The other day, we posted Part 1 of our ‘2013 in Images’ article. We’ve chosen just one image from each of the 12 months to represent a whole year. Granted, there was not a lot of distant travelling being done by us in 2013. However, there was a lot of exploration close to home and the camera is always clicking.
The other day was the first six months. Today, it’s the last six months of the year. I like these six a lot more and I think they’re much more interesting and diverse that the first half of the year.
Locals have been going to this spot for years for quiet relaxation and a bit of river tubing. Located within the Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park between Bobcaygeon and Buckhorn (much closer to Buckhorn) in Ontario, this is the Mississagua River.
There are no fees to get into the park and there is just a small, hardly marked parking lot off of highway 35. The actual park is massive but a canoe is needed to venture into the interior. The portion pictured above is a short walk from the parking lot and features a smooth rock bottom and short waterfall for swimming in.
As for the local opinion of the Ministry of Natural Resources slowly developing the location, it’s mixed. More and more summer cottagers are discovering the spot and it is getting more and more crowded on weekends. However, the Ministry ensures less signs of party-goers with less litter, broken glass in the water and remnants of campfires.
Wilson’s Falls is a series of picturesque water drops over the Canadian Shield, located just north of Bracebridge, Ontario. The area is packed with waterfalls along the Muskoka River and was the scene of devastation in the spring of 2013 with massive flooding.
I took a solo day trip up to the area in early August and Wilson’s Falls (link goes to video for a better look at the area) was the only waterfall that wasn’t featured in an article on this site. The waterfalls are located within protected parkland and there is no fee to enter. This is a great spot for doing a little rock scrambling and cooling off in the fresh water.
Elora Gorge Conservation Area is locally famous for river tubing. This above image is of the starting point for tubers. It also happens to be the most challenging section of rapids. The long exposure water blur image softens the power of the Grand River but, believe me, it certainly can be nasty.
The water funnels into the short channel shown and creates a ‘washing machine’ effect. Tubes get stuck in the rapids, unable to go forward or back. Eventually, the force of the water flips the tubes and rarely do riders get out while remaining above water.
When we went at the start of September, the place was nearly empty. In summer, the crowds are to the point of annoying.
My October day trip to Montreal via Megabus Canada has been well documented on this site. However, I had to throw in one more image. Above is the might St. Lawrence River as it passed under the Concordia Bridge and in front of downtown Montreal. The picture is taken from Parc Jean Drapeau on St. Helen’s Island. I was practically by myself on the island that was once home to the World’s Fair (Expo ’67) in 1967.
I can’t explain my love of Port Bruce on the shores of Lake Erie. I’m pretty sure I’ve never spent much more than a few hours in the tiny port. The beach is rocky, as you can see. Yet, something about Port Bruce has charmed me since I was a child at the edge of my oldest memories.
Even today, I have dreams of riding my bike from my boyhood home in London, Ontario to Port Bruce. It’s a doable ride but I’ve never done it. It’s kind of haunting, actually.
We were on our way to London to visit in November and decided to detour to Port Bruce and Port Stanley. The three previous days, there had been damaging winds across the area and the water, as you can see in the image, was stirred up to a chocolate milk brown. That’s the colour I remember Lake Erie being all the time when I was young. Zebra Mussels came and changed all that, making the Laker Erie water almost as clear as the Caribbean.
On a personal note, this was the last road trip our Greyhound, Odon, took. He made the walk out to the end of the pier and back to the car. He died peacefully at the house just before Christmas on the morning of Sunday, December 15.
If the hydro lines are being ripped from your house and tree limbs aren’t falling on your car, an ice storm is actually one of the most beautiful events Mother Nature can offer up. On the weekend before Christmas, Southern Ontario, along with pretty much the eastern half of the continent, was thrown into the grips of a lengthy ice storm.
Freezing rain created a thick skin of ice on everything. Further south from us, in the Greater Toronto Area, the ice was thicker and much more damaging. In Orangeville, we’re just that much colder that the freezing rain turned to ice pellets earlier on in the storm. Ice pellets don’t stick because they don’t freeze on contact.
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That’s that. Another year in the books. I’ve promised myself that there will be much more travel in 2014. There will be more local travel in Ontario and the rest of Canada. There will hopefully be some road trips to the U.S. states of New York and Pennsylvania. There is hopefully a weekender to New York City to use up some Airmiles. There will be at least one cruise and probably more.
Let’s leave it at this: 2014 is going to be awesome!
