Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Hopewell Rocks

It's been a wile since my last update, been a bit busy with nothing in particular. I've almost completed editing all of my photos from the Canada trip and I figured I should give a quick update and show off some of the pictures from Hopewell rocks.
I think pretty much anyone who's been to New Brunswick can attest that they've visited or at the very least herd of Hopewell rocks. The iconic picture of tide swept rocks in the Bay of Fundy is almost always one of Hopewell rocks. I had much excitement for this stop on the road trip as all of the pictures and websites I had seen of this place looked really great and I couldn't wait to get there and snap some pictures.
All and all it was a pretty cool place, pictures were difficult seeing as 10,000 other people saw the same photos and websites I did too and all happened to be there on the same day, but a bit of patients and some photoshop skills can get rid of any fat tourist. Definitely a tourist hot spot and the entry fee and trail to the rocks leading you through the gift store all proved that, but it was a very cool place and I'm sure off-season it's a million times better.

Mileage: 2 Miles

Horses

Ready to kayak

Twisted

Hopewell Rocks

Low tide




Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Peggy's Cove

So while in Canada the weather was pretty crappy most of the time, but I was able to squeeze in a few hikes between all the rain. I have to say by far my favorite of the trip, and one of my all time favorites, was the hike we did outside of Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia.
We went into Peggy's Cove first, which is like, as the guide book put it,"The most picturesque fishing village in all of Atlantic Canada" yeah sick. It was cool if you like 8 billion fat tourists and 7 gift shops. But I will say that it easily could have been really awesome had they not let the tourist attractions take over so much of the town. There was alot of really old, really cool looking fishing huts and houses with the really old bearded typical fisherman to go with them, but the ice cream shops and tour buses kind of ruined the ability to really feel like you were in the middle of an old fishing village in a different time. My parents came here on a vacation over 25 years ago and from what they told me it seemed alot better back then before everyone else found out about it.
That being said, the area itself was really cool. The last ten minutes of the drive into town was dominated by bolder covered hills with green shrub grass covering everything. We asked the guide at the visitor center if there were any good hikes in the area and she told us of one that went along the coast down into a nearby bay. After walking around the town for a bit we headed out to start the hike.
It was awesome, very cool terrain to hike through with boulders to climb over and cliffs to scale along the coast, which Mark was ecstatic about. Also there were pitcher plants everywhere which I have never seen before and are actually pretty damn cool, basically they are "like" a Venus flytrap in that they eat insects for nutrients, but instead of a closing trap they have a flower that hangs over leaves shaped like a pitcher filled with water. When the insects fall off the flower and into the pitchers, the fluid in the pitcher digests them and the plants feed off of the dissolved nutrients. Pretty bad ass I know, but enough of the Biology lesson.
Overall it was a great hike, with a ton of things to see and some very cool terrain to experience. So if you ever go to Peggy's Cove, do yourself a favor and don't just walk to the lighthouse and go in the gift shops and get ice cream, take a two minute drive down the road and go on a quick hike, I promise you won't regret it. Then obviously go back to the town and get some fucken ice cream, cause it's delicious, and it's exactly what we did.
Mileage: about 2 miles
Peggy's Cove lobster traps

Peggy's Cove

Peggy's Cove boats

Pitcher plant flower

Awesome landscape

Awesome landscape

Cliff down to the ocean

Awesome landscape

Peggy's Cove through rocks

Mark giggling


Sunday, August 14, 2011

Saint John in Black and White

I just returned home last night from a week long Canadian road trip with my friend Mark and I decided it was time for a new blog update. I have probably upwards of 1000 pictures from the week and since it's going to take a billion years to look through them and edit the ones I like, I figured I'd do a separate post for each part of the trip. Our first stop was in Saint John, New Brunswick so I decided that would be a fitting place for my first post.
The drive there wasn't too bad, aside from some beach traffic it was pretty much smooth sailing through a whole lot of Maine nothingness. On a side note there's a lot of fucken guns and truck bed covers for sale in Maine in case anyone's looking.
Once we crossed the border the ride was a bit more interesting, a lot of coast and miles and miles of Balsam Fir trees, not to mention a speed limit of 110 which turned out to be in kilometers unfortunately. About ten miles out from Saint John, where we were stopped for the first night, we drove into a thick fog which we would be in for pretty much the next two days. After checking into the hotel we went for a walk around the city in the fog and i snapped a bunch of pictures. I think all fog pictures look better in black and white so for this post I'm putting up my favorite pictures from Saint John in black and white.

Mileage: about 1 mile
Anglican Church Of Canada


Anglican Church Of Canada
Creepy version of the above shot

Art gallery

Alleyway

Lighthouse on the waterfront