apartment = 95%

It's been two months since I've moved into my apartment. Overall, I'm pleased with how it's turned out. The only thing I'm missing is a kitchen table and chairs. I even have a space set aside for them (as of last night when I couldn't sleep).

I found a table at Ikea that's a fairly decent price and seems to be good quality. I just need to make the trip down to pick it up. There's also some chairs that would work well with it, however they're not in the budget at the moment, so it'll be Bring Your Own Chair for a while, I think, or computer chair, folding chair, lawn chair, and knees to get four people around it.

But that's another issue for another day. But overall, I'm liking the new place. It's quiet, close to work, groceries, drug store, coffee shops, and more. I can even walk downtown if I really want to.

In other news, I took a trip to a cottage near Wiarton this weekend with some friends and their kids. It was a fun trip. Just so you know, 2 and 1/2 year olds don't hide in Peanut Butter jars. On Saturday, two of us left the cottage and took the trip up to the Bruce Peninsula National Park to do some hiking. I'd never been to the park before (that I know of), and it was a really good experience. It was a beautiful day on Saturday, so we put on our hiking boots and went off down the trail toward Georgian Bay and the Bruce Trail. We stopped at the Grotto, Indian Head Cove, Overhanging Point, and then went south for 2 km to the beach at the Storm Haven backcountry campground, just to see what it looked like in case we felt like camping there another day. There's many really cool natural features in the area, including the Grotto itself, a few tunnels leading down to the beach (The Chimney at the Grotto and Lord Hunt's Tunnel at Overhanging Point), many flat rock surfaces to sunbathe on or sit and watch the water, and beautiful views of Georgian Bay and Fathom Five National Marine Park. I think I'm going to attempt to get up there again this summer and do some more hiking.

Also, below you'll find a post asking for your help in raising some money for EBC Students. You really should. It's a good cause, and a really cool idea. $10 from 10 people will help me raise my goal of $100. If you'd like to donate by cash or cheque, it can be arranged as well. Or, if you're really adventurous, you can sign up to hike a section of the trail. We need all the people we can to accomplish our goal of completing the entire trail in one day.

Pretty Please?

trail part 2

Greetings,

I am writing to you today to ask if you would consider supporting me as I participate in the first ever Blaze A Trail event on August 29th, 2009 in which I will be part of a collective effort to hike the entire length of the Bruce Trail in one day. The money raised through this event will go directly to supporting Student Scholarship funds at Emmanuel Bible College. Would you prayerfully consider how you can support me in this event?

To sponsor me, please go to my CanadaHelps Giving Page and follow through with the steps on the screen to process your donation. All donations will be issued a tax receipt directly from CanadaHelps.

Thank you for your consideration and I encourage you to pray for the success of the event as well. If you are interested in participating with me, more information can be found at http://ebcollege.on.ca/trail

Blessings,

Tim

photo blog'd : june 15.09

As mentioned previously, I led an excursion to Hamilton to see a whole whackload of waterfalls yesterday. In the end, we made it to 8 waterfalls and 1 waterfell (dried up). The list includes: Webster's Falls, Tew's Falls, Baby Webster's Falls, Tiffany Falls, Sherman Falls, Albion Falls, Felker's Falls, and Devil's Punchbowl Falls (dried up).

Here's a few pictures of said waterfalls:


Tew's Falls


Webster's Falls (where I learned that Oceans don't have rocks.)


Sherman Falls


Felker's Falls

vacate this

I'm on vacation for the next week. And I had one more overtime day left to use, so I took today off. To celebrate, a friend and I drove to Rattlesnake Point Conservation Area (near Milton) and went on a hike.

The hike took us by some amazing lookouts along Rattlesnake Point, down the escarpment into the Nassagaweya Canyon, along it to the south end, across a creek and back north on the Walker LIne Road Allowance, back up the other side of the canyon by a very bouldery path into Crawford Lake Conservation Area, along the edge of the escarpment through Crawford Lake Cons. Area, around Crawford Lake on a boardwalk, back across the north end of CLCA, back down the bouldery path, across the north end of the canyon and back up the other side, and back south down to the car in Rattlesnake Point.

Total distance hiked: approx. 15 km over 4.5 hours.

I gave my new hiking boots a test, and they passed. Although I was ready to take them off by the time we reached the car, but that was for other psychological reasons.

We celebrated victory at DQ in Milton, and then came back to KW. It was a good day.

Supposedly there's some fun crevaces and caves at Rattlesnake Point that you can explore, but we didn't get around to doing any of that today. It was a good hike, and good as an introduction to the Bruce Trail. It has a bit of everything.

And because I like you all so much, here's a map of what we did - with the start and finish point at the flag in Rattlesnake Point.



Next week's plans include a trip with EBC students and staff and Gord to Hamilton to try and see a gazillion waterfalls, a return trip to the dentist, and probably a whole lot of nothing else.

photo blog'd : june 7.09

Yesterday, I took a trip with two friends to two places on the Bruce that are very cool. The first being the Cheltenham Badlands, which I've been to 3 times in the past year, and 5 times total, the first being in November 2005 when one of said friends locked his keys in the car. I recently realized that I enjoy seeing trail like this - dirt path with vegetation growing all around it. It seems ... rustic... nice... Something about it adds to my (sometimes hidden) sense of adventure. I want to explore, but I like remaining in safety. But this type of trail makes me feel at ease, almost to the point where I can go unhindered without having to worry about losing my life around the next corner. It's always a good feeling when I don't feel like I'm going to die.

The second place we went was in Belfountain. A few years ago, I read about part of the Bruce Trail that leads you up the escarpment to a lookout called the Devil's Pulpit. Every time I've gone so far, we've been tired by the time we got to the parking spot, so we just kept on driving, but this time we were on a mission... or at least I was. The other two didn't seem so happy about it. It started with a slight incline up a road, then across some grass, over a boardwalk, and then the stairs started. Lots of stairs built into the slope of the escarpment. Up and up and up, across a set of train tracks, and then up some more stairs, over some boulders, up a slight boulder slope, and then to the cliff. There were stairs built into the side of the cliff with a line to hold onto while climbing. I made it to the stairs and looked back but didn't see my friends, so I assumed they'd given up, but I was determined to make it to the top this time. The view at the top was worth it. Eventually, they made it to the top to enjoy the view with me. Sure, I like being outside, but it's even better when you have other people to enjoy it with.

And there's always the story to carry with you.

photo blog'd : june 1, 2009

Here's some pictures I took while in Johnston Canyon in Banff last week.