Autumn Waterfalls

We've been meaning to do a day trip to photograph some local waterfalls for quite some time.  Given that it's the tail end of fall colours season, we decided to do that trip last weekend.

We left home at about 8:30am in the morning and visited the following:

• Hilton Falls
• Darnley Cascade
• Webster's Falls
• Albion Falls
• Buttermilk Falls
• Felker's Falls

It was a pretty good trip and we managed to get some pretty decent shots along the way.  Some I think will even be worth printing. The highlights were the ruins of the Grist Mill at the Darnley Cascade along with Webster's and Albion Falls.

The most frustrating part of this outing?  Goddamn. People. Meandering. Everywhere.  I can't say how bloody annoying it is to have some oblivious idiots parade right in front of a set up tripod and camera.  Especially after you've spent 10-15 minutes waiting until people cleared out enough to actually take a few shots.  Ugh.  Alas, it was still worth it!

Hilton Falls:

Grist Mill ruins:

Webster's Falls:

Albion Falls (closer up view):

Felker's Falls:

Manitoulin Island Wrap-up: Matt's pictures

I'm going to try something different this time.  Instead of placing a whole bunch of images on here, I'm going to link to a Flickr slideshow.   Enjoy!

Here's a little teaser...

Update on Tuesday, October 26, 2010 at 3:02AM by Cess

Drum roll, please!

Yes, it has taken a while for me to get organized enough to post up my photos from this road trip.  I've actually been working on it gradually and I think it is mostly done.  I may still add a few photos to the colleciton.  So here it is: my own Flickr slide show!  Please click here and enjoy my little photo set. =)

Day 4: Long boring drive...

Ok, so this is a few days late but hey, I promise you're not missing much.  Day 4 of our Manitoulin Island trip (Monday) was pretty uneventful.  We had a leisurely breakfast at Green Bay Lodge and started making our long drive home.

On the return leg, we drove the entire way without taking the ferry.  As we left the island we stopped off at Whitefish Falls.  This waterfall was rather small and we couldn't really get a good view of it to take any worthwhile pictures.  The remainder of the day consisted mostly of me driving home while Cess slept in the car.  500+ km later, we were home!

Day 3: Running salmon?!

On Sunday morning we were up early hoping to see the beginnings of a beautiful sunrise.  Unfortunately, when I woke up at 6:30 and looked outside, I could see the sky was completely overcast.  Clearly, there'd be no sunrise photography this morning.

After a pleasant breakfast at the Green Bay Lodge we made our way to Kagawong.  Kagawong had several places we wished to visit: Old Mill, Pioneer Post Office, Lighthouse, Church, and several other historic buildings.  Having said that, by a large margin the highlight of the excursion to Kagawong was Bridal Veil Falls.  This awesome waterfall is situated on the outskirts of the village.  The drop in the waterfall is several meters, so we were able to get some great long exposure shots.  Little did we know that we would also be treated to the tail end of this year's salmon run!  Salmon were still working their way upriver and were congregating and spawning at the base of the falls.  Having never seen a salmon run before, this was certainly a great experience.  It was interesting to see the instinctive drive that salmon have to swim upriver and spawn.  Clearly, survival of the fittest was in the works as there was quite a number of fish that obviously had not made it all the way to the base of the falls.  Their corpses littered the river and surrounding shoreline.

Next up, we drove to Misery Bay and did a 7-8 km hike along the eastern side of the bay.  The hike itself was quite easy and we were treated with many photographic opportunities, including very surreal rock formations called alvar.  The specific type of alvar we got a chance to see is only found in two places in the world; Manitoulin Island and the northern shores of the Baltic Sea (Sweden & Estonia).

We finished the day's travels with a visit to Gore Bay.  For the first time on this trip we were treated to a bit of sunshine.  As such, we decided to stay at Gore Bay to catch the sunset from a lookout point overlooking the bay.

After a quiet dinner back at the lodge (we were cooking ourselves!) we ventured outside with all our gear to do some night time photography.  For a bit of fun, we even did some light painting!

Day 2: Island Time!

Remember how I said we hoped the sunrise photos would actually happen?  Yup, they didn't.  Matt took a look out the window at 6:00am and it was still overcast.  I guess we'll try again tomorrow from the Island.

We drove to the ferry dock and got our tickets.  We would be taking the first ferry of the day from Tobermory to Manitoulin Island.  We parked the car and quickly hunted down breakfast before boarding the ferry.  3 eggs over easy, a thick slice of ham, homefries, and toast.  Oh, and all you can drink coffee.  Not bad!  Too bad I only had time for a few sips of coffee.  That was probably the fastest I've ever shovelled breakfast into my mouth before.  It was a record-setting 10 minutes!  We boarded the ferry, climbed upstairs, and prepared to set sail.

I spent the majority of the crossing asleep.  Matt, on the other hand, spend a good deal of time outside taking photos.  End result:  we were both in need of hot beverages once we got onto the Island.  We stopped in at one of the motels by the ferry dock and warmed up with a hot chocolate for me and a coffee for Matt.  We also browsed the local wares and picked up a few things.  Once we finished our drinks, we set off to continue our sightseeing and photography tour. 

Today we saw a few more lighthouses, several historical buildings, and a decomissioned ferry.  The ferry, named Norisle, ended its active service in 1974.  Since then, it has been sitting at the Manitowaning Harbour.  There have been plans to restore it, but they seem to have stalled.  It now sits silently in a rather sorry state at the harbour.

Some of the historical buildings we visited today include the Manitoulin Roller Mill, the Batman Mill, and St. Paul's Anglican Church.  We also made a quick stop in Providence Bay to see the boardwalk.  A few broken down, abandoned looking trucks also became subjects of our photographic excursions today.

The weather was pretty overcast and gloomy.  The only time we saw any sun was just after debarking from the ferry.  Hopefully we will see some sun (and sunrises and sunsets!) in the next two days.  This is getting frustrating!

Day 1: And I'll huff, and I'll puff ...

Wow.  We were rather unprepared for how windy it was throughout the day.  It's still blowing like crazy outside as I am typing out this entry.  Today we visited 5 lighthouses in the Bruce Penninsula.   As it turns out, they are all open to the public for tours.  Unfortunately, most of them are only open until Labour Day.  Drats!  We came, saw lighthouses, and took pictures of them.

When we finally arrived at our motel in Tobermory at 6:15pm and checked in, we were informed that most restaurants closed at 8pm.  We decided to try and eat dinner quickly and then attempt to get some sunset photography done.  We quickly ate at a local fish and chips place (they were out of chowder!).  Our potential sunset photos were a bust.  It was far too overcast.  Oh well.  Perhaps we will have better luck once we get onto Manitoulin Island.

Our final outting for the night took us to the ferry dock at 10pm.  The wind was still blowing quite strongly.  We watched the final ferry arrival of the day as it came into the harbour and docked.  It was quite an undertaking with lots of turning and adjusting.

Tomorrow we plan on getting up early and getting some sunrise photos.  Wish us luck!   

On the road again

No.  I don't believe we get tired of sightseeing.  ;)  We are leaving in about an hour to start our next road trip.  This time, however, we will be driving.  The main purpose of this trip is to follow a rather detailed itinerary up to Tobermory and then on to Manitoulin Island for great photography opportunities.  I actually have no idea where we're going (in terms of specific destinations) and what we'll be seeing.  How exciting! 

We're pretty much all packed up.  I've made breakfast.  I can hear that Matt has finally gotten out of bed to do some last minute tending of our plants.

Onward, ho!

Day 4: Home

Yes, we made it home last night just fine.  More details to come.

Update on Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 12:23AM by Cess

First of all, a quick update from Day 3.  Matt and I sat ever so patiently in the hotel's dining room until 7pm. At that point, we asked the front desk staff if we could have a room.  We were getting tired and wanted to lie down.  We set ourselves a 7:30pm alarm.  If the rest of the group did not arrive by then, we would go out and get dinner for ourselves.  Lesson learned: restaurants in small towns tend to close fairly early.

Zzz ... bzzt!  7:30pm!  We poked our heads outside of our room.  Lo and behold: no other bikes.  =(  But 5 minutes later, we heard the rumble of bikes and yes, the rest of the group finally arrived.  Thank goodness.  Everyone quickly unloaded their bikes and we all set off to a local steakhouse for dinner. 

Now, back to Day 4.  Once again, the group split up into smaller sub-groups.  4 people left before we did.  We left about 10 minutes after them.  It was going to be a looong ride home.  We rode through New Hampshire and into New York state.  Somehow, the majority of us managed to meet up at lunchtime.  Matt and I stopped when we saw 2 bikes from our group stopped at a little diner in Speculator, NY.  We pulled into the parking spot beside them.  When we walked into the little diner, they were no where to be seen.  Regardless, we were pretty hungry, so we put in our order and stepped back outside to sit at a patio table.  While we were waiting, the rest of the group that had set out from the hotel after us appeared.  When our food arrived, we ate quickly.  Just as we finished lunch, the 2 people who were seemingly missing made their reappearance.  As it turns out, they had lunch at the little café right behind the diner.  I perked up when they told us that they had seen baked goods offered at the counter.  I walked over to the café and purchased a few cookies as snacks for the rest of the ride home.

Once more, we headed out on the road.  This time, we left together with Darlene and Kevin.  We reached the border and crossed back into Canada without incident.  Once back in Canada, we quickly decided to stop in Kingston for dinner.  And then it started raining.  Figures.  "Welcome back to Canada.  Please have some rain."  Ha. =) 

After dinner, we got back on the 401 for the final portion of our ride home.  As much as we hate the boring, straight-as-an-arrow 401, it was going to take us all the way home.  We would tolerate it so that we could sleep in our own bed that night.  The 4 of us said our good-byes at our final gas stop in Oshawa.  We continued on together, but parted ways when we passed through Scarborough. 

Good weather, good roads, good food, and good company.  What more could we have asked for? =) Thanks, everyone!

Day 3: Rawr! More seafood, please!

We decided to split off from the group this morning. We left about 20 minutes before they were to be setting out. We stopped in Naples, ME for lunch. We both had a cup of New England clam chowder and a lobster roll. Very tasty.

We had a bit of a laugh as we rode along after lunch. The eastern US states seem to enjoy naming their towns after far-off places. We rode through South China, Poland, and Naples to name a few. It was almost like we had a whirl-wind world tour in the span of a few hours!

So far we have found the majority of US drivers to be extremely courteous. Not only will they move over for you if you are merging onto any of the interstate highways, they also move over (one single lane highways) almost onto the shoulder to let you pass if they think they're holding you up. Wow. Many thanks and kudos to all of you. =)

The highlight of the day was riding on Route 112. It was obviously a favoured local riding road as we saw many, many motorcycles on it, travelling in both directions. This was the only time that we got rained on. And it was only a very light rain.

We arrived at the hotel about an hour ago. To our surprise, we're the first ones here. Unfortunately, we are not able to check-in until Rory arrives. So in the mean time, we've worked on yesterday's and today's postings. We hope you've enjoyed them. =)

Day 3 route:

View from our lunch spot:

Bikes, resting:

Lunch spot:

Cess about to dig into her lobster roll:

Day 2: Chasing Hurricane Earl

Day 2's ride would take us from Barre, Vermont all the way to just outside Bar Harbor, Maine - our main destination.  By Saturday morning, our group had grown to 16 people.  Given the size of the group, this meant that throughout Saturday's ride we would most likely break into several smaller independent groups.  Can you imagine a group of 16 bikes pulling into a gas station to fill up...?  It would take forever!

As we were preparing for this trip, we fully expected Saturday to be the "bad day", weather wise.  We would be chasing Hurricane Earl and likely be riding through rain, gusty winds, etc.  Instead, we were greeted to beautiful sunny and warm weather for the entire day's ride, which wound eastward into Maine.  After arriving at the hotel at about 6pm, Cess and I relaxed for a bit, before venturing into Bar Harbor (a 30km ride) for dinner to meet the rest of the group.

We had dinner on Bar Harbor's main stretch, and as can be expected, the local specialties were various types of seafood.  Dinner was pleasant, if not awesome.

Day 2's route:

Hurricane Earl at full strength:

Cess saying hello: