Discovery Island Sunset

This weekend I joined some friends for a kayak camping trip to Discovery Island.  The weather was fantastic, and the island was so beautiful.  I took so many pictures I'm going to have to split them into several posts.  The island is visible from Willows Beach, and is a 'short' hour and a half row away.  After arriving, setting up, and laying in the sun for a while we took a hike to watch the sunset on the far side of the island.  After which we tried to follow a deer trail through the woods, which resulted in us climbing around in the thistles for a good while before having to back track and go around to the actual trail.  Happily we made it back to our camp site moments before it got completely dark.  Here are some of the many many shots I took of the sunset.

Wild City

Since our usual dog park is of limits to dogs for the next couple months, we've started taking Charlie to Mount Doug on the weekends.  This beautiful forrest/mountain/beach park is only minutes from our house, and every time we are there we are astounded that such a place could be in the city.  The forrest is populated with huge maples, cedars, oaks, arbutus, and has some pretty big old growth.  There's even an old mine entrance along the trail, although the entrance is about Charlie's size.

 We couldn't fathom how this tree was supporting the 'second tree' growing at a 90 degree angle from a branch.

Last week the forrest floor was carpeted with these beautiful white wildflowers.  By the next week they were coming to an end, and being replaced by several others, including these purple Shooting Stars

And then there are the flowers blooming in my own yard.  These guys are so abundant, they practically are wildflowers.

Easter Weekend in Port Renfrew

One of my favorite places to go camping on the island has to be Port Renfrew.  This weekend I took a trip with a small group of 24, to go camping on the beach.  We had fantastic weather, and amazing company, and I couldn't have asked for a better time.

My beautiful friend Bethany and her dog Oz.

Josh and Belle enjoying some quality time.

Senior Oswaldo, you are such a heart breaker.

Our group gathered 'round the fire

We took a trip to Avatar Grove to check out the amazing old growth.

Kara sitting at the foot of a massive Cedar.

I really need to start filling in my panoramas more.

Some of the group checking out Canada's Gnarl-iest Tree

Adrian doing his pensive tree nymph impression?

We passed this old mossy bridge on the way back from the Grove.

Back in Action; Back in Alberta

Thanks to a generous loan from the bank of Mum and Dad, I am back up and running.  And to celebrate, here are some photos I took while visiting Mum and Dad last month.  We went snow shoeing out in Kananaskis Country, out past West Bragg Creek.  The sun was getting low in the late afternoon, and I went a little nuts with the tree pictures.  Unfortunately this part of Kanaskis is under threat of a massive clear cutting.  Spray Lakes Sawmill is planning to clear cut over 7 square kilometers from this beautiful recreational area.  To find out more about this, and how to help stop it you can visit the Sustain Kananaskis website.

This computer is a sinking ship, and I'm bailing out files.

So, I was starting to get on a bit of a role there, catching up on blog posts... but unfortunately my computer has taken a turn for the worse.  What started as discoloured bars on the sides of the screen (crappy, but not so bad) turned into a three inch discoloured bar right through the middle of the screen.  I'm sure you can imagine how this would make photo editing pretty darn difficult.  That and it tends to be pretty head-ache inducing, as it flashes.  So, unfortunately my posts will be once again put on hold until I come across some some sort of technological fortune.  Happy internet-ing until then.

A Mass Murder of Crows

If a regular flock of crows is called a Murder, then we have a flock living near our house, that one could only call a Mass Murder.  There has to be at least 300 crows in this flock.  You know when they are around because of the amazing amount of noise that they make.  And when they take to the sky, its like being in the Hitchcock movie The Birds. One day on my way home from school, I was driving up our street, and there they all were, sitting in an empty lot... and in the trees, and on the power lines, and the on the surrounding houses.  I grabbed my camera and walked down to grab a few shots.

These guys were not at all concerned with my presence.  They are one of my favourite birds to have at WildARC; they demonstrate their incredible intelligence constantly, and they're beautiful creatures.

At one point, a gentleman walked through the middle of the lot, and the crows all took flight.

This guy had a lot to say.

That's a lot of crow.

Goldstream Trestle Bridges

It's been three months since I last posted.  You know it's bad when you're Mum starts reminding you.  But alas, I have become backed up with editing, and therefore, backed up with posting.  So I'm starting from the present (ish) and working my way back.

Last weekend I went hiking with a couple of friends, out to see the Goldstream trestle bridges.  It was a soggy, foggy, rainy day, perfect for walking along slippery railway ties.  Unfortunately Charlie had to sit this one out, due to the dangers of crossing the bridges.  But to be honest, she probably would have hated the rain anyway.

So we set out on this hike, that felt like it went strait up for a very long time (but that might have had more to do with the previous nights festivities), before coming out of the woods to see the first trestle bridge disappearing into the fog.

We were secure in the knowledge that the trains no longer run along these tracks, which is more then I can say for the last time I was up here.  It was during one of my trips to see my friend Hawley, before I moved here, and a friend of ours was showing us around.  He brought us onto the bridge convinced that the trains were not using it anymore.  Once we were in the middle of the bridge we felt the tracks start to tremble and heard the rhythmic chug of something coming down the tracks.  We scrambled back across the bridge as fast as we could, and dove off the side of the tracks (some more successfully than others) in time to see a truck driving up the tracks.  It was a little anti-climactic, but terrifying none-the-less.  This summer the trains had for sure been shut down, as the tracks had been assessed and deemed too damaged to be worth fixing.  Comforting, and yet not...

Nevertheless, up we went.

I am not a huge fan of heights, so I stayed firmly rooted to the middle of the bridge, and avoided looking down as best I could.  Its hard to express just how high up these bridges are, and I couldn't even guess at the actual height.  But as you can see, we were well above the tree line in a pretty impressive rain forest.  I'm pretty sure I felt one or two of the ties move as I was walking across that bridge too.

As a photographer, one just can't resist the simplicity of those converging lines.

 We crossed the first bridge, thoroughly soaked by now, and walked another 15 minutes up the tracks to the second trestle bridge.

This platform had a pretty good lean on it, and the last couple boards, along with the railing, were definitely rotting.

I had fun that day, even if it was rainy, and its good to face your fears sometimes.