Trail Tales

The weatherman…. weatherperson…… The meteorologist called for a 30 degree beauty yesterday, which really puts the pressure on to come up with a great thing to do.  I'd been pondering the idea of taking a inflatable snow tube, or a 15 dollar Canadian tire blow up boat and putting it in to the lazy river I had so much success fishing at in Beaverbank.  I wasn't sure if this would actually turn out to be a good idea or not. What were the unforeseen problems with putting a small inflatable, intended for small children, into a river I hadn't fully explored? There was only one way to find out.
We headed out in the afternoon, after stopping so my friend could purchase a brand spanking new sportcraft 5000 (15 dollars at Canadian Tire), a vessel that would make any 5 year old jealous.  The walk to the river itself requires a few hundred meters of wet, muddy marsh walking through some tall grass.  We hadn't been properly prepared for this part, as our nike air’s became nike swamps. When we reached our destination, we inflated our crafts.  The inflating process took some effort, even with our heavy duty pump.
When my tube was inflated fully, I put my tube into the river, gathered my gear, and looked at it for a while.  My friend did the same. Hmmm. What would be the best way to get into this craft for people over the age of 5? After some mental modelling, I went for it. My butt successfully planted into the middle of the tube, the queen broke a champagne bottle across its hull, and I was off for my maiden voyage.  I looked back to see how my friend was getting along, when I see a large man, laying face first into his boat afraid to make any more sudden movements.  The next moments were sure to bring some good entertainment, so I quickly grabbed for my camera.  We discussed the situation for a while, as he pitched questions to me with his voice muffled by a face full of rubber.  When he regrouped ashore, I recommended a butt first approach.  He landed it cleanly and the voyage was truly underway. 
This was awesome. Things were looking great. Some cold beer to drink, and nothing to do but float.  The outing was at least as good or better than I had imagined it could be, and I highly recommend doing it. 
It took us just under 2 hours to go along a good stretch of the river, without actually travelling too far from where we started, thanks to the river's "S" shape, and very slow moving current. Spending 15 dollars for a little inflatable, and finding a suitably lazy river makes for a day well spent.  Be sure to check out the Google map location of this river, and beware that the journey to and from the river to the road isn't easy, but isn't overly difficult either. Keep an eye out for beavers and be respectful of the area. You can see some cool sticks carved by the beavers, as well as a couple of them popping up keeping an eye on you, as we saw a couple, looking jealous. Check out the video here !

Last week I headed out to a river in Sackville with my brother, for lucky? visit #3. My sister in-law had done what has taken us a month to do, which is to locate all kinds of fish. Earlier that day she had gone for a walk and noticed fish jumping all over the place in the river. When we hear that fish have been spotted, we quickly move in to disperse them.

As we pulled into a parking lot near our spot, another car pulled up to us and asked us if we had fished that particular spot before. We said we hadn’t and the guy said that he had, and that there is some good fishing to be had in there. We contained our enthusiasm and thanked him for telling us. As we started to walk in, a car pulled out and the guy stopped to tell us that there were tons of fish in there, and he pulled out a bag full of ones he had just caught. We could hardly wait another minute to get to the river, and refrained from a full out sprint. Today was definitely the day, and we were sure we would soon be pulling fish out of the river within the first cast or two.

I suddenly thought of something I had never even considered before: do we have a container to put in all the fish we catch? I asked my brother, he looked at me, smiled, and said he also hadn’t even considered this. It was a problem to be addressed later, for now we were concerned about getting our hooks in the water as quickly as possible. The spot looked ideal. I couldn’t wait see what happened when I did my first cast of the evening. It turns out I could wait. I waited a lot. I waited until it got dark, and cold.

A few desperation casts were all that was left of my evening, but with one of them, something I had never seen before. A fish chasing after my hook, nibbling on it, glancing up at me, laughing, and then swimming away. I couldn’t believe my almost luck. As it turns out, this was just another insult to injury. I packed up my stuff, told my brother I was going to go get the car, while he fished for a few more minutes. I walked off slowly, pondering the reasons for my latest failure. A while later my brother emerges, fish in hand. I thought it was surely a gag. It wasn’t. He had caught a fish, just shortly after I left. Schools of fish were jumping around everywhere immediately after I left. What does this mean? It is obviously an omen.

Beware the day I do catch a fish, as it sure to signal the coming of the next anti-christ.

Today (May11) I headed out to Long Lake Provincial Park, a place I’ve been quite a few times before.  My main purpose for the trip was to get some material to compile a video for the website.
My first visit to Long Lake came many moons ago when I was a young high school student, with a new bike and a keen interest in shit disturbing.  After getting kicked out of Point Pleasant Park more than a couple of times for doing some nature ravaging off-road stunts, I needed to broaden my range.  I had heard that there were some good off-road trails off of St. Margaret’s Bay Road so I phoned up a partner in crime and we headed out.  When we arrived, we were surprised to see a small parking lot and what looked to be a park that we had never seen before, yet was 15 minutes from our house.  The discovery changed everything.  No longer were parks purely for hordes of us to converge on after dusk with backpacks full of bad news.  Now we had found a place that was more fun than most illegal activities.  The trails were perfect for some serious off-road biking, and the park was so large that each excursion took us on a different adventure. 
The park has changed considerably since then.  Today it is a well known spot, popular with all sorts of people.  It’s not uncommon to see the parking lot full, and the trail head packed with people walking their dogs.  It has a Point Pleasant Park type feel when you arrive, but you can quickly escape the main area and set out into the unknown (thanks to our Province being too cheap to mark or maintain any official trails).  The spring time is typically not a good time to visit this park. As my friend pointed out a couple of weeks ago, with the snow melted, a winter’s worth of dog crap doesn’t make for a pleasant atmosphere.  I can remember the same problem with Point Pleasant, jogging in 30 degree heat, with the smell of frying dog crap greeting you, Joe Camel himself waiting for you at the finish line, and a group of “The Fast and The Furious” extras idling their cars in the parking lot as you try to catch your breath.  This place does suffer from the same dog crap stench greeting you and bidding you adue with each visit, but if you can get past the main trail as soon as possible, it offers much more room to explore and escape the crowd.
My most recent visit was another surprise, as I got on a few trails that I didn’t remember and saw some things I’d never seen.  There are some interesting rocks and plants hidden throughout the park, and if you keep an eye out you’re bound to see something cool.  The biggest surprise this time was a tent, with extensive supplies that we came upon as we were “getting our bearings”.  This tent didn’t seem to be a vacationer’s getaway, it looked to be a lifestyle choice.  We quickly backpeddled and headed out towards the Bay Road as we did not want to encrouch on the Long Lake axe-murderer’s space.
All in all it was a good spring outing, and the park looks like it’s about ready to start blooming.  Be sure to check it out if you’ve never been. Set aside enough time to do lots of exploring and bring a compass/GPS so you don’t wander in circles.