When I'm not mountain biking or cycling, mapping trails or ranting about political or social issues I may be taking photographs. The last few years I have been using the better ones as computer wallpaper, changing it every five days or so. These are slideshows of these collections.
2019 and before
2020
Today we finally had the opportunity to hike the Lime Kiln Technical Trail for the first time since the Lime Kiln area fire in the Stony Swamp Conservation Area.
Our hometown of Sudbury is not known for it's cycling infrastructure or even for a positive attitude towards cycling but there are organizations like the Sudbury Cyclists Union, the Rainbow Routes Association and the Sudbury Cycles Project that are trying to change that and there is even a proposed Bicycle Technical Master Plan For The City of Greater Sudbury.
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 decided to create a route that started by following the historical Junction Creek along the Junction Creek Waterway Park and then went around Ramsey Lake and through the Lake Laurentian Conservation Area
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.
While in Limerick we visited King John's Castle.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This summer a breach in the dam at Heron Pond in the South March Highland was discovered that appeared to be a natural occurrence. In such cases the beavers will usually repair the dam, but this did not happen and it appears they have abandoned the dam and the pond. This has caused the water levels in Heron Pond to drop dramatically so that what once appeared to be a lake now appears to be drying up.
This has caused concern amongst nature lovers and others who appreciate hiking and biking along the pond, but in reality it might provide an opportunity to observe and study a changing ecosystem if the beavers do not return to the pond and it gradually reverts to forest or pasture or a yet to be determined other natural state.
The following photos were taken before and after the beavers abandoned the pond. The first two in each series were taken from what mountain bikers call The Shield, a flat rocky area on the trail that goes through the Metcalfe Realty lands northeast of the pond. The last three photos in each set were taken from what mountain bikers call Pete's Wicked Trail in the city-owned South March Highlands Conservation Forest southwest of the pond.
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.
(select 720p to view in high definition and full screen to view full screen)
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Yesterday I was down by the canal locks looking over at the "missing link" and realized there may be some sections where it is a challenge to continue the pathway along the river at the bottom due to the terrain. But there is a solution. These photos are from the boardwalk along Ramsey Lake in Bell Park in Sudbury
This past weekend I had the good fortune to attend a trail building school held by the people who invented sustainable trail building and literally wrote the books on it, the International Mountain Bicycling Association's IMBA Canada Trail Care Crew:
Supported by Parks Canada and the Trans Canada Trail (TCT) and directed by the International Mountain Bicycling Association Canada (IMBA Canada), the IMBA Canada Trail Care Crew works with IMBA Canada-affiliated mountain bike clubs, TCT Provincial and Territorial organizations, Parks Canada and other trail user groups. Its mandate is to build new trails, maintain and restore existing trails, participate in solving trail management challenges, and to promote trails in order to improve trail conditions and trail experiences for everyone.Sustainable trail building is not just about mountain biking, and indeed most MTB trails are shared trails and IMBA has been working with other trail users in providing education and has trained people from the National Capital Commission (NCC) and Parks Canada in sustainable trail building methods. Parks Canada is currently revising their trail building manuals to reflect IMBA guidelines, and the NCC seems to be going through a slow shift in their attitude to mountain biking.
The IMBA Canada Trail Crew is a dynamic two-person team of professional trail builders that will travel throughout Canada year-round.
The work that the crew will do will benefit all types of trail users including hikers, horseback riders, mountain bikers, cross country skiers, snowshoers, bird watchers, and all other outdoor opportunities that use trails.
Source: Parks Canada website
in the sun thanks to her UV-protected clothing by Lole.
Photograph by: Jana Chytilova, The Ottawa Citizen
As one who is a strong advocate of wearing bicycle helmets, seeing the apparent promotion of cycling without a helmet by a prominent local cycling store in what considers itself to be the city's newspaper of record is sure to catch my attention.
Perhaps upon further reflection and examination of the photo that comes with a photo credit, but looks like it should also have a Photoshop credit, I should not take the article, which appears to be an advertorial, too seriously. I mean what type of dock is that anyway, and why would anyone try to cycle on it.
Nevertheless, community leaders should be careful about what type of messages they are sending.
Another in my Austrian Reflections Series.
One of my pet peeves has been the closure of the Queensway pedestrian and bike underpass from the summer of 2007-2009 (don't know if it will open at all this summer) while construction is being carried out on the western portion of the Queensway near Kanata.
They do things differently in Austria. We were on mountain bikes along a trail that followed the Marchfeldkanal on the outskirts of Vienna and came upon the construction of a highway over the trail. As you can see from the photographs nobody felt that there was a need to close the trail and indeed children (with parents) and bikes were explicitly allowed on the trail.
The sign in German translates (according to Google)to “Forbidden to enter the site - Parents are responsible for their children”, which I understand to mean “stay on the trail”.
