New job | new house | new Haircut?

Its been an exciting week! My last shift-work weekend involved a geocaching event called GHAGAFAP 5. This was an annual event, and my first time attending. GHAGAFAP is the largest event in Ontario, so I pretty much HAD to go, as I am a superstar now. There were various events, a lot of neat camoflauge caches that forced us to check every duck in the pond, and every fire department connection on the buildings. When the night came we got a huge fire going, and set up a movie theatre in the woods (just wait.. it gets geekier). An American cacher by the name of Mr.Mom brought out the illegal flashlights (you could probably see our light show from space), and Tomtec brought out a few of his slightly modified lights, and a bunch of green laser pens. We put on an absolutely amazing laser light show that night. I went over and helped out so that the hosts of the makeshift light show could go check out how amazing it looked from the campsite. It even blew their minds how well it turned out!

Click each for a larger view:


Here is a complete Gallery of the event for those interested.

After a weekend of GHAGAFAPing, I returned to the flat and got a good rest for the first day at my new job as a Systems administrator. I haven't got my biometrics scanned into the system yet, so I am basically desk bound near the entrance. They have me running through mountains of documentation and building solaris boxes as the moment, so nothing to exciting, but I seem to be picking up on things quicker then the normal hires that they do, so I expect I will be staying in this position for a while, which is a good thing!

On Tuesday the wife and I went and looked at yet another house. This time the house wasn't about to fall over, spontaneously set on fire, drown, or get shot at.. and best of all, it was in our price range!! we were suspicious at first, there must be something drastically wrong with the place if we can afford it. It is a huge house with 4 bedrooms, and is a 5 second sprint to the lake (a 20 meter portage to the beach). The budget says we can afford it, so we will have to see how good we are with budgeting. Our Real Estate agent was told to go forward with the paperwork. This will be amazing if everything goes well. I can't wait!!

As for the haircut, well.. I started growing a beard in, as it seems to make me look older and more serious. Alot different as well. People I have known for over a year at work are coming over and introducing themselves.. weird. I do really need a haircut, which was planned for this weekend, but I never got around to. So depending how this weekend goes, I may look much different soon.

Silver Peak

As my last shift-work-weekend, I decided I needed to do something special. A cache that would challenge my ability physically, and push me to the extreme limits of my sanity. This one pushed me a little over that on both accounts, but I made it. After the sanity was broke, it didn't much care for the bodies complaints!

The first day was for driving. We set out around 11 after figuring out how to attach the canoe to my cousins Grand Cherokee, and set out for Parry sound, with the final days destination set on Sudbury. We visited a few sites of interest including various beaches and inlets in the area, and made our way to the Ghost Town of Depot Harbor. I had camped out here before, but turned back due to insect infestations. There were many hollowed out buildings, and the train turnstile was still standing as I remember it. Some old tractors, cars, and boats lay in the main street of this once Grande port town. I didn’t think the cache placed there did a great job of giving a tour of the area, but I wasn't willing to place another one, so it had to do. I probably knew this area better then they did anyway!


Depot Harbour

We visited some stops by the French river. I had passed out by this time. I had been up for about 30 hours, and it is amazing how refreshing 30 minutes of sleep can feel. Found some caches, some animal bones, and some neat buildings, then made our way up to Sudbury. By this time it was beginning to get dark, so we jumped into a hotel just in town and made sure we had a place to sleep. Then it was out for more caching, making sure that I got up to 999 for tomorrows Kilo-cache adventure.


Above the French River

The day started a little later then expected. We started at 11am which was about 5 hours later then I had planned. We dropped off the car, loaded the battle canoe, and went about looking for a free campsite on Bell Lake. Every campsite we came across was either taken or reserved (which is something Ontario parks told me I could not do), so I was just about angry enough at them to pitch tent in the middle of the bush and camp there. So that is what we did!


Killarney Park - alot of trees

A Battle Canoe? Why? Well this is the only canoe I had. The thing weighs close to 100 pounds, and is not something that is meant to be carried. Other portagers on the trail gloated about their canoes being only 20 pounds, but the likely drowned later that day as soon as they ran into their first rock.. hehehe suckers.


Battle Canoe

We found a small inlet, unloaded everything we didn’t need for the hike, pitched a tent, and hung the food off the ground, then loaded up the canoe again and started paddling. Greeting us at our first portage was a moose enjoying moose food in the shallow beaches of the lakes end. We didn’t get very close to this one, and it took off before we could get close enough for a photo. The first portage was awkward, and painful. It was approximately one kilometer over rocky and sometimes boarded mud terrain. We made it to the second lake, and I assured him that the next one wouldn't be anything near as bad as that one.


Moooooose

We paddled through this lake, unnamed on the map, and came across many beaver lodges and dams. At the entrance to the second portage there was another moose munching on moose food, and this one didn’t seem to care as much if we took it's picture, so we did. We sat and watched it for a while, and had a snack of our own - Doritos, Granola bars and water. Our second portage was much easier, and took almost no effort at all, especially compared with the other one.


Portag'n


We entered the third lake - David Lake - and it began to rain pretty hard. We canoed across the lake, and as we were pulling the canoe ashore the thunder and lightning broke out. My cousin had a rain suit, but I had to make due with a jean jacket. I had marked the trail earlier on my GPS and we decided we could have about 2 kilometers off the trip by bushwhacking about 200 meters. We walked right across the trail without even noticing, and ended up face to face with a river. We found a beaver dam that made short work of the river, and decided to try and find the trail on the other side of the river, according to a topo-map. Eventually we found it, and began the long hike up to the final summit.


Route to Silver Mountain

We made base camp twice along the way, stopping for food and water, but each time we did we nearly froze as the lack of activity mixed with our wet clothing, freezing rain, and biting winds. As we got closer to the top, the storm got more vicious as the trees began to give way to the bare quartzite rock that formed the peak of the mountain. The water was coming off the mountain down the trail in waterfalls at points, and our hands froze as we worked our way up the cold rocks. At the peak, the rain was coming in sideways from all directions, and at times, from below. The swirling clouds all around us, and the thunder and lightning made it quite clear that we were actually inside the thundercloud.

We stayed as low as possible, making sure there was always something taller then us at every step, at times on our hands and knees, working our way to the peak. We found the peak, and where the cache should have been, but it was not. The owner of the cache had contacted me earlier as he had a suspicion that the cache may be missing. I had a replacement which I left in position and filled back up with loose rocks in the area. My cousin was more then happy to leave at this point.


thunder mountain

We made our way down the slippery slope of the mountain, and through the forests, over the river, and through the hills to the next mountain, which gave us a beautiful view of Silver peak still covered in the thundercloud that had enveloped us. We made a dash for the canoe, and hurried to the first portage. I felt that instead of going to the path that we had originally taken here, we should try the other path! WHAT A STUPID IDEA! after an 900m portage detour we made it back to the trailhead, and picked the correct trail.

After canoeing the second lake, we arrived at the long portage and decided we best pull out the flashlights. The dark portage went surprisingly well considering that it was, well, dark. We found our campsite thanks to my handy GPS (we really couldn't see anything at all), and went straight to bed. The pain is what we felt the next morning.

fire ants

We packed our stuff into the canoe the next morning, and checked our bodies over for any missing limbs. We survived Silver mountain relatively unscathed, with only a few cuts and bruises. The Painful canoe back to the car was enough of a wakeup call to realize that the adventure ended here. No extreme geocaching today!


Killarney Shores

We did manage to hit a small one in the town of killarney when we hoped into town to dry off our clothes. It was on the south shore, outside of town, it had beautiful red-stone beaches, that looked amazingly like paintings by the Group of seven. Very scenic! We had some of the famous local fish and chips straight off the boat, got our clothes then headed for the campground. The canoe this time was left on the jeep, and we just decided to take it easy the rest of the day and let our muscles take a break.

We awoke the next morning to a war between the neighbors dog, and a band of rowdy squirrels. They seemed to be taunting the dog from the trees. This early morning alarm clock got us up and out of there on time, and we had a rather uneventful drive home!

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Off to conquer La Cloche!

In 2 hours I will be departing for the La Cloche mountain range, and my last shift-work-weekend adventure. I have been quite excited about it, but my planning for this trip is rather inept.

I will begin my trip coming straight off an 84 hour work week, night shifts. I hope that 2 hours of sleep on the way to Parry sound will satisfy the nods until we get to Sudbury. As I will be going for my 1000th geocache, I will need to collect about 14 geocaches before I attempt the mountain. Hopefully I can get those all today on the way to, and in, Sudbury.



I am pretty sure that the adventure up the mountain will be ill timed as well. I am guessing that we will probably need 6 hours to get there, and 6 hours to get back. As there is not 12 hours of daylight anymore, and also scheduled for that day we have to go to the Killarney main office to get the camping permits, and set up camp before we head out, I suspect we will need to do some night canoeing.

This will be a fun blog entry when I get back folks, wish us luck!

An unlikely role Model

Best US President ever? Alexander Joseph Luthor. Yeah, I admit; I cheer for the bad guy.

There are some things that strike me as unique to the plight of Lex Luthor. First and foremost - He wants the best for humanity. Why does he hate superman so much? Because he is an alien who goes around solving humanities problems. He feels as though humans are a still developing species, and if superman goes around fixing all our problems then we will stop developing and learning to deal with the problems we have caused. In order for humanity to develop the way it should, it must have no external influences, and deal with its own problems.



Since the 1940s, Luthors character has changed many times, from a brain-stealing red haired scientist, to superboy's best friend, to alien fighting commando soldier, to president of the USA. He has come up with various plots to destroy Superman; including the synthesizing of kryptonite, travelling back in time, creating clones, robots, genetic monsters, detonated H-Bombs, and even summoning beings from the 4rth dimension. His history is also chaotic, as peoples tastes over the decades change. Sometimes he is a self-made man, who grew up in the slums of metropolis, sometimes he inherited his money, sometimes he stole it all. The one thing in the stories, that seems to drive him, is revenge.

Luthor became president in the year 2000 after detering an alien fleet of warships with human-alien technology hybrids. He Married Lana Lang, and with Pete Ross as the Vice President, led the world into a new golden age... Or so it goes.

The "new" Lex as portrayed in the TV series Smallville is a far more 'realistic' version of the fantastic story of superman. In the show he is portrayed as a rich twenty-something who uses his money to help the people of the world, and performing extensive research and development. Clark Kent (oh sorry, I should have warned you about the spoiler) always seems to foil his research plans though, as they often make him sick (because he doesn't like Kryptonite, a key ingredient in most of the experimentation). This is the Lex I Cheer for, the one who is relatable. Sometimes I watch the show, and think to myself, man, this superman guy is a real prick.

In the new superman movie however, he seems a bit too money hungry to seem realistic. Superman is the hero in this story only because there doesn't seem to be anyone better for the role. He still seems like a clumsy, dim-wit who just happens to have biological superiority over everyone. I liked the superman movie, but didn't like the way Lex was portrayed in it, or superman for that matter. The real superman would have made his court date!

Anyway, VOTE LEX FOR PRESIDENT, that is all I can say. peace out.

Wearing my day

As I approach the 24 hour mark on my day I look down at my clothes. I am a horrible horrible mess. I have light coloured jeans on and a white t-shirt. I am covered in the following colours & filth: Black powder printer ink, Brown wood stain, beige saw dust, green and yellow grass stains, dirt & mud, and last but not least, coffee. I am after all, a slob that has been up 24 hours..


add a computer, and its meeeeee...

Why Pluto MUST NOT be given planet status

A tribute comic to the Perry Bible Fellowship:

Quest for Silver peak and Promotion V2.0

I will be moving up the ladder once again! Earlier today I accepted a promotion to government services systems administrator. Not much can be said about the job other then I am now responsible for maintaining a network of large fancy computers. OooOOO!

The bad news is, that I have given up my 7 day weekends, and will be working the M-F 9-5 shifts, meaning an extra day of commuting into the city, and far less extravagant adventures in the outback. My last adventure it seems will be Silver Mountain in the heart of killarney. I have been putting some research into the trip. Looking at topo maps, reading log entries, plotting possible courses, and trying to muster a crew for this most perilous of journeys. Alain, my street-savvy cousin, has agreed to partake on the challenge with me.



We will launch the canoe at David lake, and likely camp at site 102. From there, we will follow the trail back to the "thunder box" (a valley), cross the river, and pick up the path to Silver peak. The hike will only be about 2km which is really nothing when you think about it, but will probably also incur an elevation increase of about 300m.

This hike will be my 1000th geocache, if I time it right, and will be a super-wicked way to end my geocaching full-timers career. Spots are still open if anyone wants to join us this Thursday :D