Samomatic

It’s been 2 years since our last hiking trip to the Adirondack State Park. This time we went in the middle of winter for some snow-shoeing…in the middle of a lake.

We left Toronto at 10pm and stayed overnight in Brockville, cramming all 6 people into the room. We woke up bright and early to cross the border.

Arriving at the trailhead, we get layered up and strap on our gear.

So glad there is a good amount of snow. We make our way into the interior sites.

Cross the trickling ravines.

Arriving at a lean-to, a structure with 3 walls and a sloping roof, to setup camp and reduce the impact to the surrounding area.

Mounting the 50mm F1.4, I have forgotten how much fun it is to use this prime with its extremely shallow DOF.



Our home for the night, getting ready for bed. The temperature was -3degC.

In the morning we crawl out of sleeping bags and boil water for breakfast, Carmen also take advantage of the heat to help thaw her boots.

Making a detour to Indian Pass, but due to time limit we didn’t make it to the viewpoint.

Hiking uphill with all our packs for about a mile, while it was snowing heavily towards the top.

With the trail in front unbroken (no traces of the path), Mike made the wise decision to turn back and avoid getting lost in the dark.

Hiking back to the lean-to with our headlamps.

With the new plan we retraced our steps toward the trailhead. We got to hike across a frozen lake!

Snowshoes assemble!

We got to spend more time at Lake Placid to do some shopping and also enjoy the local scenery.

The Pentax K-5 did an amazing job; I slung it on my side throughout the entire trip, tumbling into the snow dozens of times and covering it with snow. There were icicles hanging off from the lens and some of the buttons were frozen from the melted snow. Yet it performed flawlessly and reliably.

Driving home after a satisfying weekend of snowshoeing!

Last year we were the Swashbuckling Golasz Chefs, this year we are the Flick of Seagulls as a parody to the band “A Flock of Seagulls”.

1AM – busy writing on our team shirts after driving through a snowstorm for the last 150km.

9AM – in the field house getting ready.

This year we have a team sled which we could put our gear and drag it to different fields.

It was still snowing hard throughout the day. Very tiring but great for diving.


Kevin laying out to reach for the disc!


Spirit games – people tossing. Maybe it is not such a good idea…

Rock-paper-scissors championship!

It was around -20degC with wind chill. Everything left exposed was frozen.

Day 2: Sunny and -26degC.

Taking a much needed nap in between games.




Finished our last game with a 4win-2 loss record.

Our favorite opponent with their “Snow Lightening” Canoe.

Players have to navigate around ‘trees’ while drinking beer and being hit with snowballs. :)

Team Flick of Seagulls!

Packing up for the way home.

A gallery with more images of the weekend HERE.

It’s been busy. And warm in Toronto. It snows every so often but never stays long enough.

The snow is on the ground for a few days then it all melts away.

Hard to believe it is the last day of February already. 2/12 has past for 2012.


Heading up to Sudbury this weekend for Snowplate. Hope we get lots of snow to dive into!

With Brian as our guide, Terry, Carmen and I ventured off to a day of adventures in Collingwood, about 2hrs North of Toronto.

Meeting bright and early, we made good progress in Brian’s modified Jeep Cherokee.

There was fresh snow the night before and the jeep feels extremely stable in the snow.

Off-roading in some small back roads. At one point we ran over a patch of ice and the jeep was sliding back down!


This is Doug, the owner of Rob Roy Farm.

At the farm they have dog sledding programs in the winter. The beautiful dogs sleeps outside in their own kennel.

A barn used for storage in the winter. Some really cool collection of stuff accumulated over the years.

We were very fortunate there was fresh snow and Doug happen to setup the teams for training so we stayed for some dog sledding!

Even though it is a pretty short track, it is amazing how much power the dogs can muster.

And we get to feed donkeys too!