One and only one Tremblant trip this year

Winter wasn't much of one, not much snow to speak of here. Lots on the west coast but that's too far to travel just for the white stuff. Just lots of rain at the front and tail end of it. Managed just one trip to Mont Tremblant the whole winter, a repeat of last year's condo visit. Only this time, I did not manage to find time to organize it, and had to let someone else take over. It went really well though, and was the first time I managed to catch a breather after months of hard work. I managed to get a ride up there with a friend on March 3rd, originally planned to go up late afternoon the 2nd but the weather was a little treacherous and I was late getting back home anyway. Did not feel terribly fit up at the top of the mountain. When the snow melts, I have to make sure that I get back to my regular tennis sessions. No, I'm not really into gyms as I like doing exercise outdoors.

Food at Maclaren's mediocre? Not the smoked salmon sandwich.

It's kind of going around that everything on the menu (other than the drinks) is mediocre at Maclaren's on Elgin. I mean, the draw of the place are the wide screen TVs (for sports viewing) and the pool tables. Strangly though, the smoked salmon sandwich is really good. It comes with chunks of smoked salmon, not slices of it. It's almost like a salmon steak sandwich. The only thing is that the salmon tends not to be able to stay in the sandwich, so your hands smell like you've gone fishing, not a good idea if you intend to shoot pool after that.

Maybe the rest of the menu's gotten better too, I mean it could just be me having bad experiences from before, and the salmon's just improved with the rest of it?

West Coast Celtic Originally From Ottawa

Amazing band. It was a fantastic show at the Irish Village and the band had as much fun as the crowd, this being a homecoming show, sort of. I had so much fun I'm almost tempted to travel just to see them again. You know it when a band has it together when they've got that something extra compared to the run of the mill - both chemistry and synergy as a group.

While I'm at this, I might as well do a shameless plug for a friend of mine. They (the Reverb Syndicate) are doing a CD release show on September 23rd at Zaphod's. It's a totally different type of music from west coast celtic, but they too have lots of fun playing what they enjoy, so it'll be cool (a.k.a. groovy or wicked for you time-travelling types). www.thereverbsyndicate.ca

Strongly recommended: Won Ton House (Ottawa)

Finally got to try this restaurant on Wellington west of Parkdale. Recent gentrification of the area has continued unabatedly but this place, like the Bagel Shop across the street, has been around for years through the ups and downs.

All I can say is that I'm definitely going to be back there again. The food is good, and the dining room cosier and friendlier than the large Chinese restaurants in town, yet better maintained than many of the smaller ones. It's much more than just Won Ton, so don't let that rather simplistic name fool you. It's a full-fledged restaurant.

Singaporean style buffet in Ontario

The only way to describe what a Singaporean style buffet is to someone in Canada is to go for one. The closest I've seen is at a place called Mandarin (www.mandarinbuffet.com). They have a number of locations across Ontario. I stopped by their Pickering location on the way back from Toronto. It's just behind the Petro Canada Station at the corner of Kingston Road and Brock Road, convenient if you are connecting between the 407 and the 401. Roast beef, barbecued pork, sushi, prime rib, mussels, fresh shrimps (Singaporeans read: prawns), chicken curry, deep-fried shrimps and scallops, "everything you could want" salad, your usual chinese dishes, black forest cake, cream caramel, bread pudding, ice cream. There's also the usual "Canadian" chinese food such as chicken balls, egg rolls, hot and sour soup. The wonton is not all that great but everything else was delightful.

Kitty Lake Cabin

We arrived at the Algonquin Park Shall Lake ranger station (pass office) at about noon only to be greeted by the largest number of black flies I have seen in the 4 years I've been in Canada. Apparently the ranger knew what he was doing as he was wearing a really good bug jacket. I thought I could tough it out but all my tropical jungle experience did not help this day. "You picked the peak weekend for bugs," the ranger said.

Fortunately we only had a short paddle to the Kitty Lake cabin, which is in fact before the short 90 metres portage across to Kitty Lake from Farm Lake. The cabin is amazing inside. There are four bunk beds, a picnic table, a wood burning stove (which we did not use as it was way too warm), and enough space for two small tents (not that we were going to erect any). The black flies gave way to mosquitoes at sunset. Good thing we had a cabin and the drums we brought with us to entertain ourselves. Sunday was a little better for bugs as it was a little sunnier. But one finds them swarming in the shade away from the wind, as we did on the protected side of a point on Booth Lake that morning.

Sunbeam Lake lives up to its name

On Saturday, we set off for Algonquin Park early with the rain still pouring down. When it did not get any better by the time we got to Tim Hortons at Renfrew, we were all prepared to get to Algonquin Park but not put our canoes into the water and maybe do something else instead.

We arrived at Canoe Lake at about noon. The rain had stopped, but the persistently overcast sky suggested that more might be to come. The wind had also subsided a little but it was still going to be a tough paddle upwind all the way to Sunbeam Lake. We decided to make a go of it. After all, the weather forecast was for sunshine on Monday.

The paddle up Canoe Lake was not easy (read: extremely difficult for novice paddlers) with the gusty North-westerly bearing down our way. Despite the bad weather, I was pretty confident about getting to the campsite by six. Exactly one year ago, we did a trip up to Littledoe Lake without much difficulty and Sunbeam Lake looks just a little further with two more portages through Vanishing Pond. Hopefully the pond will not vanish on us, but we were told that at this time of the year, water levels should be high enough for it to be navigable.

It wasn't much fun paddling in this weather, no fun at all. Overcast, gloomy, windy. Well, we got to the eastern end of Littledoe Lake and paddled into the creek leading up towards Sunbeam Lake. After the first portage, the route becomes interesting. Marshes everywhere and it was unclear which way to go. You really have to look for the slow flow of the water to eke out an idea as to where upstream is. Be prepared for some turns around marshes and deciding between ramming through narrow/shallow sections or carrying across. It's a maze of sorts. If the weather wasn't so miserable and if we weren't pressed for time to get to camp before light fades, this should actually have been quite fun.

Our second portage took us to Sunbeam Lake, and just as we were appearing at the end of the portage trail, the sun came through the clouds for the first time that day. Sunbeam Lake lives up to its name. There are 2 campsites on islands on Sunbeam Lake. The more easterly one appears to be superior but it was already occupied when we arrived. We were kind of not in the mood of looking around anymore, so we settled for a site on high ground on the south shore with a west-facing view off a cliff. The other island campsite (which we visited the next day) faced east. Depending on the wind direction, bugs and temperature, one could be better than the other. The island one had more space. As it turned out, it got rather cold for two evenings in a row and we probably made the wrong choice of campsite. Fortunately I had lots of warm clothing with me. I could hear the ice and snow falling on my tent fly Saturday night and snow squalls were a regular feature for most of Sunday morning.

Sunday night seemed like an endless echo of strong winds blowing from the west. When we woke up Monday to a chilly morning, we were worried that we would have another difficult day ahead of us. Fortunately, the sky cleared up by about 11, and we had an excellent paddle out with the wind behind out backs and what seemed in contrast to the two days before, wonderful partly cloudy weather. We even had ample time to take pity on those paddling our way upwind. Stopping at Wilno Tavern for delightful polish food on the way back capped a trip I would not want to have missed, despite the almost wintry weather in May.

Stars on Ice and Playoff Hockey

Stars on Ice is on tour again. And it's also time for playoff hockey. Just having a look at the schedule for Stars on Ice makes me think how tough they must be having it. 12 cities in 20 days. That's more intense touring than the NHL players have been doing since the format's been revamped to intentionally reduce travelling.

I had the good fortune of making it to the event at Scotiabank Place (formerly Corel Centre) free of charge, volunteering. If you want to see Kurt Browning, Elvis Stojko, Jennifer Robinson, ..., this is the event not to miss. Lots of fancy moves, looks like lots of fun but definitely no less technically demanding than competitive figure skating.

Ottawa's slugging it out with Tampa Bay, Calgary with Anaheim, and we'll see how Montreal does again on Monday after thrashing Carolina 6-1. After the olympic disappointment both sides of the 49th parallel (largely due to the players' strike last year resulting in the lack of match practice, no?), the fans are back, all but Leafs fans. No, Toronto does not get to represent Canada in the competition for the Stanley Cup this year.

The removal of Corel's name from the arena in Ottawa continues the slow fade of a name that once faced off with Microsoft in the ring. But you know what? Corel is going IPO again, for the second time in its history. Don't believe me? Check out http://www.corel.com/ yourself.

Luskville Falls again (This blog is one year old!)

In April 2005, this blog came into existence with a post on the Luskville Falls trail. I am happy to say that I made it there again a year and a day after. Did I see any difference? Firstly, unlike last year, there was absolutely no trace of snow left anywhere. The falls looked a little more of a torrent and the day was just beautiful, more beautiful than last year I think. I forgot to bring my camera this time so no pictures, unfortunately. The warmest winter ever recorded in Canada might have something to do with it.

So where are the falls exactly? They are on the west side of the Eardley escarpment overlooking the Ottawa River and can be accessed via the 148. Coming from Ottawa/Aylmer, turn right at the gravel/mud Chemin de L'Hotel de Ville shortly after where the 148 becomes dual carraigeway and park along the road, then walk towards the falls past the ranch (where you can rent horses to ride, by the way). There should be quite a number of cars there at this time of the year. Google maps "Luskville, Quebec" and you will find it. If you have reached Luskville proper, you've passed Chemin de L'Hotel de Ville.

Going on an adventure? File a trip plan with safetrip.ca

Having a trip plan filed with someone before going on an adventure has always been good practice. Now, trip planning goes online with the launch of safetrip.ca. It's great that something like this is now available online. From what I can tell, Safe Trip Canada is more of a west coast outfit at the moment. I don't know enough about search and rescue to know for sure, but it might be beneficial for someone to start something like this in central or eastern Canada. Leave me a comment if you think it's something worth doing.