Making It Up As I Go Along #267

MONDAY...
— Take the day off work. It’s pretty nice out and not a bad time for a three day weekend. I go hiking at Mer Bleue for an hour and a half. It’s weird to be out somewhere in Ottawa and go so long without seeing other people.
— Get a few groceries and relax this afternoon. The hike actually wore me out a bit... sad to say.

TUESDAY...
— I go to work and some wonder where I was yesterday. Seems that the message my team leader gave when she called in sick didn’t make it to my team. No harm though... they figured it out by lunch.
— Work’s alright... I do pretty well stats wise.
— Because Janice is off sick, Karl and I postpone movie night. It was going to be a late night so it’s probably a good thing... I could use the sleep after being up late last night watching the Vancouver hockey game.

WEDNESDAY...
— Work is fine... go across for lunch with a few people and it’s a relatively friendly office.
— Go to supper with Karl tonight... just a pub but it’s a nice night.

THURSDAY...
— Work is okay, not as good as yesterday but still okay. A drink at the Mess after work is fine and I come home to hockey games and baseball.
— No Sammy this weekend after all. He was supposed to come for business and a visit but it’s squashed... too bad, hope it happens soon.

FRIDAY...
— Work’s alright... hockey game in the evening then out with the crowd to the bar downtown. I go with Kiyomi and it’s nice to talk with her some. I get home for the overtime of the Vancouver hockey game and, luckily, they win.

SATURDAY...
— Quiet day around the house with hockey, baseball, naps, and a movie.


Nature’s Call
It was a fine weekend last weekend. The sun shone and the temperatures were in the low twenties. It was perfect... but it wasn’t enough. Not for me anyway. So on Sunday night, I called Janice to let her know I’d be taking Monday off work.

I had been thinking of this possibility for much of the week. Monday was supposed to be sunny and hot and I hate working day shift anyway. When I heard three tours were coming on Monday, it made me lean all the further towards taking it off. But Sunday night tested me. The forecast for Monday remained warm... but now rain, and maybe thunder showers, were included in the afternoon predictions.

Still, I decided to take it. I’d do my hike in the morning and hope to beat the rain.

Monday morning starts as advertised. It’s not brilliant sun but it’s nice out and warming up quickly. I relax in the early morning and then go for my hike by 10:30.

I drive to Mer Bleue. There’s something great about doing these kinds of things when it isn’t a weekend or holiday. The rest of the city is business as usual and I’m on my own schedule. There’s only a couple of cars at the parking lot for the boardwalk trail.

The boardwalk is nice but it’s not my destination for today. It’s quick (about twenty minutes) and I’ve done it several times now. But today, I’m interested in checking out another trail I’ve previously noticed but never walked. It’s to the right of the boardwalk trail and runs along a ridge to the west.

I have gotten an idea of this trail, in our modern age, by way of the internet. I went to goggle maps and zoomed in on the area. I could follow the trail from one end to the other this way and I had a pretty good idea what I was getting into.

It’s still early in the season. Leaves remain absent from the trees and it makes this ridge trail a little less scenic but it still allows for the forest to hit you in a unique way. There’s an eeriness to it. Even though it’s midday on a Spring Monday, you can’t help but feel like you’re walking along in a post apocalyptical world. A plane flies overhead and I almost feel as though that is the only other fragment of civilization within a thousand miles of me.

I’m on the trail for a good hour and a half. And during my time there, I see no other people. That’s something I enjoy. It’s easy to do in a place like St. John’s. I can find several trails back home and know that I’ll be walking by myself while I’m there. Ottawa is twice the size of Newfoundland (Population wise) and nearly ten times the size of St. John’s. So for me to be able to isolate myself while doing something outside here is a real treat.

Still, I am aware of life around me. Every hundred yards or so, I’ll hear a rustling in the bushes as I pass by. Snakes, squirrels, chipmunks, birds... it could be anything that’s startled by my presence. I look down at the soil, that is still soft from recent rain and the early Spring melt, and I see paw prints. I guess them to be of racoons but I also see some birch trees that have been felled by beavers and I wonder if the prints are from them instead.

And constantly there is the sounds of birds in the area. Woodpecker strikes, and the songs of several species that either of my parents would know better than I.

Occasionally there are pools of water crossing the trail. I suspect that, in mid summer, these pools would be long dry. But now, with melting from the winter, the half foot of snow that fell a week ago (and since melted) and the rain of four days ago, the water pools in low lying areas.

I come to these pools and navigate my way. I always joke with myself that I’m an expert at such navigation due to my Newfoundland upbringing. Kids back home would always be bouncing along shoreline rocks, skipping their way past and through tidal pools or over slippery, sea weed covered rocks. I’m not too proud to say I have never made a bad decision on these Newfoundland obstacle courses. I’ve fallen in and gotten cold and wet on more than one occasion. But years of this has made me pretty good at avoiding the wet without much slow down.

There are keys to such walks. Aim for higher ground... go for the biggest rocks or fallen logs that you can find... and don’t be afraid to step on some vegetation (a big tuft of grass will likely keep you out of the muck).

About half way through my walk, I come to a spot that’s quite unique. The trees are all bare but their fallen leaves remain from last autumn. They cover the ground in white and it almost looks like snow on the forest floor.

A few, mostly dry river beds create little valleys and channels to cross. I wonder how much water would have been running through here just as the snow was beginning to melt. And then I look at my watch, see that it’s lunch time in the office, and wonder how my team mates and co-workers are doing with their day. It’s funny that it was near this same time that my team mates were asking each other where I was. I can’t say that it makes you feel incredibly special when it takes four or five hours for your team mates to begin to wonder where you are. Maybe such things are part of what drew me to taking the day off in the first place?

Forty minutes into the hike and I’m looking for the end of this trail. With each corner, I expect to see the other parking lot that marks the opposite end from where I started. But each corner only brings more forest and I keep going. That is until I reach a major pool of water. I may be good at navigating such things but, after forty or so minutes, I’m more inclined to turning around than pushing through thick vegetation along the side of a sea such as this.

So the other parking lot isn’t reach but I’m fine with it... I retrace my steps and begin the trip back.

I see the snowy ground section of forest from a new perspective, and it’s just as interesting as the first. I jump when a piece of twig slithers off the path and into the underbrush... I’m still not used to run ins with snakes (another consequence of growing up in snake free Newfoundland). And I stop to take a few pictures of a fuzzy caterpillar who seems keen on reaching my boot, until I finish with my camera and leave the poor creature in my dust.

I reach the car about an hour and a half after I left it. And my time alone and in the woods has done me good. It may have been a bit of a waste of leave, but my Monday hike made the rest of my week go much easier.