Mt Hale sans grêle ! + Hutte Zealand Falls ! Woo Whoo !!

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Deux montagnes en deux jours, mettons anglais hier français today ? Bon deal ça. A oui, anglicisme non inclue ! Alors, cette fois la météo fut notre allier. Brumeux une fois de plus lors de notre montée mais réussi a avoir un ptit coin de ciel bleu une fois le sommet atteint. Brumes fut des plus bienvenue, comme quoi la température ainsi maintenu était des plus agréable. Le montée fut accidenté par endroits pour sûr mais la piste est tellement bien maintenu et courte que le jeux en vaut la chandelle. (2.2 miles du parking au sommet)





Ceci étant notre deuxième randonné en montagne en autant de jours nous avions convenu ce matin d'un objectif conservateur. Surprise surprise une fois le sommet atteint à un maigre 4054 pieds, nous étions affamé pour d'avantage !! Deux personne qui venaient juste de rejoindre le sommet également d'une direction opposée nous suggérèrent de continuer jusqu'à la hutte "Zealand Falls" et ensuite rejoindre le parking via un grand flat en bordure d'un lac et rivière. Suspense... décision ? Naaaahhh Grignoté un peu et pris le chemin de la prochaine hutte via "Lend a Hand Trail" (2.7 miles du sommet du MtHale à Zealand Hut). La dite hutte étant seulement situé à 2700 pieds d'altitude nous avons donc commencé notre descente. 2 heures et quelques plus tard nous étions arrivé à destination. Ou plutôt à une maison des plus accueillante perché à flanc de montagne à quelques mètres seulement d'une série de cascades dignes d'intérêt pour être humble. Autremendis ... que c ça ! Des cascades qui émerge du boisé, bref de nulle part, sur une façade de rochers plats parfait pour se faire grillé le bedon qui plonge quelques instants (mettons 15 mètres) plus tard pardelà un précipice d 'au moins 10 mètres. (Voire photos sur flickr d'ici quelques jours). Une fois le "gâteau des passants" dévoré avec faim (2 délicieux morceaux de gateau pour 1 piastres), les bouteilles d eau remplis, mon Badge de la Hutte cueillit, YEA !! et un peu de plactota avec les visiteurs et volontaires sur place à la hutte nous reprîmes le chemin du retour.


Une ptit côte donnât sur le pied du précipice des cascades juste mentionnée et le calme plat en bordure du lac. Des ponts traversants nombres de ruisseaux et eaux incluant un barrage de castor, quelques pierres mal placées dans la piste, probable héritage d'un glissement de terrain ancien et presto de retour dans la civilisation. du moins dans le premiers des deux parking pour ce secteur. (2.8 Miles de la Hutte Zealand Falls au premier parking). De là un mile bonus pour rejoindre notre voiture dans le second stationnement et direction notre ... "chalet" shak en panneau de bois plus ou moins au niveau, LOL.

Ce soir, que viva mes souliers Adidas, mes bottes sont excellente en montagne mais comme va la chanson: theise boots are made for walking !" Dans mon cas c'est plutôt "theise boots are made for climbing !" Autremendi, elles préfères de loin les terrains accidentés qui montent / descendes des flats :P La dessus nous sommes d'accord.

P.S Batons de marche: Black Diamond / Kicks' Ass !





Mt Hale
Via Hale BRK Trail
Crew : Moi et Pops
Départ à 9:30
Atteind Le Sommet à 11:25
Hutte "Zealand Falls" à 2 pm
(Break d'environ 30 min a Zealand Falls, gateau, le plein en eaux, badge pour le pack sac et placoti placotta)
De retour à la voiture à 4:00
Randonnée d'un boutte à l'autre: Grosomodo 8.7 miles (Approximativement 14 Kilomètres)

--- Pictures for the week-end hike availiable on Flickr ---

Mt Jefferson under the weather man

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Today was Mt. Jefferson's turn in our illustrous quest of the "48 fourthousands footers" in the White Moutains range area. That is until the weather man came down on us an hour and a half shy of the summit #$%#@%@#%@#%$@$ First the rain came during breakfest at 6:30 am. I gathered it was done so in order to insure the track was slippery wet. In the mean time a veil of mist creeped from the below valley to meet with the above over stuffed clouds (too much at mother natures' table I gathered). Quite nice to observed as it rolled in and out out of the various valleys and gulfs making up the local landscape. It was a nice hike, terrain was wet but they had placed logs and reasonably sized rocks over those mini bogs. A nice view from various vintage points. A little obscured in the distance by the rolling mist but beautiful. Actually from one of those vintage points, somewhere below into those green peaks sticking out of the fog, we could hear a very loud water fall. Then came the wind, howling throught the trees and hitting us full force as we cleared the tree range into the stony path. Bah.. nothing unexpected here. Actually I begain laughing and increasing my paste in defyiance of it all. Shortly after, IT came.... hail !!! fuuuucccc hail smack in our face and packs with the old man laughing at us with wild galls of wind. At this point, any conversation of comunica of the vocal sort had to be done within a few meters due to the noise of the mixed hail & rain crashing agains't our coats and gear and shrinking visibility. We trugged on for an additional 45 min with heart but then with little to no visibility and ongoing hail bombarding us from straight from the moutain top we turned back about 25 min shy of the summit. : ( Actually doubled back once we reached the fork between the GulfSide Trail & the Summit for those of you familiar with the area. A very sad day indeed... But in retrospect, a validated tactiful retreat. "You have to respect the weather', or so the saying goes in theise parts when venturing up in those moutains.





Mt Jefferson via the Caps Trail.
Crew : Me and Dad
Started at 9:15 am
"Tactical Retreat"... at around 11:15 (Great Gulf Trail shy of Jefferson Summit)
Lunch snugled under a rockface sometime past noon for a few minutes (see above pic)
Back at the car at 2 pm

For more info on previsouly visited moutain tops and AMC Huts, not to mention a few more pics... visite my website under the "Outdoors" secton. (Password protected, simply ask for entry details)

Ooh a Piece of Candy !

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Alors nous voici, nous voilà, deux weekend-end en ligne et pour 59$ de ptit fruits récolté à date pour la saison 2009. Pas mal hein ! Le weekend-end dernier ce fut deux casseau de fraises et today un casseau de framboises et un de bleuets. Ajoutez à cela quelques livres de ptit fruits dissimulé de part dans nos estomacs...héhéhéhé C'est qu'ils sont bonbon ces ptits fruit !

Today (dimanche), je fut heureux de découvrir des rangs pis des rangs de bleuets sous filet. Dommage pour les oiseaux hélas mais combien agréable pour nous ! Garantie une plus grande sélection avec que pour compétition que les autres occasionnel cueilleurs. D'ailleurs et pour la deuxième fois en ligne un orage c'est abattue sur nous alors que nous étions en plaines récoltes ce qui en découragea plusieurs... Pas Nous ! Le soleil c'est rapidement pointé le nez à travers la grisaille, asséchant notre linge et humeur par la même occasion. Il fut juste assez persistant, penché au dessus de nos têtes, pour me brulé le coco et le cou entre les passagères mini averses qui suivirent au cour dla journée. Et moi qui voulais prendre des couleurs, me voici rougeaud et ce pour les jours à venir ! Aurais pu être pire, ma coloc semble avoir servie de hors d'œuvre pour les maringouins et Ian dans sa quête dla photo parfaite, a eu un tête à tête avec un ton (bumblebee). Enfin nous avons pris le chemin du retour après quelques heures le ventre plein, les bras plein et quelques graines discrètes pogné dans le sourire aux dents : D Une agréable récolte quoi.

Que c que nous allons faire de tout ces ptits fruits ?? Les casseaux de fraises du weekend-end dernier ont duré moins de 48 heures à l appart... Comprenez alors que je ne suis point inquiet pour les framboises et bleuets. : P

Par exemple, la semaine dernière dans le cadre de notre semaine de fabrication de crèmes glacées maisons nous avons usé une part des ces fraises fraichement récoltées. Ce fut tout simplement délicieux ! D'ailleurs garder un oeil sur le blog de CocoBean (Dispo dans mes blogs suivis du listing de droite) dans les jours a venir pour les détails sur cette semaine de la crème glacée et plus sur notre collecte de ptit fruits, Mium mium !!

Égualement, un gros merci à Ian pour les phtos prises des ptits fruits ainsi que celles de crème glacé à venir ! Dispo sur flickr comme à l 'habitude.

Ian's Pics on flickr



Today dans les champs, tous ce que ce vous pouviez entendre de notre part fut;

"... Ooh a piece of candy, ... Ooh a piece of candy, ... Ooh a piece of candy !" LOL





Fraises, Framboises et Bleuets récoltés à la ferme Quinn, Notre-Dame de l'Île-Perrot.

Web Site: Quinn farm

Ringing....in my ears

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Before we get started, make sure you are comfortable and co.
This one is quite lengthy folks…

How did Bell Screw me Over ?

They furnished me with a medium modem for a medium Internet connection. I later upgraded to a high-speed connection. They did not inform me I needed a more powerful modem to utilize the high-speed connection. I prayed for over a year for a high speed Internet while being serviced medium Internet.

Eventually I moved to a spic and span-new apartment and THEN figured out I was getting screwed by Bell as my friends and roommate began utilizing the fake high-speed Internet connection.

After a number of calls and two technicians visits as well as a bargaining for phone adapter cause we need adapters for phones when using a Bell modem.... Anywho I finally got a new high-speed connection modem for free at the end of it all. Though no reinboursments in sight since I had not complain at an earlier date.


A few weeks ago my new wireless Bell modem broke down. So I made it a point to go have my morning coffee and pastry at a local coffee place with wireless connection. Imagine my surprise when I learned I could address my issued with the none functioning modem online live with a Bell agent. Need I repeat myself... Yes ONLINE assistance for Internet problems.

"Hello online Bell agent? yes I no longer have internet at home."
"Ok can you tell me which lights are blinking on your modem?"
"Heee.. ? I have no internet at home"
"Then how are you communicating with us?"
"CUP & A STRING of course! NOn mais je rêve !@#%#$?%?%#$#$$% NOT FROM HOME !!"

So she tells me she needs me to be home in order to diagnose my modem and that it might be better, after a few moments reflection on her part, if I call them once I get home. Progress...

I call them up once I am back home and the first representative request that I try using that blue wire that comes with the modem. I instruct him to hold the line while I fish it out. U know the whole point of having a wireless connection is not having to use the damm wire. Hence in storage somewhere. Laptops users, you know what I mean. So when I come back to the phone the representative has of course placed me on hold and only moment’s later cuts the connection!!! At this point I am beginning to see little white smoke coming out of my ears or was it the kettle whisling in the background? Anyways I call again and finally get a descent representative to take my call. Riddle me this Riddle me that, indeed your modem seems to be working but only with the wire and not the wireless part. Yadidadida dah gonna send me a new one within a week or so. I disconnect the modem, bring it close to the couch, as it is no longer wireless, re-set it to work post disconnect. Course, then had wires all over the place, around doorframe, couch and plants so that we might plug in our laptops. (Only one phone jack in the room) Not two days later I get my new modem. Course, I needed their help to configure it. So back to the phone....


Later I found out my plan for the high speed Internet was for 3 months for free, then 12.99$ and then 39$ for the remainer of the year. What I did not know that after one year I had to pay 50$ bucks... So for the last few months I have been paying 50$. One must appreciate automatic payments...


In the midst of this I get my latest phone bill and interestingly enough it makes sense. Well aside from a mystery phone call lasting for 13 minutes to California with a linked cost of 16 dollars. Since I do not know anyone from California I took my inquiry to Bell and within 5 seconds of reporting the mystery phone number they promptly agreed to remove it from my bill. Upon further investigation they told me that a number of their customers had had similar erroneous calls on their bills in the last few months. Obviously my next question was;

”So if a number of us are being overcharged... Do you have someone investigating and thus adjusting our bills? “
The Answer: “No you must tell US when you get overcharged. Even though we are fully aware of the situation related to this phone number as a number of you will be getting overcharge.”
So if I had not informed you, I would of been charged?
Yes
#$?$%?#$%?#?#$%?@#$%@#$C!#$T@$%T?F$G?Y#$G?%Y%$E#R$%@#?%?#$ B%?YV@$T%Y% MTF !!!!!!!!!!!


Two days ago a friend of mine was experimenting with downloads configurations to try and enhance my local wireless connection when he noticed BitTorrent was not even hard wired in my modem ports. Same for practically any online multiplayer games you probably hear of. Just for the record, a 25 min episode downloads would take from one to two weeks on average via "bittorrent" with a high-speed Internet connection. Seems my download well as upload speed was hard wired as blocked unless the said game or program was added MANUALY to the authorized ports.

WWWWWWWWWHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA !!!!!????

Worst yet, when this little trifle was discovered the above info was written black on white. Course one need to first find that editing page. To be honest, my friend did the legwork and I would be hard press to find it. God help anyone else out there who is in the same situation. And by anyone else, I do mean practically everyone else with Bell hight speed. That is unless you where smart enough to add the said internet programs to your authorized modem ports.

At this point some of you might be wondering why or why I am even still with Bell ?? No need to ask, once August rolls in there shall be no more Bell. Neither for the phone nor for the internet Good riddance I say !!

Prrrrrrrrrrrr.... ?

Oubliez le lavage de cerveau traditionel. Achetez vous un chat !

Forget traditional brainwashing... Get a Cat !


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8147566.stm







My thanks to the Geekologie blog who in turn got this article from the BBC nature updates.

Uninvited ...House Guests...

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Second night in a row. Second house mice in a row. She was presented to us in the living room between whiskers and teeth. Seems our fine felin wanted to show off a little and bring her prize, offering, to my roomate. After a short attempt at escaping under the living room furniture and plants I escorted our second "house guest" of the week-end to the back alley of the building into the next door garden. I know I know ... should of offered the little bugger accomodations a couple of blocks further down. On the plus side our beloved felin has proven herself a credit to her kind. She kept watch for four hours last night over the drawer where the first mouse had seeked shelter. Finally we captured it as we did tonight in a pot for ... better accomodations... Tomorow we are setting up traps and if all goes well, our building super will be sealing off the possible access points into the appartment.

Pet Peeve Number...

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Le monde qui claque les portes, panneaux !! #$?#$%?&?$%#$? !!!!!

People who slam the doors and pannels !!! $#%@$#%?#$%?$%T !!!!


Pourquoi ? primal urge to make noise or something ? OOOUUuuuuu look at me ! I can bang stuff together and make noise. OUGA BOUGA !!

Why ?? C tu d'un instinct primate cette manie de faire du bruit ?? OOOOuuu regardez moi ! Je cogne des trucs ensembles dans un foutu boucan bruyant ! OUGA BOUGA !!

Behind the curtain...

So it was suggested I look up my user name online via google... Heee suffice to say that a number of my online accounts are accesible for ye peepin' tommettes out there. What ! I ain't gonna encourage some psycho peepin' Tom ! No sir !

What was saying? Ha yes, TErriblE ! SCarrY !! By entering your name or alias on google you can actually access that persons' online accounts or at the very least find out what he or she is up to. Example? You people can access my recently listened to tracks. Well rather the ones I decided to share online, as if I was going to tell everyone what I have really been listening to... Pfff ! Fine if you must know I did utilize my listened to tunes updateruper properly last time around. Which is complicated talk for "the recent listened to tracks are indeed accurate"

I know I know, if you put yourself online you might expect your info to be accessible by , well anyone and everyone unless privacy settings are enforced. Tell you what, you google yourself or those superhero names you selected and merged with you own as an alias and let me know how it turns out.

You scarred yet ?

Personally I am torned between charging admission or locking the doors and moving to an undisclosed location.

Return of the 3rd Burg

This station is now, (again ...) the ultimate power in the universe ! Mouahahahahaha (insert diabolical laught) Well minus a couple of glitches here and there remaining to be fixed...


In other words, I managed to re-do my web site. Took me a couple of days and nights mind you but totaly worth it. Well.. aside from the fact I have barely steped out of my appartment in those days. Did't you know, they are having a StarGate movie marraton today on the space channel.... dont' you just love coincidences !