Category Archives: photography

wolf den: a howlin’ good time

01 Wednesday Feb 2012

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Snow! Yes, we’ve finally got snow. OK, I’m kinda cheating with this shot. This pic’s of the cosy lodge at Wolf Den Bunkhouse n’ Cabins, a youth hostel mere minutes from the glorious Algonquin Provincial Park, up in cottage and camping country. I visit Wolf Den every January with some friends from the Toronto Outdoor Club because it’s truly a winter wonderland. So, no, Toronto does not look like this. Though we did get some fluffy white stuff the other night, it’s currently 7°C in Toronto, everything’s melted, and our crazy non-winter continues to confuse us all. If only I weren’t injured, I’d be B-icicling through this wet mess…in February. But instead of B-icicling, I went up to Wolf Den and got my snow fun on.

a hostel that feels like home
The Toronto Outdoor Club’s annual winter trip to Wolf Den is an in-demand event. That’s because Wolf Den has such a relaxed vibe, with an open-concept communal self-catering kitchen/dining area on the lodge’s main floor (it’s a hostel, afterall, complete with picnic tables inside!); a cosy loft lounge upstairs, with a fireplace, plenty of sofas, cushions and books to curl up with (and musical instruments, like a digeridoo and guitar, if you’re so inclined); and a handful of small, private rooms downstairs (linens included).

wood cabins bring the outdoors in
Some people prefer bunking in the cabins, which house more beds per room (there are no bunkbeds at Wolf Den) and have that lovely woodsy scent. The downside of the cabins in winter is that you’ll have to make the middle-of-the-night trek through the snow to get to the washrooms in the lodge, as the outdoor toilets are closed for the season. I like sleeping in the lodge, but I know those who swear the cabins are worth the frigid walk.

algonquin is in arm’s reach (well, almost)
As lovely as the lodge is, the main reason I love Wolf Den so, is that it’s sooo close to Algonquin: it’s only 5 minutes to the west gate. The short distance to the park means that snowshoe and cross-country day trips are always on the agenda. If I’d been allowed to ski this trip, I’d have done the trails at the picturesque Fen Lake, which has four loops ranging from 1 km to 13 km, and a tiny warming hut, ideal for a lunch break by the wood stove.

three nearby trails to tickle your fancy
Since I couldn’t ski this trip, the best part of Wolf Den was mighty appreciated: it’s walking distance from three great hiking/snowshoe trails!
1 Ragged Falls About a 10-minute walk east, Ragged Falls has a short 1 km official trail out to the falls, which are gorgeously frozen in winter; the trail unofficially continues a bit farther, though I haven’t gone that way.
2 Beetle Lake Trail About a 20-minute walk west of Wolf Den, you’ll find the 6 km hilly Beetle Lake Trail, which you can access from either side of Oxtongue Lake. It starts (or ends) on Elliot Road, just east of the lake, and finishes (or starts) on the other side, merging with the trails at Algonquin Outfitters (see below).
3 Algonquin Outfitters The series of flat cross-country ski and snowshoe trails at Algonquin Outfitters could easily keep you busy for an afternoon. Bonus: This is where you can conveniently rent skis and snowshoes for the day (or half-day). Even better: You can pay for a full day, and switch between borrowing skis and snowshoes, so you can do all the trails behind the outfitter.

The frozen, but still rushing, Ragged Falls. Last year, we hiked out to the falls late at night, and though we could hardly see anything in the dark, we could still hear the magnificent roaring water.

A wee frozen pond between Wolf Den and Ragged Falls.

There are dozens and dozens of canoes covered in snow at Algonquin Outfitters! I love skiing the trails behind the store, because you don’t need a trail pass, and it’s walking distance from Wolf Den. It’s not as pretty as Fen Lake, but it sure is convenient when you don’t want to depend on carpool. Just try to not be tempted by the store’s sales!

Last year when we went up, it was around -25°C! And we had lots more snow! And icicles, as you can see here. Annnd I was very happy to warm up inside Algonquin Outfitters after skiing the trails out back.

It’s always nice to come back “home”! Wolf Den‘s owner, Ben, builds a bonfire every Saturday night, hidden in the trees between those two outbuildings. This year was warm enough that a few of us were lured out of the cosy lodge to roast marshmallows by the fire; last year, poor Ben was tending the fire solo, ’cause we were all too chicken to chill outside. The one thing I’ve noticed about being out here in winter is that the sky is crazy clear at night, so you can easily see constellations like the Big Dipper and Orion’s Belt. I even spied a shooting star this time!

I’ve yet to be tempted to stay in a cabin, as I’ve zero desire to bundle up in the middle of the night to use the loo in the lodge, but I’ve friends who swear by the delicious woodsy scent.

Nope, I like lounging in the lodge and having my sleeping quarters right downstairs. I would stay here every weekend if I could afford it!

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What: Wolf Den Bunkhouse ‘N Cabins 
When: Open year-round (uh-huh), but particularly lovely in winter if you’re not up for winter camping!
Where: 4568 Hwy 60, Oxtongue Lake, Ontario, Canada
Why: For people who want to enjoy the Great Outdoors during the day, but enjoy coming home to a warm, cosy lodge or cabin at night. And the communal hostel atmosphere really appeals to some people. 

costa rica: it’s a jungle out there!

31 Tuesday Jan 2012

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DAY 3  So after a faaabulous day snorkelling near Isla del Caño (dolphins! sharks! stingrays!), I woke up at an even earlier ungodly hour the next day to visit one of the largest national parks in Costa Rica: Corcovado. Everything starts early in Bahìa Drake – breakfast is at 5:30 or 6 a.m. – because you have to take a boat to go anywhere, and that might take at least an hour. So everyone gets up before 6 a.m. and then goes to bed around 8 or 9 p.m. I hadn’t quite gotten used to the farmer’s hours just yet, but it was definitely easier to wake up before dawn when I had Corcovado to look forward to! Admittedly, $90 US seemed steep for a day trip to Sirena, one of four research stations in the park. But my main reason for coming to Bahìa Drake was Corcovado (National Geographic has called it “the most biologically intense place on earth”). And after seeing such an amazing array of animals (howler monkeys! squirrel monkeys! more howler monkeys!), I vouch it was worth every penny! Corcovado was absolutely the highlight of my trip.

6:10 a.m. Yawn. It was still dark when I left! As I’ve said before, Pirate Cove was a distance from the main tourist hub of Bahìa Drake. Since I was the only tourist from Pirate Cove that day, the driver had to make a special trip to pick me up before making stops farther down the coast. Yes, I’m special. Remember that.

8:05 a.m. Ohhh, panther prints! Once ashore (after about an hour-and-a-half boat ride), we split into two groups. Eight of us were whisked away by Javier, our guide, who promptly pointed out the prints. Though panthers and jaguars are sometimes spotted near Sirena, I suspect Javier was pulling our naive tourist legs…but I believed him!

9:30 a.m. Lizard! Yup, we saw lots of ’em chilling on driftwood on the beach.

9:35 a.m. The famous – and endangered – Baird’s tapir is the largest mammal in Central America. A nocturnal animal, this particular tapir can be found cooling himself in his mud hole during the day. And who could blame him? It’s darn humid in the rain forest! There was condensation in my camera lens!

10:05 a.m. Kudos to Javier, who was carrying around a heavy Swarovski telescope. He’d let us take pictures through it with our point-and-shoot cameras. Sometimes the birds were so high up, even the fancy zoom lens on my DSLR couldn’t get this close.

10:20 a.m. Like the tapir, this pair of great horned owls seemed to always be found at home and remained undisturbed by us.

10:35 a.m. My first monkey! Yay! Corcovado is the only place in Costa Rica where you can find all four species of native monkeys: the squirrel monkey, white-face monkey, howler monkey and spider monkey. To tell the truth, I hadn’t researched that beforehand, and I couldn’t tell the difference between them. Looking at pictures now, I can see their features, but at the time I could barely see them at the tops of the trees (the trick is to look for moving leaves)! Five minutes ago, I was convinced the one above was a squirrel monkey, but now I’m sure it’s a baby howler (because of its black face). Actually, now I think it’s a spider monkey!

11:03 a.m. In action! An adult howler howling! Courtesy of Javier’s telescope.

11:45 a.m. Post-lunch, which we’d eaten at the research station, we took a different trail. I’m still amazed at how huge all the plants were. Mom would be so jealous!

12:15 p.m. A squirrel monkey (I’m sure of it!), hidden behind some leaves.

12:30 p.m. Can you see them? I count five – five clumps of dark fur nestled in the branches. Howler monkeys. Later, as we were heading back to the beach to wait for our boat, we could hear them howling! I took a video just for the audio – they sounded like dogs howling at each other! Truly eerie.

12:31 p.m. My first trip to Corcovado was really all about the monkeys, though we did spot a few birds, such as this mysterious brown one.

12:37 p.m. And this one, which I’m calling a partridge, but it’s not.

12:39 p.m. While I live to cycle, hike and paddle, I willingly admit I’m a klutz and am always injuring myself. Crossing this creek didn’t not go well for me – I slipped and spent the rest of the hike in soggy boots.

12:50 p.m. But falling in the water had its perks: Javier felt sorry for me and let me get up close to this little howler squirrel monkey.

12:53 p.m. And this squirrel monkey came crazy close to us!
12:57 p.m. He was too cute!!!

1:03 p.m. Though not the coveted blue morpho (which I saw fluttering around Pirate Cove!), a blue butterfly nonetheless.

1:35 p.m. And that was my first trip to Corcovado, which ended with refreshing watermelon by the beach while we waited for our boat. I still think it’s funny how the guys get out to land and launch the boats! It took four guys (Javier’s there on the left) a few tries to use the waves to get us out to sea.

costa rica: snorkelling with sharks

30 Monday Jan 2012

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DAY 2  Yup, my second day in Bahìa Drake involved lots of marine life, like this sea turtle, which I saw before I even started snorkelling off the coast of Isla del Caño. Like the rest of Costa Rica, there’s much to do in Bahìa Drake, and snorkelling is the second most popular activity, after a trip to Corcovado National Park. Too bad I’ve a fear of open water and had only snorkelled once before (in Boracay, Philippines). But determined to make the most of the area, I woke up at dawn, ready to fortify myself with a delicious breakfast of pineapple, mangoes, homemade bread and guava jelly! That’s the awesome thing about Pirate Cove – one of the owners, Suzanne, has a farm, and she goes there daily to harvest whatever fruit are ripe (pineapples, mangoes, papayas, bananas). I felt so spoiled! Continue reading →

costa rica: hola, drake bay

29 Sunday Jan 2012

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DAY 1  Sigh. This picture of the beach at Pirate Cove makes me want to go back there. Granted, Pirate Cove, the resort I stayed at in Bahìa Drake, wasn’t all picture perfect – this glowing sunset is softening the “natural” landscape of the Peninsula de Osa. This beach was rugged: noseeums would bite me, hermit crabs would scuttle about, volcanic rock formations would be buried under the ocean at high tide (which, BTW, makes for dangerous swimming if you don’t know they’re there!). No chaise longues to lounge on languidly, no oversize beach umbrellas, no striped cabanas. No, this is a beach in its raw form: two kilometres of deserted sandy shore that nearly disappears at high tide. In fact, this small stretch of beach right in front of Pirate Cove is so underdeveloped and unlandscaped, it’s cut off from those deserted two kilometres by the overflowing Rio Drake at high tide. The only way to cross the Rio Drake is to wade through it at low tide! And with caimans in that river, you’d only want to cross it when you can see what’s in the water. At the mercy of nature? Now, that’s rugged.

When I first sunk my toes into the sand, a thought popped into my head: “This isn’t what I thought it’d be.” And when a swimmer came out of the water and, in passing, warned me about the rocks, I thought: “Maybe this was a mistake.” No, my initial thoughts about Pirate Cove (and Bahìa Drake) wasn’t that it was a tropical paradise. But after a few days there, I realized that ruggedness was just what I desired. And thus, my three-day stay at Bahìa Drake turned into an eight-day adventure to kick-off my first foray into the wonderful Costa Rica. It was the best part of my trip. Had I been more astute, I would have realized that the difficulty in getting to the remote Bahìa Drake was part of its beauty. Continue reading →

costa rica, te extraño

25 Wednesday Jan 2012

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¡Hola! A couple of weeks ago, I started posting pictures from my December 2010 trip to Costa Rica (it really doesn’t seem a year ago, but I’ve travelled so much since then). Believe it or not, it truly has taken me this long to upload all of my photos. I take a lot of pics. A. Lot. And it’s tons of work viewing, sorting, cropping and tweaking them all. So when I finally uploaded the pics, I immediately posted some of a night tour I did my last night in Bahìa Drake. Partly because the nocturnal creatures fascinated me, and partly because I thought the red-eyed tree frog pics were stunning.

To complement those posts, I’m doing a series about that trip. I started in Bahìa Drake, which was full of wonderful sights and sounds, from stingrays and crocodiles to howler monkeys and toucans (that’s a toucan above – in a banana tree at my resort!). I’d like to capture the fun and adventure as well as the calm and solitude of that week on the Península de Osa, so each day there will merit its own post. As I moved north to the more touristed areas of the country, the activities became more about the activities, so I might take a different approach when I get there. So let’s see where this journey takes us!

whale watching tour in witless bay, newfoundland

11 Wednesday Jan 2012

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This is my favourite animal photo ever. I took it during a whale-watching tour in Witless Bay, about an hour south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. This playful humpback was swimming alongside our boat just so, waving at us then smacking its flipper on the water to create a big splash. My mom and I had spent three weeks driving across Newfoundland and had seen tons of whales: from the top of Signal Hill in St. John’s and on the coast of Cape Spear (the easternmost point in Canada), we’d seen several spouting in the distance; while hiking the stunning Skerwink Trail near Trinity, from cliffside we’d looked below us to see a mom and babies circling as they fed on capelin; and from a boat tour in Gros Morne National Park, on the west coast, we’d seen a few more spouting and diving. All of the sightings were surprising and fascinating, but every time I look at this photo in particular, I smile and remember how exciting an experience it was to be thisclose to a humpback whale, how we’d been looking forward to doing the tour since we’d landed on The Rock three weeks earlier, and how happy I was to share such an awesome experience with my mom at the end of our road trip. Whenever I need a wee boost, I look at this picture, and the little girl inside me wants to say “hi” to this wonderful whale!

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What: Whale-watching tour
Where: Witless Bay, Nfld.
Who: Gatherall’s Puffin & Whale Watch
Cost: Approx. $65
Why: Whales!!! I recommend doing a tour with Gatherall’s. We were one of only two families on our small boat. Two families! That meant we could freely move around the boat to whichever side the whales were on, without having to jockey for a good lookout spot. (O’Brien’s is the more popular tour company, but their huge boats are packed till there’s practically no room to move.)

i spy with my little eye

09 Monday Jan 2012

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As I was saying yesterday, as much as I do not like creepy crawlies, I did a night tour around Pirate Cove in Bahía Drake, Costa Rica. My guide, Gustavo, and I were poking around the Rio Drake, looking for the glowing eyes of frogs, birds, crocs and insects, and then we walked along the road to Agujitas, spotting more frogs, spiders, owls, a toad…and, closer to the beach, a boa constrictor! You can just make it out in the photo shown above.

When I’d researched Pirate Cove, what stood out was the number of guests who’d said they’d seen boa constrictors and crocs while kakaying the Rio Drake. Now, I’m more afraid of snakes than Indiana Jones is! But the idea of seeing a boa constrictor and crocs in the wild was exciting, so I’d paddle down the Rio Drake daily, eyes peeled for a giant white boa constrictor in the trees and crocs in the murky water. I actually did see a caiman and was so rattled and panicked it would somehow manage to attack me while I was in my kayak. While my heart raced and I fumbled with my camera, it popped under the water to my right, with just its eyes peeking out, and stealthily swam a straight line to my left, passing in front of the boat. By the time I took a pic, hands shaking and heart in mouth, it ducked into the water and disappeared, and I paddled liked I’d never paddled before – faster than when I went whitewater kayaking along Palmer Rapids, up in northern Ontario!

You have to squint and use your imagination to see the caiman. In the centre of the photo, you can make out its eyes and the outline of its long snout pointing to the right. The pic's blurry because I was shaking when I took it!

And when I finally did see a large croc during a tour in Parque Nacional Corcovado (National Geographic has named the national park “the most biologically intense place on Earth”), out came the camera, and the lot of us just sat on the other side of the river, watching the croc while it slowly opened its mouth and kept it open for 10 minutes till it just as slowly closed it and slipped into the water without a splash. And we promptly realized maybe we better move away from the riverbank! You know, just in case that giant croc had decided that we would be his lunch.

Fascinating to no end! Unsettling how this croc kept his mouth open for so long. More unsettling when he slipped into the water as we sat on the bank!

As thrilling and as safe as it was to see a croc up close, I wasn’t so keen on coming face to face with that elusive boa constrictor. However, the boa turned out to be the highlight – and the last animal I saw – on the night tour I did with Gustavo, my guide, who found it on the ground near the beach beside Pirate Cove. Admittedly, the boa constrictor wasn’t a massive creature, but that didn’t stop me from squirming when Gustavo picked it up in his hands! And then he invited me to touch the snake’s skin, which I did, surprisingly after very little prompting on his part. OK, OK, in truth he had asked if I wanted to hold it, but I’m not that adventurous! I got enough kicks watching it slithering on his hands and even did pet it ever so briefly. Despite all the comments on the website, I think seeing a boa at Pirate Cove was a rarity, because Gustavo quickly pulled out his camera to take pics as well!

Did you spot the boa constrictor peeking out from behind the bamboo? Small enough to disappear in this cluster of bamboo stalks, it was still powerful: it could constrict its muscles to lift half of its weight. I can’t imagine walking past it and not realizing it’s there among the bamboo! Freaky, then, that this bamboo was only about 40 feet from where I’d eat dinner. I can’t believe I’m even posting these pictures. I shudder every time I look at them!

this isn’t kermit

08 Sunday Jan 2012

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January being an ideal time to visit Costa Rica, I’ve decided to do a few posts about my trip there last winter, when I spent about a month wandering the jungles and beaches. I started out in Bahía Drake, on the Peninsula de Osa, in the south. The area is rather undeveloped, with no bridges for vehicles to cross the rivers – you just drive right through the water and hope you don’t get stuck (four-wheel drive is a must). In fact, there aren’t even any real bridges for pedestrians, who cross the rivers on makeshift bridges, like fallen logs. It really is a jungle out there, the only “bridges” being in the treetops so the monkeys don’t have to cross the gravel road!

I stayed at the remote Pirate Cove, a tiny rustic resort in the jungle, in my own private bungalow overlooking both the Pacific Ocean and the Rio Drake. And though I’m not one for creepy crawlies, I bucked it up and did a night tour around the grounds, with just myself and my guide, Gustavo, a lovely gentleman from the nearby village of Agujitas. It wasn’t like the regular tours you get in the more touristed areas of Costa Rica, where a slew of guides line up to poke sticks in a tarantula nest. We really were just exploring the resort grounds and walking along the road to Agujitas, with Gustavo’s hearing being so in tune with his surroundings that he could figure out what leaf an insect was under based on the sound the bug was making.

Mucking about the mangrove, I came face to face with a caiman, which is basically a small croc, but it didn’t seem so small when I was knee deep in water, staring into its glowing beady eyes in the dark! The frogs we discovered were much more to my liking, at least until the one pictured here jumped onto my arm and I screamed, making Gustavo shush me for fear that someone in the distance would think he was attacking me. It would have been funny if I hadn’t been so scared of all the animals! Waiting to be accosted by a boa constrictor is not my idea of fun…but it turned out to be pretty cool (you’ll have to wait for another post for the boa pics!). Here’s one of the frogs from the mangrove. I was switching between my DSLR and point-and-shoot and took pictures of a few frogs, but I’m 99% sure all of these pics are of the same one, the famous and colourful red-eyed tree frog. Gustavo had gently placed it on his shirt so I could take some pics (the colour contrast was stronger that way), then he let it step back onto a leaf, and eventually it changed colour to camouflage itself. You can also see that it inflated itself to appear bigger and its eyes darkened too.



the toronto port authority’s cool sail-in cinema makes waves

01 Thursday Dec 2011

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Yup, you read right: Sail-in Cinema. Though it’s too cold in December for Toronto cinephiles to attend an outdoor screening (I’m sneaking off to another Innis freebie, Shame, tonight), summer in this city is overflowing with them. And this August, the Toronto Port Authority hosted three nights of free screenings in the harbour. And I mean IN the harbour. Behind Chorus Quay, they anchored a 40- by 30-foot two-sided screen to a barge in Lake Ontario, and projected the movies on both sides so boaters could, say it with me, sail into the cinema (a.k.a. the water in front of the screen) while the landlocked could watch from shore. Neat idea, you say? Sure was! I saw Jaws for the first time, and Finding Nemo, too. And as usual, I took a few pics….

Pretty thrilling watching Jaws for the first time front and centre, next to the water, which, to my relief, does NOT have sharks!

And darkness fell as the shark, well, you know…

For a little comic relief, kid-friendly Nemo and his pals rounded up the fest.

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For more on Toronto’s awesome
outdoor summer screenings,
see Behold, The Outdoor Cinema.