Friday, September 30, 2005

Indiana Dave and the Devils Glen

Here are some more adventures that I went on. As a prefix, instead of using geocaches as the goal of these adventures, I will be using ancient and sacred artifacts so that the non-geocaching public will retain interest! After all, using multi-billion dollar military satellites to hunt down Tupperware containers in the woods sounds kind of odd when you say it out loud. This will be the theme for all my adventures now on, so be aware that I will be cheesing it up to make the story more interesting.



    It began the morning of the 26th. I had been researching the facts about the area for some time, but very little was known. This was an area forgotten by time, and scoffed at by the locals. Only historians and wacko-relic hunters like myself would dare venture this far from society without any ...



Ok screw that idea. I went out and visited the lost town of Josephine on my way to the Devils Glen. While in the town I saw a strange man, and hid in the ruins. He was either a ghost or a Mennonite, but the oddest thing about him was that he was walking a cow around using a turning stick.. Have you ever seen a man walking a cow outside a national geographic special? no me neither.

Photos of Ghost town Josephine
I got to Devils glen, and did not adequately prepare myself for what was ahead. I had figured it was about a 5km trip one way and 5 km back, which is fine typically. The terrain was way off the chart though, especially since I tend not to follow trails. The treasure I was looking for was on top of a hill. What stood between me and it was a 50 foot vertical cliff. On the way up the cliff I came across some very interesting caves, which I explored, and also a bought of dehydration. The dehydration lasted for at least another 3 hours, and I was tempted to eat the moist looking moss growing in the crevasses. I never did get THAT dehydrated though. There was also some snow in some of the deeper parts, but it was discolored, and had probably been there since March, so I didn’t touch that either.

Devils Glen is part of the Niagara escarpment which is most famous for Niagara falls which falls over it between lake Erie and lake Ontario. It is a nasty cliff that runs the length of southern Ontario, and I was forced to climb up and down 6 times that day.

Photos from Devils GlenDisappointing photos from inside the trench
On my way home I went into the town of Creemore, home of creemore springs beer, and tryed to rehydrate myself by drinking 2 litres of cranberry juice ( I came up for air twice if you must know). They were shooting a movie about werewolves and I caught a pretty good gun scene. I snuck into the set looking like one of the union cable-carriers (like the ones homer got into a "who's lazier" match with).

Then after hydrating, I went strolling along the nottawasaga. Nice river, tasty fish.

miscellaneous adventures

Saturday, September 24, 2005

2 things that pissed me off today

People too dumb to use the metric system - I saw a sign today at a used car dealership. They were advertising a '96 car with 151 kms. I find this unlikely.. But at the same time I am sure that if they used the term 151 Mms people would get confused and drive into a ditch.. people are stupid.

Why I was asked for my postal code from a walmart employee - Really.. What purpose would it serve? They could remind me of their christmas gun sale sure.. If I wasn't rural and my postal code actually gave some indication as to where I live. I told them it was H0H 0H0, so Santa's going be bringing me coal this year. Hopefully enough that I can power my car with it..

Best eBay Item ever

This is gold.. Gold i tell ya..

Win a Vacation with my Hippy brother in law

At the risk of sounding geekier..

So.. What has JP been up to?

I have been dinkin around with the Google maps API. I make myself geocaching reports for areas that I dont know to well so I can see all the caches in relation to eachother, and determine a map. Here is one for an area of Alliston:




As you can see there are two types of caches, and it also displays the parking coordinates. I have made icons for the other types of caches too, but at the moment the program is buggy, and I wont work on it again until Sunday morning.

For those of you who don't know what caching is, consider yourself lucky... It takes over your life... uhg...

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Camping at Lake Sherbourne

After years in university, and working my tail off during the weekends, I was finally able to go camping with some friends at Lake Sherbourne, a secret campsite on crown land in the Minden region of the Haliburton Highlands. A jeep trail allows people access (not easy access) to the lake after about 40 minutes of driving. Now this is not good driving, but it is HELLA fun. The trail dips and winds through the bush, on a single lane. Me and my little swift did very well for the trail, although I should really appologize to my shocks.. We kept up with the Jeep cherokee in front of us.



check out our phoon!


I was going to say that the nearest road to where we were was Hwy 35, but upon closer inspection from Google maps, it appears not! Click here for the exact location of our secret camping spot. Why am I giving away the location? Do I never want to camp with my friends again? The government is making the place into a park next spring, and start CHARGING people to stay there.. no more free camping here atleast!

It was a few wonderful days of relaxation and bliss. Very few humans, and the only work to do was to chop some wood, and find non-toxic leaves to use for TP. Of course, no vacation I have comes without its downers..


So what happens when you get a bunch of buddies in the back woods with a jeep, and have nothing to do but chop wood? Why, you start driving the jeep through a lake of course! Poor Jeep.. Hydrolocked the Engine of course, and we had to get it towed by a rag-tag band of criminals that were hiding in the nearby woods with a truck. They were quite good people! A nice lady named 'smurf' with a truck helped us out.

We had a fire that night with them as we dried the engine components on the beach. They had brought plenty of weed and interesting stories of them setting cops on fire, and high speed chases. It may not have been too eventful (especially considering the stories they told), but It was a great weekend none the less!!

Here are some links to pix I took. Enjoy!

Jeep in Lake
Jeep - Setting up for the Pull out
Jeep - Haul ass backwards
Jeep - Flooded interior
Jeep - Flooded interior
Jeep - Mechanics on the beach
Campsite
Lake in the morning
Walkin the dog
Lake Sherbourne
George make Fire (a picture worthy moment)
A Lake I found with GPS, no sign of habitation

While I was up there, I did some geocaching on the way in and the way out. Here are some pictures from that venture:
Town of Big Halk Landing (entire town)
Town of Big Halk Landing (surroundings)
A Bear I saw
Buttermilk falls 1
Buttermilk falls 2
Buttermilk falls 3
Buttermilk falls 4
Town of Dorset (entire town)
Dorset tower
From afar
view from tower
view from tower 2
Binocular view

A spectactular waterfall far from any road:
Kawagama falls 1
Survey Monument in rocks
Survey Monument with falls (I'm an engineer, it's interesting!)
Kawagama falls 2
Kawagama - Bad picture from cliff
Kawagama - Good picture from cliff

Shake your money maker

My replacement of addiction policy is working. After a fairly hectic weekend of caching and camping, my weight measurement is down 30 pounds from Gatineau levels. A treasure hunting addiction has replaced the Pepsi drinking addiction. This is much healthier physically, but the emotional scaring coming from people laughing when I tell them this seems to be damaging psychologically.

Why am I bringing this up now? A proposition was made last night of me.

I was pumping gas, and the gas attendant asked if I would stip at a birthday party for his wife. 200$ for a dance for some ladies! I of course, sent notification via email to my recently married friend.



Besides, I am already working that night... Yeah baby!

Thursday, September 15, 2005

JP's guide to the universe

Top 3 things that Blow


Time - Time blows. There is always too much or too little, but it is never just the right amount. Now I know what you are going to say, 'Hey jackass! Time prevents everything from happening all at once!'. But I ask you then, why wouldn't that be super groovy? You would know what was happening, what has happened, what is going to happen, as well as the consequences! Oh, and we wouldn’t have to meet appointments either, because you wouldn’t need to worry about what happens if you miss it, and already know what is going to happen so there is no point in talking to someone about it.

Gravity - Gravity Blows. For many of you this is probably obvious because you have seen videos of planes crashing, and skateboarders crushing their nuts on poles. But I really want to drill it home. Without Gravity we could eliminate hunger, disease, Hollywood, greed, annoying people, and phallus shaped rocks. Makes you wonder, huh?

Lame People - This goes without saying. But the one, and arguably only good feature of gravity is that it often finishes lame people off. Lame people are not to be confused with Llamas or Llama People, which actually kick ass.

Top 3 things that Kick loads of Ass


Friction - Counter-acts all the horrible affects of Gravity. For instance, take the skateboarder crushing his nuts on a pole. If instead he just wrapped himself in carpet and walked around, then he wouldn't get hurt! This of course, leads me to my next most kick ass thing:

Llamas - Llamas are of course, the Spiritual leaders of at least 5 of the universes most popular religions. Llamas can fly and are completely immune to the affects of gravity because of the high amount of friction caused by their magnificent coat of fur.

Kam Pong Gi - A Korean dish, made with spicy chicken and carrots.

My guide to the universe is always growing, please feel free to comment.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Promotion

Turns out I am up for a promotion. Yes, the job that I have had for a whole 4 months, and despite many horrible HORRIBLE mistakes, has resulted in an honor fit for the best employee ever! ME! Or so the story goes…

I am told this is not the case however. It turns out that many of the other employees, some who have been at this job for over 10 years, do not want to get promoted, because you put up with far more crap for far less money then its worth. I was actually hired with the intention of management to fast track me into a managerial position because no one else would take it!

So the points of this new job are the following:
  • Small raise
  • Much more work
  • Ability to order people with 10+ years more experience then me around (in theory)



Unfortunately this means the dissolution of my carpool, as I will have to be moved to another shift. This means that the 'raise' will definately not be worth it, as I will have to commute by myself every day.

What Am I looking forward to with this promotion? A managerial job on my resume. Hurray.

Monday, September 12, 2005

Livejournal Favorites

Here is a list of some of my favorite and most popular postings on live Journal. My creativity has been relatively lax lately, but I hope that the move to blogspot will revive it.

Random Utterances


The problem with literature - my first blog entry
My addiction to stimulants - A listing of recipes for all things pepsi, as well as a look into my horrible addiction
Tatoos are out, Bat wings are in! - Dave on Genetic Alteration and how messed up his kids are going to be
Why i need my own domain - A rant about how I am cheap, as well as a recipe for a Cran-tastic Buffalo & beer steak.
My Death is Immanent - Update on Pepsi addiction

Poetry


A tribute to ECHLON
My Elegy
ts too Late, I need sleep

Mildly Funny Crap


Changing the outcome by observing the results - results from a quantum mechanics test
Blood flow to the organ - an example of my intrigue with the english language
Fun with idiots - Replying to email that is obviously not to me
New student Letter - Fun with idiots II
Recent Physchology notes on my alarm clock
Dave in womens clothing.. again

Troubles with da man


Rage against the Language Police - Problems with people taking down my english signs
Grad Mugshot - My Graduation after being kicked in the back
Confessions of an insane rambling madman - Discussion as to why im on the terrorist watch list, and some events that didn't get onto my blog but probably should have

Nature


Trip to snake country via water cab - Preping for a trip to Baeusoleil island
Lick of the wind - Tornadoes and their tendancy to follow me
Adventure to the island of tornadoes and burning - Trip to Beausoleil Island

Anyone have favorites? Think i missed a good one? Dislike all my work? Please feel free to comment!

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Loading the chuck wagons to the blender

I have decided to finally make to move to blogpot, following in jonbens footsteps in a move away from Livejournal. THe only reason I think I stayed at livejournal for so long is because I have alot of good crap on livejournal.

So to make this the best of both worlds, I will be putting a section up for my favorite Livejournal entries, this monday.

Until then, you can read my previous blog at http://www.livejournal.com/~juicepig