Obabika Loop 2007

Ok, so I did this trip when I was both 14 and 15. It really was what sparked my love of the outdoors and camping etc. So it was great to get back. I went out with 5 campers and one other staff member. The weather was generally cool and windy but most of the time the sun was out and the wind was at our backs which was great.


Over the 5 days we were out we saw a total of 62 loons give or take. At one point on Wakimika Lake we saw 15 at once! This one was sitting on the nest so I could get really close as I went by.


This truck was just off the lake by the Obabika Inlet on a really overgrown logging road.

I was lucky to be accompanied by two kids who loved to fish even more than me and seeing as how I caught a bunch of pike on this trip when I was 15 we were eager to get to the "promised lake" which I promised was full of dumb big pike. After and hour of nothing, just on our way out Henry locked into this beauty.


About and hour later up the river just above a beaver dam I was lucky enough to snag my own pike weighing in at 5 pounds 9 ounces. I think my scale is wrong....



Just before we got the tail end of a big storm. My tent withstood the wind all night. Why I consistently set it up on the very point of the campsite and then worry all night about it blowing away remains a mystery.




This was one of our "family portraits" gone wrong on Diamond Lake on day 3. That day we got to sail a few kilometers which is always nice.


The last evening delivered big wind and an absolutely stunning sunset. These pictures don't really do it justice.


On day 4 I didn't flip over my map until we had already started setting up camp so I didn't realize how far we still had to go for the pickup the next day but thanks to an early start and a HUGE tail wind we cruised towards the location with time to spare so we went on a hike along some trials of Temagami old growth. The red and white pines weren't impressively large in girth but what was stunning was that they didn't taper, they were like 5 or 6 ft across all the way to the top practically and the top was WAY up there.

It's on the way

i know, i need a new post desperately. it's in the works

Indiana Jones and the search for the golden key

This session's theme is Indiana Jones. Tonight in the story line Indy was captured in a huge net down at chapel point and was left dangling from a tree. Luckily Boys' Camp camp was alerted by Indy's assistant and proceeded on a night hike after snack equipped with torches to rescue him. You could hear aboriginals in the forest beating drums. The catacombs are near. We'll look for them tomorrow.

It was really cool to set that up. The program seems like it's really going to be amazing this summer. It's great to have Styles back. I got to play the indy soundtrack off my ipod speakers. it was great to have some sound track in the middle of the forest. (the speaker batteries seem to act up alot though. logitech mm50)

These pictures looked way cooler on my other screen.

A memorial plaque for Mike "BAM" Flemming. The memorial service for him and another staff member who died was really sad. I didn't know Mike that well but he was a great kid!

Some pictures

Nice clear and cool days last week were really windy.

Hole 18 of the frisbee golf course at Boys' Camp

Muskoka...... Sweet

Well, I made it up here finally and it's great. We've gotten a lot done at tripping which is so good. That means it shouldn't be too crazy as we try to prepare for LIT trips next week. The LIT's send out 7 groups of 13 people so finding them easy, relatively close together 4-day trips can be challenging. I've got a few ideas that I want to run by Wes (LIT director) as far as that goes.
The weather has been great, a little cold at first but it has definitely warmed up. I gave my lighter sleeping bag to an Aussie to use so I'm stuck with my mondo warm mec one that is rated to 0 degrees. (Really handy in this kind of weather)

This morning I locked into a huge bass but lost it after my line snapped. That has happened a couple times now so I'm going to go buy some new stuff. There is nothing worse than losing a big fish.

pictures to follow shortly.

My room feels like a storage locker for all the stuff that I actually use in the summer at camp. When I leave tomorrow it will be pretty much empty.

Heading North.... finally....

I'm off to camp for the summer tomorrow. I'll be updating this site with pictures and what is going on up there as well as uploading my pictures to my flickr page.
( http://www.flickr.com/photos/robnelson/)

Canadian Space Agencey

what is this thing? it looks like a spaceship, a miniature one though.




I took these pictures while driving. Impressed? you should be.

Human Hamsters

Over the weekend we had a Boys' Camp meeting. It took place at some latvian camp north of burlington. They had all this old playground equipment that is now illegal everywhere else and has been removed. It brought back good childhood memories of the days where if you got hurt on the playground equipment people laughed and called you an idiot. Anyways, they had this human sized hamster wheel, of which the likes I had never seen before. It was quite impressive actually. You could definitely get hurt in this thing which made it that much more appealing. Enjoy the video.

Super Mario Blob

Sun, sun and more sun

This is the type of forecast I like to see:

Lomo

I've been fiddling in photoshop with giving some of my pictures a "lomo" look. It really makes them look 100x's better. Just changing the sharpness and some contrast can do wonders. Here are some examples.




All of these were taken on campus at the University of Guelph

Tripping 2007

June
July

August

A tentative tripping schedule for summer 2007

What the?

Ok, a couple observations about stuff for you here.

1) Why do planes have headlights? If you're flying at 700 km/h and you're relying on your headlights to see what's going on, you're pretty much screwed. What are you going to see anyway? clouds? birds? God forbid another plane.

2) Why do toasters have settings that go so high? Like common, the highest setting would a) burn your toast and b) probably set your house on fire. I think they're packing way too much power in the toaster these days.

Purple Pride

Like 3 weeks ago or something like that my intramural hockeyteam won our division championship. It was AWESOME. I was in the same division last year on a different team and we lost in the final game in shootouts so this was redemption. I'll get my picture on the wall at the AC! YES!!

Our name was the Purple Cobras ( I didn't come up with it).

Update

Alright, so since the last couple posts a bunch of stuff has happened. Most importantly I became an uncle. Melanie and Jono had a baby girl on March 15 named Sienna. Kelsey and I went and saw her the next day and I got to hold her, the first baby I've ever held. I know that might be shocking to some but it's true. It felt great!

I ended up being swayed to buy the camera by a really good sale at Bestbuy. I haven't been out to take any pictures with it yet as I just got a memory card for it today. On Tuesday I went out and snapped a few with my old camera. The air was really warm and the river water is still really cold so it was all foggy by the river and I got some good ones.




As far as the running goes, I was up to 6k on Monday and Kelsey and I managed to run 8k this morning. My legs are sore but I'm really impressed that I didn't die 5 minutes in. You should be too.

Oh ya and St. Patrick's Day was in there too. Here's a few highlights from the festivities.

Field hockey girls.

Dylster came from Queen's to represent the law and to reclaim the Guelph city. Matt has never been happier.

Cardio Smardio

I've been convinced by Ben but more so Kelsey to attempt a half marathon in the spring. I'm really going to have to get my ass in gear. My previous cardio experience consists of bounty hunters almost exclusively. Oh, in LIT I ran sometimes instead of morning dip though. Impressed? I bet.

I'm also contemplating buying a new camera. A canon powershot A710IS. I'm still debating whether to buy it before or after the summer. As of now the bank account says I should wait... so tempting.

Back to work

So I finally got a job. I started last Monday at a warehouse that sells appliances. Let me tell you, the working world is not all it's cracked up to be. It's pretty mindless work but hopefully I will survive.The people there are really nice which makes it nicer. The hours though are kind of hard to figure out. I'm working the afternoon shift from 12pm - 9:30pm Monday - Thursday then on Friday start at 7:30am and work until 11:30am which makes for an awesome weekend. Trying to fit stuff in during the week is rather difficult though. I guess I just have to get used to it.



In other news Kelsey and I went to Kingston and Ottawa this weekend which was a blast, great to see Ben, Charity, Dylan and Jeremiah again. We got to skate on the canal which was amazing! I highly recommend you go if you get the chance. The next day though my legs hurt from skating which is weird b/c I play hockey regularly. Anyways, I'm off, trying to fit the gym in before work. see what I mean?

Recognition

Last semester I did a project for one of my classes on Chiniguchi, a new park in Ontario that I visited in August a couple times. During my research for that paper I got in touch with a really good website and sent in a few of my pictures of the area from the summer. Today the guy sent me an email saying he used my picture as the Temagami Photo of the month for March. Check it out here http://www.ottertooth.com/Temagami/PhotoMonth/mar07.htm

Chiniguchi is most beautiful place I have ever been.