scenic as the coast further north and by about lunchtime I was in Yarmouth. I did however take a few photos of the coast. In Yarmouth I first went to the Firefighter’s museum which had some cool fire engines (photos) but was otherwise a bit disappointing as it didn’t really have much information for you to read. After that I headed out to Cape Forchu Lighthouse which was certainly in a reasonably scenic locatiion – much more scenic than I’d been earlier in the day – but was a little let down by the commercialism and the recent (1960’s) lighthouse. Photos are here.

After seeing the lighthouse I started to head home but first stopped off for a rather enjoyable short hike at Chebogue Meadows. After this I decided to head inland a bit and try to fit in another quick hike before the final drive home. This was, again, along an abandoned railway line but it went past a couple of really pretty lakes. I also hiked at a speed I’ve not been able to hike at since before I did my ankle, which was really pleasing. Together these two hikes turned what had been a slightly disappointing day into a really good day. I took photos at both Chebogue Meadows and along the railway line.

As the first weekend in August is a long weekend in this part of the world I decided to take the Friday off as well and head up to Cape Breton for a few days. Thursday evening saw me leaving to start the drive up there only to return about 45 minutes later when I realised I’d left both my head torches/lamps at home. Whoops. After that abortive start I arrived at my campsite for the night. This was a little south if the main area I was heading for but was a nice way to break up the drive – it was already midnight when I arrived.

Next day saw me first heading to the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site – bit of a mouthful that. I hadn’t realised that he had been involved with so much more than the telephone, getting involved with airplanes and hydrofoils amongst other things. Glad I went to take a look and it will give us a wet weather option when my parents visit in a couple of weeks. The views from the site were quite scenic as well and I took various photos, both inside and out.

Next up was a ten mile round trip hike to the highest waterfall in Nova Scotia. The signs in the car park / parking lot said the trail was closed for maintenance and that you used it at your own risk. I took this to mean that I could use it and it probably wasn’t in too bad a state. Turns out that it was mostly in a pretty good state and I’ve certainly hiked much worse trails recently. That’s not to say it was easy, it was still a pretty hard trail, but neither did it warrant being closed in my opinion. The waterfall at the end was pretty impressive and I took a lot of photos which gave me more chance to play with the neutral density filter I got for my birthday. I do like how it allows long exposure times and so cool water affects.

I was rather tired by the time I returned to the car but I still had some driving to do to get to my campsite for the rest of the weekend. The drive was certainly pretty scenic and I stopped several times to take yet more photos. When I arrived at the campsite I discovered that the people next door to me had taken over some of my site as they, apparently, hadn’t realised there were two sites there and thought there was only one. Still it was late and there was just about another space for me to squeeze in so I made the most of it. They left the next day anyway.

Saturday first saw me heading to Cape Smokey Provincial Park. I’d stopped here briefly the night before but the plan for that day was to do a seven mile round trip that visited several view points. The trail was definitely quite overgrown in places and most of the viewpoints were very similar to what you could see without hiking anywhere. The last viewpoint, however, was different as you’d just rounded a headline and got a quite different view. May just have made the hike worthwhile. You won’t be surprised to hear that there are more photos.

After grabbing some extra lunch I headed to Middle Head to do a much shorter hike. By the time I finished it two days of hiking had caught up with me and I was really pleased to get back to the car. The hike was nothing spectacular although there were some nice views of the shoreline. Deciding I was done hiking for the day I drove up to Mary Ann Falls so you get to see more photos of waterfalls. The falls had swimmers all over them – including a few who were jumping in and just make it into the photos – but they were still nice to see. I then drove up the coast a bit, stopping every now and again for more photos before heading back to the campsite for an enjoyable evening, drinking beer, reading and listening to the people on the next site having sex. OK, the last part was less enjoyable!

As I was still feeling rather tired on Sunday morning I decided to do less hiking and instead drive over to the other side of the park stopping of on the way at anything that seemed cool and to do some shorter hikes. I started by doing a very short hike at White Point which was quite different to a lot of the coastline I’d hiked so far as it was much more barren and so looked quite different as you may be able to see in the photos. I next discovered a beach hidden down a gravel road with a bit of a walk at the end. I found it really quite scenic and there are yet more photos.

I next did a bit of a driving tour heading north to Meat Cove before heading back to the Cabot Trail and heading to the western bit of the national park. All the photos I took that day while driving a round are lumped into one folder here. I also stopped off at a couple of water falls. The first was pretty much roadside and rather pathetic as you can probably see from the photos. I could definitely see how they would be impressive with more water flowing over them but with the trickle that was they weren’t really rather visiting. The next waterfall I stopped at required a bit more of a hike and was much nicer in my opinion. I just about managed to take enough photos before my poor planning caught up with me and all my batteries were dead. Thankfully I’d left one charging in the pavilion at the start of the hike and that was enough to last me the weekend.

After some more driving around I decided to hike the Skyline. This is quite a touristy hike with a very good path and a broadwalk at the end to protect the vegetation. Still was definitely worth doing as I saw a couple of moose and the views at the end were definitely pretty good and hopefully my photos do it some justice. I was pretty damned tired by the time I finished and ending up getting a headache from not eating enough. I was rather worried about the hour and a half drive back to my campsite but thankfully the headache faded after I’d got some food and drink in the nearby town and took some painkillers. Really should know by now that I need to be careful about stuff like that.

Next day saw me heading to Louisburg the site of a fortress the French had built to protect their north American colonies, although that didn’t work so well in the end as they lost the site, twice, to the British. The second time the Brits destroyed everything there to stop the French getting it back in any peace treaty like they had the first time. A large amount of the town was recreated in the seventies as a means of creating employment so there’s quite a lot to see. The drive to get there took rather longer than expected although it did involved some nice views and a ferry ride. Once again photos while driving are lumped together.

After I eventually arrived at the place I was both a little bit impressed and disappointed. Impressed by the buildings etc, disappointed about how much it relied on living history and how little there was to read about it’s history – at least I couldn’t find it. The fact that they had female soldiers also annoyed me somewhat as it ruined their attempt to be historically accurate. Still I had an enjoyable few hours looking around. I think I enjoyed the bit where I got away from the crowds by walking a short trail in the non re-constructed part where there were information boards telling you what used to be there. Once more there are photos.

After visiting the main site I drove into the site a bit more to a beach before heading to the other side of town to a lighthouse which was also were the British built a battery to attack the French. I also did a short hike at the lighthouse which was rather enjoyable and where I found some cool rocks piled together in an artistic manner which was cool. Photos are included with the fort photos as it’s all related. By the time I’d done the short hike it was definitely time to head back to Woilfville if I wanted to arrive at anything like a reasonable time.

On the drive back however I went a slightly scenic route and stopped off briefly in Iona. Apart form some nice views the cool thing was a really weird rock formation in a bay. It reminded me very much of the islands often associated with pirates in cartoons and the like. Photos are here. After another short ferry ride and a stop of at he Provincial Park I stayed at the first night for a shower I got back to Wolfville about 1am.

All in all it was a very enjoyable weekend and I’m looking forward to taking my parents up there in a few weeks. Hopefully it won’t be quite so hazy as when I was there as this meant the views weren’t as good as they could be and made photography hard – getting the exposure right was hard for both the camera and me. You may also notice some of the photos have marks on them. obviously have a little bit of dust in my body and although I though I got it out I must have just moved it around as it often returned. Time to either clean it properly or got it done professionally I feel.

Wow, that’s a long post for a five day period. Still nothing too exciting planned to my parents visit at the end of the month so the next post probably won’t be so long.

Well the weekend after my misadventures at Main Face I didn’t get to climb as everyone I knew was busy so I went exploring instead. Unfortunately I didn’t realise this was the case until Saturday morning so it was a bit of last minute plan and involved some rushing around to get ready. My plan for the Saturday was relatively sane and first involved heading to a waterfall about an hour from Wolfville and which I hadn’t yet managed to work into a plan being a bit too far to go just for it but a bit too close to easily combine with anything else. It was about a mile from the road, and was a reasonable nice waterfall in a really nice setting even if there were a lot of people swimming in the pool. Did look a cool place to go for a swim but I hadn’t brought swim stuff so it wasn’t to be for me, maybe another time. Photos are here.

Next up in my plan was to go and do a hike from my hiking Nova Scotia guidebook that involved two loops with some walking along an old road in between. As it turns out I only did the nearer loop as apparently a bridge on the road was out and you couldn’t get to the further loop. As I was running a bit short of time by this point I decided not to see quite how unreachable it was. Still was a nice little walk through a wood to reach the coast and then to another waterfall just after you headed inland again. So there’s more photos of waterfalls. As I still had a little bit of daylight left I drove around the surrounding area a bit which was reasonable attractive and took some more photos, mostly of quaint little lighthouses. Finally I headed into Annapolis Royal to see what that town was like. Not bad as touristy towns go but I think there’s nicer in Nova Scotia. Photos of Annapolis Royal, including another quaint ligthouse, are here.

After that I went to a provincial park to camp for the night. I got myself up reasonably early the next day as my slightly mad plan for the day involved driving to Brier Island and doing a 12 mile walk around it. As it was a couple of hours drive, and two short ferry rides, away I had to leave early to ensure I had enough time to do the hike. As it happens, and somewhat unusually for me, I was up at a reasonable time, did the drive OK and was setting out walking by a little bit after 11:30. I was both pleased and surprised by this!

The hike itself was a bit of a disappointment as it mostly followed ATV trails around the island and boy had they ripped the place up. They certainly didn’t seem to follow the hikers ethic of staying on the trail, even it means going through puddles etc, so as to not make the trail wider. However there was one very cool thing about the hike – Seal Cove. I heard the seals long before I could see them and indeed it was only after I saw them that I realised what the noise was. There must have been about one hundred of them sitting on rocks in the cove. A bit too far away to get decent photos but still pretty amazing to see and hear. I had the hike done by about 7 in the evening – my GPS claims it was nearer 13 miles, before I started the long drive home. On the way I did a quick visit to Balanched Rock on Long Island. The “Balanced Rock” I found rather disappointingly small although it was in a scenic locations. There’s even some photos of me took by some other people there, although I forgot to change the exposure back to normal before giving them the camera so they’re probably overexposed. There are photos from where I camped, the drive down Digby Neck to Brier Island, the hike itself and Balancing Rock.

The week was once again taken up with work and I didn’t get up to much exciting. I did however go for a short walk one evening after work and saw, what I think, were Eagles. They were certainly large birds of prey. Unfortunately they were quite a distance away and the light was fading so the photos aren;t that great.

That weekend I managed to get climbing both days and even managed to get new crag points on the Saturday as it was my first trip to Sorrows End where I met up with Emily and Dan. The guidebook approach description was useless but I somehow still managed to find the place and have a very enjoyable day. I only led one route and although it wasn’t quick and involved a few rests it was pleasing that my head was in a much better place than a couple of weekends before. I also seconded or top-roped a few others. I like the crag and it’s somewhere I want to go back to. I even managed to take photos on my first visit to a crag for once!

Sunday saw me back at Main Face where I successfully led the first pitch of the 5.7 with the stupidly hard start. OK I ended up clipping the first bolt on the adjacent (very, very adjacent) sport route but it was still pleasing to lead it even if I was a little slow. Wasn’t completely my fault for once as a passing rain shower caused a delay half way up! After that I seconded up a 5.6 chimney with a sack. The route was really quite enjoyable even if having a sack with me did make it rather more “interesting”. Something I shall have to lead one day – although preferably not while trying to maneuver a sack with a full lead rack in it! Another enjoyable day.

Next weekend I’m off to Cape Breton as it’s a long weekend here so the next post may not be too far off as hopefully I’ll have lets to talk about!

The first thing to note after I got back from Denver was the appearance of Arthur early Saturday morning. Unsurprisingly with such a storm in the offing I hadn’t made any plans for Saturday and by the time I finally pulled myself out of bed that morning I was without power. I managed to potter around for the day before, making many cups of tea on my camping stove, before deciding to head out to get dinner as power outages seemed patchy and I didn’t fancy cooking on the stove. Turns out that I wasn’t the only person with that idea as every open food establishment in New Minas, the local shopping area, was absolutely heaving with people. By the time I got home power had been restored but this turned out only to be temporary as it was gone again in a couple of hours. The rest of the evening was spent doing more pottering and planning climbing for Sunday as it looked like being a reasonable day.

Sunday saw me back at G Spot with what is quickly becoming the normal crowd. It’s probably safe to say that it was my most productive day climbing in Nova Scotia so far even if I did only lead one route. The day started with top-roping (third up) a nice easy trad route before seconding a much harder sports route which I took a couple of falls on. After an easier sports route I led my one route of the day, the same sports route that had been my very first rock route in Canada. It went much easier this time on lead than it had on top rope. I suspect this is due both to getting back into climbing and to getting more used to the rock here. I finished the day by seconding one more sports route. It’s definitely a crag I should do more leading at.

The following week was mostly spent working although I did also go swimming several times in an attempt to lose weight and get fitter. Friday evening got more exciting as my boss was holding a lab party at his house. This turned out to be no where near as bad as I feared it might be and I ended up rather enjoying myself even if I did get rather more drunk than I was expecting. It was also nice to catch up with Laura and her baby again, especially as Kayleigh was looking considerably more perky than last time I’d seen her.

Saturday I went climbing at Main Face. Thankfully everyone else was having a late start as well as I certainly didn’t fancy being up and about early. Climbing wise the day was a bit of a shit one for me. I led one trad route in terrible style, getting myself shit scared and taking way too long. I’d hoped I’d largely left that sort of thing behind me but it would appear not. Fingers crossed it won’t happen again for a while although on the positive side I was at least trying moves rather than just staying still like I have in the past. I’m pretty sure part of the issue is a fear of falling I seem to have developed as the hard move was off a rather large ledge and the fear of hitting it was definitely making me nervous. I’m wondering if doing some bouldering and falling off will help me get over the fear. I also think I need to take some lead falls.

One other climbing related thing of note is that I appear to have lost my nut key (tool). I’ve had this since I started climbing way back in 1999. This makes me rather sad. I’m hoping it’s around the apartment somewhere but it’s no where obvious. 🙁

Sunday I decided not to go climbing again as I was pretty sure I would not be in the right mood for it after the day before especially as I was feeling rather tired. After a pretty lazy start I went for a two hour hike at Mount Uniacke, somewhere I’d cut a hike short in the snow as I was unhappy with the conditions. Still didn’t do the whole circuit but got a lot more of if it done. Even doing that though made me think that I was right not to climb as I found it more tiring than I should have done. The few photos I took are here. After I got home I watched the world cup final and that pretty much brings me up to date.

One other thing of note is that I’ve finally put up photos of my apartment. I’ve been waiting until I got it almost sorted and after putting up a few prints of my photos I now think it pretty much is. I’d still like to do more with the rather empty half of my office but have yet to decide what. If anyone has any bright ideas that don’t cost much I’ll gladly hear them. The bathroom is definitely my least favourite room and I’m not a great fan of the kitchen either but other than that I’m pleased with how it’s all turned out.

Despite the title of this post this is not a post about a stupid American state deciding something stupid when it comes to teaching evolution. As far as I’m aware that hasn’t happened in Colorado. Instead it’s about my recent trip to America to go to Evolution 2014, a conference, which happened to be in North Carolina and then onwards to Colorado for some climbing. So hopefully there will be no ranting from me!

Friday saw me up and out pretty early and on my way to Halifax airport. Not a whole lot to report about the traveling. I did get to discuss the World Cup with the cab driver when I got to Raleigh but that was about it. After settling in to the hotel I went to the conference center to register while planning an early night. However as I was leaving I run into some folks form England who remembered me from a talk from years ago. Although I couldn’t remember them it seemed a good excuse to go for a drink and there went my early night! That set the trend for the evenings while I was at the conference as I ended up drinking every night I was there either with the same people, at the poster session where I presented my poster or at the final night social. I definitely got quite drunk at the last of those first at the social and then by latching on to some people I vaguely knew when they went to a bar.

It wasn’t all drinking however, I attended a lot of talks, got some ideas about some research I’d like to do and met up with Mark, my old boss form Kansas. I also presented a poster about my current work which several people seemed interested in. A few took my e-mail address but I’ve yet to hear anything for them. In future I clearly need to take their addresses as well. Still it’s always nice to know your work is of interest to other people. All in all I definitely think it was worth going. I’m starting to get a little more hopeful that I may have a career in academia after all!

The conference finished on the Tuesday but my flight to Denver wasn’t too early evening on the Wednesday so I spent Wednesday exploring Raleigh a bit. Well after spending as long as I could in my hotel room as I was mildly hangover and rather tired. I walked around the rather boring state capitol (photos here before visiting the North Carolina Museum of Natural History. This was where the final night reception had been held the night before but it was nice to look round it while it was less crowded and without the distraction of friends, food and alcohol. As Natural History museums go I think they do a really good job. They even have real scientists working in labs behind big glass windows the public can look through. No way I could work in those conditions but I’m sure the general public must like it. I took a few photos, which include some of genetically modified glow in the dark fish. I then had a quick look around the North Carolina History Museum before heading to the airport.

Thursday four of us headed north of Denver for a few days of climbing and camping. After a not mega-early start we ended up at Lumpy Ridge only to find that most of the nearer bits of the crag were bird-banned. Deciding we didn’t have time to walk to the further bits we eventually ended up at Cow Creek – a crag that was on Mountain Project but not in any of our guides. I ended up leading the one route I thought I could positively identify, a rather enjoyable 5.7 PG13, although I think the way I went should definitely have warranted a R rather than a PG13 as I found myself doing progressively harder slab moves while being further and further away from my gear – easily more than 10m in the end. Nothing harder than 5.7, maybe even 5.6, but with that run out… Still I enjoyed it.

Friday saw us back at Lumpy and this time we had plenty of time to do the hour or so walk in. Unfortunately we cut our first route of the day short after one and a bit pitches due to the weather. It was obviously raining a little way away and it looked to be heading in our direction. Escape from the top of the first pitch was easy, thanks to trees, while escape from the top of the second was unknown – there certainly wasn’t any obvious trees. Although I think we made the correct decision to bail it was rather annoying when it barely rained on us at all. After a failed attempt to find one climb I headed off up the first pitch of another route which was meant to go at 5.7 only to find a rather hard to reach around bush in the middle of the crack. I’m pretty sure it would go at 5.7 without the bush but with it it seemed far harder, especially for someone who has never been very good at jamming. I eventually got it but was done in by that point so reached an obvious belay ledge and called it a day. Not a massively successful day but still rather enjoyable.

Saturday saw us heading back towards Denver and stopping at Boulder Canyon to climb. Somehow I managed to get on the classic of one of the crags there, a really enjoyable 5.6 route that had a lot of variety. Not sure it’s 5.6 but I still had no real problems getting it clean. And if anyone else happens to do East Slab please note where the guidebook says doable as one pitch and do so. Otherwise you’ll find yourself doing a one-move wonder 5m pitch! Still other than that little quibble it is a really worth doing route. After that I got talked into seconding a 5.8-. I should have known better after the 5.6 that I’d just done and was a sandbag. I think the 5.8- would have got low 5.10s in many other parts of the world and I ended up falling of both pitches. 🙁 Still it was a nice climb even if it was rather harder than I was expecting.

Having gained two people and lost one Sunday saw us heading to Eldorado Canyon which still ranks as one of my favourite climbing locations in Colorado. After a much longer uphill walk-in than any of us, except for Seth who’s idea it was, we arrived at the bottom of the climb. Turns out we only did three of the five pitches as we run out of water and were all getting dehydrated. Once again it was the familiar story from this trip – really nice route but somewhat of a sandbag. I led the second pitch which was meant to be 5.3, but to me seemed to contain 5.6 moves several meters away from the nearest bit of decent gear. And both the other pitches seemed hard for the grade as well. I definitely now see what people mean when they mention Colorado grading.

Monday saw most of us being really rather tired so after a really lazy start Seth and I headed for a nearby, easy access, sport crag. I led a couple of nice routes – a 5.8 and a 5.10-, both of which, if anything, felt soft for the grade! I then seconded Seth up a 5.10 (no letter grade but I’m guessing upper end). I got all the moves but I was finally starting to feel tired by this point so took some rests. After that we called it a day, met up with the others and went to a swim beach for evening of lazing around and a few drinks. The others obviously hadn’t grown up occasionally swimming in the North Sea or other cold places as I was the only one that actually swam.

Tuesday was spent traveling back home. The only marginally interesting thing to happen was having a waitress who was once, a long time ago, from Birmingham.

Well that’s a long post. Until next time…