by Ehren on October 20, 2009
Feeling tired after work and school and since I need to follow up on my previous post, I thought I’d post some photos and trail data after trying out the Garmin GPSMAP 60Cx that I had just gotten recently.
So a couple of weekends ago, in fact it was a Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, I decided to journey up to Algonquin for a solid hike. After much hoping, praying, and sharing the enthusiasm for autumn colours at the office, I just had to make it to Algonquin (rain or shine) to take in the vibrant colours. A friend and I had gone up a couple of weeks even further back but it was still too early as most of the trees had not changed yet. Thanksgiving weekend turned out to be the peak time, which resulted in a spectacular hike.
I had planned for going on the Booth’s Rock trail. Some friends and I had made a visit during the winter and it was an excellent hike with some solid views as you’ll see below in a photograph of a friend at Booth’s rock lookout point.
I had heard about the Centennial Ridges trail before but after I stumbled across a site called Trailpeak, I was determined to hike the trail. Trailpeak’s great for Canadians in particular although I’m not sure how appealing it may be in comparison to sites like EveryTrail. That said, the great thing about Trailpeak is that there is plenty of data on Canadian trails and that was exactly what I was seeking out.
The funny thing about Centennial Ridges was that Algonquin pegged it as a strenous hike. I guess it is 10 kilometres long and the estimated completion time was 6 hours however in my opinion it’s not a strenous hike. I actually thought that the Track and Tower trail might actually be more difficult because large chunks of the Centennial Ridges trail is literally just walking on the ridge of the cliff. Honestly, there are very few trails that provide that much view for so little hike.
What was fascinating about this hike was that the east side seemed full of vibrant yellows and golds while the southern ridge provided views of oranges and reds.
Some hikers complained that it was too easy of a hike (true to some degree) and that there were too many people (also true), but the one thing I’ll note is that despite the number of people on the trail, I never found it crowded one bit — even when I stopped to eat lunch on one of the ridges. There was always more than enough space. For those who don’t want to hike through a lot of wooded areas, this is a great trail with diversity.
Near the last quarter of the trail, we’re treated to a grand view of Whitefish Lake. I only wish that I would have had the opportunity to share the hike with a few more friends, but I guess the timing doesn’t always work when it’s a Thanksgiving long weekend.
The most interesting thing about this hike was that majority of the people there were visiting from another country, and the Canadians who were on the trail were graduate students on a break. The funny thing is that the grad students also mentioned the peculiar fact that we live so close by to such beauty yet so few of us actually take the time to enjoy it. Oddly enough Niagara Falls (which by the way is only one hour less of a drive away) is the popular destination. Yuck.
I guess I should mention that there was a beaver sighting, but with the kids screaming “BEAVER!” at the top of their lungs, it was highly unlikely that it would swim closer.
Some trail data
Centennial Ridges Trail – Algonquin Park at EveryTrail
Map created by EveryTrail: GPS Trip Sharing with Google Maps
by Ehren on October 5, 2009
Every year, I find that there just isn’t enough time to enjoy the autumn colours. The thing that I wonder about the most is that why around this time of year when the trees are the most beautiful that we are usually the busiest. Whether it may be school or work, it seems to be difficult to get a weekend with little precipitation.
After so many years of not having the time for autumn colours, I decided to block off multiple weekends. Despite the poor weather over the last couple of weekends, I still managed to wander north up to Algonquin Park for some hiking. The Highway 60 corridor contains some stunning colour changes.
So many people travel to Canada to enjoy our autumn colour changes, yet so many of us are unable to get out of Toronto (which by the way has pretty poor colour change by comparison to Northern Ontario) and spend time to take in the autumn season which tends to be so short-lived. I still have a few more weekends blocked off for autumn hiking … let’s hope for good weather and colours!
by Ehren on September 4, 2009
I happened to be reading Mark Bertil’s post on risk taking and funding and he points out Kickstarter — a funding platform for artists, designers, etc. — not unlike Kiva, except they focus on alleviating poverty through partnerships with micro-financing institutions and by encouraging people to make small loans to entrepreneurs to fund their endeavours.
A fine example:
Mark being Mark, thoroughly discusses his thoughts and ideas in the context of publishing. He points out that publishers take the risk, but I’d disagree because publishers play it safer than we think. Dan Wagstaff a while back (probably around BookCamp Toronto, feel free to correct me Dan) made a point of emphasizing that publishers should make small investments in many different initiatives to play it safe and experiment.
An argument that I’d like to put forth is that so far the major investor and “risk taker” in all Canadian books has really been the government and thus the people who pay taxes in this country. I had a conversation earlier today with a friend who said to me that the formula to publishing is about balance. My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when I saw that statement.
A while back, a friend of mine and I were throwing this idea around. The general goal of the Canadian government or at least part of it is to ultimately ensure the survival of Canadian culture (because Canadians are somehow consistently feeling insecure about their identity). This means the Canadian government must do something about investing in culture which then brings about the grant system that subsidizes the production costs of books in order to make them affordable.
Complex City visual via ffffound
The problem is that for many publishing companies, they have essentially integrated this grant formula into their business model and combined it with the idea of investing in many initiatives (in this case, books).
Let us unveil a giant machine that is pumping a massive output of “Canadian culture”. This massive output will hopefully reach a few readers across the nation with the “bestsellers” playing their role, each as a success story of how Canadian identity survived and perhaps even thrived.
I don’t think the question is, as Mark puts it, the platform and who will run it because anyone can set one up in a free and democratic society. The key is choosing where to place the funding. The question is that if we keep talking about better books, better interactions, better communities — shouldn’t we focus on ourselves? We ironically, are the people who continue to allow Canadian culture to be diluted and the real gems to remain hidden.
If anything, perhaps the Canada Council will set up a platform where the people can decide on an individual basis how much of their portion they want to dedicate to a form of art and culture be it a book, film, music, theatrical performance or video game (etc..). Pushing it even further, perhaps individuals may even decide on the specific initiative.
The old formula may have been similar to Pareto Principle (the 20/80 rule) — although I have my doubts. I might even suggest that further fragmentation and or segmentation is the future.
