"This column is dedicated to the proposition that Canada (and indeed the world) is in a crisis situation and that fundamental social change is required to remedy this situation." - The First Column, Lambda November 2, 1971
This blog is inspired by my column of the same name in the Laurentian University Newspaper, Lambda, from 1971-1973. The title refers to the concept of subverting the system from within.
To read key excerpts from those columns read the first few posts in this blog.
I have been trying for a few years to get this photo of the vegetation
by the Emerald Meadows pond in Bridlewood but have not been happy
with the results.
These
first photos were taken in November 2023 with my small Panasonic
Lumix TS5 camera that I used to keep with me all the time on the
bike. Unfortunately even when set for Vivid it’s pictures look
washed out and need to be improved with software,
These
images are the first one I tried, from the camera, and then edited
with Simply Good Pictures. It did not turn out too bad but still was
not what I was hoping for.
So I
tried another one, but was still not happy after editing it with
Simply Good Pictures. Then I tried enhancing the reds in Photoshop
Elements 2023 and further enhancing it with Franzis Color Projects,
which I think I overdid. These images are those photos in that order.
I tried
again in October 2024 with much better results, likely a result of a
bright day with better lighting and using my new Panasonic Lumix
FZ300 camera. The first photo is from the camera and the second is
enhanced with Simply Good Pictures and Franzis Color Projects. I am
quite happy with that result.
Upon
reflection I began to think that this photo would be a good candidate
for playing around with in Franzis Color Projects as well as Franzis
Black & White Projects to see what kind of variations and effects
could be created. The following slide show, starting with the final
version above, shows the kind of variations and effects that can be
produced.
What is this about digital photography nostalgia. Are we not supposed
to be nostalgic about film photography rather than digital
photography. But early digital cameras were not the market dominaters
today’s are. Indeed at that time there was debate over whether they
would ever produce images of sufficient quality to replace film for
professional use. Now of course it’s only hobbyists and fine art
photographers that use film cameras.
I got my first
digital camera in 1999, and I went for the big zoom. The Sony Mavica
FD-91 was one impressive looking camera for it's time. The 14X zoom
on the Mavica was huge, a 35 MM equivalent of 37-518 MM and with
Sony's Steady Shot image stabilization system it could be hand held
at the full zoom. The camera was unique in that it used 3.5 inch
floppy disks for image storage and though it was under a megapixel
(1024X768 pixels) it produced decent 8X10 prints, even though the
experts claimed that was not possible. It was a large camera but I
was used to the size and feel of an SLR and preferred it over smaller
digital cameras.
It really was a fun
camera to use, even if I had to carry a box of floppy discs with me
and change them after every 10 shots, and the telephoto was great
with a zoom over double my 200 MM Konica zoom lens. And it was a lot
lighter than my Konica and its bag full of interchangeable lenses. Of
course the quality of images was nowhere near that of my Konica SLR
or my current Panasonic FZ300, but it was good enough for me as an
amateur.
Here indeed are some
examples of what the camera could do, a slideshow of Mavica photos
chosen and edited for my Desktop PC wallpaper that I change weekly.
Slideshow of photos taken along the Fernbank Road Pond in Stittsville in
July 2023 with my Panasonic Lumix FZ100 camera and edited with
Photoshop Elements 2023, Simply Good Pictures 5, Franzis Color
Projects 6 Professional and Franzis Black & White Projects 6
Professional.
Things are looking pretty good for the first part of the trail, although you start to see larger and larger signs of fire as you look alongside the trail and then you are in the middle of the Fire Zone. At that point on the map you can see the hike diverging somewhat from the trail as we tried to follow the trail on the GPS and keep watch for the silver Rideau Trail triangles (silver because in most cases the blue paint was removed due to the heat of the fire). Most of the trail within the Fire Zone was unrecognizable although there were a few recognizable trail features along the route we followed.
The fire zone ended shortly before one of the fire roads crossed the trail. At that point the trail continues on the other side of the fire road but due to all the debris pushed up alongside the road we were unable to follow the trail. Knowing it reconnected further along the Fire Road we continued following the road, intending to follow it back from the other end, but when we reached that location we again had the problem of the piled up debris hiding the entrance into the trail, so we ended up missing about 200 metres of trail. After that the Fire Road wiped out most of the trail except for a short portion that ran just alongside it just before the Lime Kiln Bridge.
My guess would be, taking into account the first section of trail, and the section we by-passed, plus the short section of trail at the end, that close to 50% of the trail might be intact in it's original condition. The other 50% will probably need extensive rehabilitation and some of the technical features might never be recovered.
My inclination, however, would be that it would be best to let the natural environment and vegetation recover on it's own before attempting to rebuild the trail. We did notice that there already appeared to be some new growth within the fire zone and on the fire roads. At the appropriate time I would hope that the National Capital Commission (NCC) would consult with all trail users, including mountain bikers, in developing a trail rehabilitation plan.
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It was the Rainbow Routes Association map of non-motorized trails in Sudbury that inspired us to try out some of the cycling routes in Sudbury as they did look promising.
We mixed a combination of Sudbury history and waterways in our route selection.
Looking to the history of Sudbury:
The City of Sudbury was founded in 1883 at a point on the railway known as Sudbury Junction, where the branch line to Algoma Mills joined the main line of the CPR. Prior to the establishment of the mining industry, (which occurred around 1900), Sudbury's stability and growth depended both on the railway and on the lumbering industry. (Source:)
We started our ride at the Rotary Park by the Adanac Ski Hill in New Sudbury wwhere the City is building a BMX park and followed the Junction Creek Waterway Park pathway to downtown
It was a very enjoyable ride along a very scenic hard-packed gravel path. For the most part it was well signed and even on my Backroad Mapbooks background map on my GPS.
However when we came to transition to the connection to the "Tour de Sudbury" route along Ramsey Lake we had to rely on our map along with our previous knowledge of Sudbury to make the connection.
It was unclear from the trail map whether the route around Ramsey Lake was on a dedicated path or on the road, although the fact that it followed the roads exactly (except where it went through the conservation area) was a pretty good clue that it was mostly a road route, although most of it was on some of the few marked bike lanes that exist in Sudbury. It was still a pleasant ride and traffic did not seem threatening at all.
The most interesting part of the ride along Ramsey Lake began when we left the pavement and entered the Lake Laurentian Conservation Area and were away from "civilization" for awhile. You definitely wanted to be on a hybrid and not a high-end road bike in this section especially for a few loose gravel downhill sections. The scenery was lovely especially near the boardwalk.
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And it stayed interesting when we rejoined the pavement at South Bay Road and what must have been the steepest uphill I have ever ridden. Thanks to our Ireland bike tour I was able to climb the whole thing, albeit with some rest stops.
After a few more ups and downs it was back on the flat and continuing our ride till we stopped at Science North for lunch, then on along the pathway along Ramsey Lake through Bell Park, back over the old Iron Bridge and and back along the creek to the start of our very enjoyable journey.
We hope to check out some more of the cycling opportunities in Sudbury on future trips up north.
After the bike tour we stayed in Ennis for a few days and took a bus to Limerick for a day tour.
The most interesting observation we made was that while Ennis had narrow streets with one lane one way traffic and narrow sidewalks, much of Limerick had wide streets with one lane one way traffic and very wide sidewalks. And both towns had portions of their centre cores that were pedestrian only.
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The slide shows above portray the streetscapes and scenes of Limerick, followed by King John's Castle. The slide show below features those wonderful red Irish flowers in Ennis.
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This was the longest ride of the tour but not too bad as far as hills go, except for the last ride into Westport, up and down and then back up and down again. Lots of scenery but not too many photo stops because of the long ride and then drive back to Ennis in the van.
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The slide show above starts with the obligatory photo of a rainbow in front of a mountain and features more of the Irish landscape, including hills and streams, and of course sheep, as well as the Irish famine memorial.
We took today easy, went for a walk near the lodge on Lough Inagh in the morning and managed to talk Jeff into driving us to the Kylemore Abbey in the afternoon where we explored the grounds and the remarkable gardens. There is some real interesting history about this place.
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The slide show above features the mountains and landscape near the lodge followed by the Kylemore Abbey and gardens.
If you’ve ever been to a county fair or watched a movie about Australia you have seen sheep sheering, but usually with electric shears. In this part of Ireland they use hand shears and probably sheer the sheep faster and cleaner than with the electric ones. This was a great day for photos, including a good number of flower close-ups. There was a really great mountain behind our Lodge that I was so tempted to try to climb up.
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The slide show above features more of the Irish landscape including ruins, mountains, streams and beaches, as well as sheep and sheep shearing and ends with lovely views from our hotel.
The slide show below features Irish flowers.
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Today was a day at the beach as we stopped at a wonderful little beach along the route, as well as made a visit to the lovely town of Clifden. More scenery, and did I mention the sheep. The sheep in Ireland seem to have priority over the roads, followed by bicycles and then cars.
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The slide show above starts with a view from our hotel dining room followed by views of the grounds, then it's on to the landscape with an emphasis on geology. We have our first encounters with Ireland’s sheep, as well as stop for a visit to a lovely beach. Final views are from our new hotel room window followed by a visit to the town of Clifden.
Most of the day was spent on one of the Aran Islands. It was a great day for photography as it was actually sunny and there was so much to photograph, from a remarkable fort to literally hundreds (maybe thousands) of stone fences from millions of stones dividing up the tiny allotments that people had to tend to survive from farming. Did I mention the dolphins swimming around in the harbour beside the ferry, which unfortunately we took no photos of.
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The slide show above is mostly concentrated on the remarkable landscape of the Aran Islands followed by some photos of the mainland landscape ending at The Cashel House, a lovely country inn sitting beside Bertraghboy Bay.
Today we did a circle route through the remarkable Burren, a landscape that almost defies description, although parts of Ottawa's Lime Kiln Trail with it's underlying Limestone hints at it. And, of course it's Ireland so there were more ruins. This was the second hardest climbing day of the tour.
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The slide show above starts with a view from our hotel room and covers more of the Irish landscape, more ruins of churches and castles, cemeteries and stone fences and finishes going through the remarkable geology of the Burren.
Today we got setup on our bikes with our self-guiding instructions so we could ride on our own while Jeff went ahead with the van and then would mysteriously appear on his bike cycling towards us to make sure we were not lost. We rode to the Cliffs of Moher which reportedly has spectacular views, but all we saw was fog. But after the longest climb of the trip, 220 metres, we were not riding back up there again no matter how sunny the next day was.
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The slide show above features the remarkable Irish landscape including those famous stone fences, a scenic beach, ruins of castles and a remarkable old cemetery, but no photos of the Cliffs of Fog.
We arrived a few days early and got to know the town of Ennis which was full of stone walls, first thing we noticed, and lots of local shops and pubs - no Walmarts or big box stores. The only chain store we noticed was a large Irish department store, Dunnes. The other big attraction is the Fergus River.
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The slide show above features:
The Old Ground Hotel
Residential Streetscapes
Ennis Friary (being restored)
Fergus River
Ducks along the Fergus River
Downtown Ennis
The Suburbs (1960s style houses rather than 1860s style houses)
Every summer we spend about a week at our favourite Bed and Breakfast Whispering Pines On the Bay which is about half-way between Sudbury and Killarney Provincial Park. Not only does it have gracious friendly hosts and interesting guests from all over the world, it is also located on beautiful Kakakiwaganda Lake, or as the l̶o̶c̶a̶l̶s̶ settlers (edit 2023-09-11) call it, Rock Lake.
We also get out kayaking on the lake at least once every visit and one of the most interesting things about the lake is the geology and rock formations along the shore. The photographs in the slide show below were taken from my kayak as I paddled around the lake.
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Richard W. Woodley was born in Sudbury, Ontario in 1950. He earned an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Laurentian University where he was the News Editor of the student newspaper Lambda and active in student politics. He was active in the New Democratic Party and Waffle in Sudbury and Kanata, as well as Kanata municipal politics. He was a member of the Bridlewood Residents Hydro Line Committee (BRHLC) and creator of the now archived Bridlewood Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs) Information Service. He worked on Parliament Hill for 33 years indexing the Debates of the House of Commons (Hansard) and it's committees.
Richard has been an outdoorsperson and environmentalist for most of his life and a life long cyclist.
