For 10 years now, I've been fortunate to travel with my good friend, Tom Green, and others, for a truly amazing time. Often, my son, Joe, or Tom's son Rob, also travel with us. This makes it an even more special bonding experience for me, as I don't see Joseph too often, and not for extended time frames like the annual camping trip.
In recent years (the past 5, I think) our mutual friend Doug Winnie has joined us. In fact, two years ago, Doug hosted the adventure at his cabin in Sonoma. Yep, we were truly roughing it in American wine country... Last year we went where none of us have been before - Newfoundland. It was, in a word, breathtaking. But most often, we find ourselves camping in or near Lake Superior Provincial Park, a 10 - 12 hour drive from Tom's home in Oakville.
I've been to Superior multiple times now, and Rabbit Blanket lake twice, so my goal this trip was to make images I hadn't before - compositionally speaking. However, when the mornings present you with such grand views of the lake, it's hard not to fall back into making at least some images from similar vantage points as before.
The final image count for this trip was about 550 frames, from three different cameras (Nikon, Lumix and iPhone), which I culled down to about 180 (all of which you can see on my Flickr Site). From that 180, I further edited down to about 80, many of which you will see here in this project.
The goal of this project is to focus more on the images, rather than the story of the trip. If you want to get more perspective on the trip, I encourage you to check out my Spark Story on the trip.
Rabbit Blanket Lake
Believe it or not, this was a nighttime shot from around 11:30 PM. The moon was so bright, it looks like the sun peeking through the trees.
The other night shot from the trip. It was difficult to get the stars to show due to the brightness of the moon.
The camping gear shown here, along with a cooler, lantern and camp stove, were all prizes I won in a social media contest.
Camp Dinners and Games
Silver Falls - Michipicoten land
Shot with my latest accessory, the Platypod Pro Max. This cool camera platform lets me get angles that I could not achieve with a tripod.
Sandy Beach
Turns out, this location was a favorite spot for Canadian painter, A.Y. Jackson.
En Route to Terrace Bay and Aguasabon Gorge
Aguasabon Gorge
Probably closer to the edge than was really smart...
Mouth of the Aguasabon River
Old Logging Road
Perhaps nothing is more depressing than a view like this. It's amazing the destruction we can wreak, where the only war being fought is the one with nature itself.
Catfish Lake
Fenton-Treeby Lake
Routine
We would have to make the trip into Wawa a few times during the week, and were confronted both by views like the one you see below (Henry Lake, I think), but also of the massive construction efforts along Highway 17. Apparently, a lot of blasting was going on to change the angle of the rock faces on either side of the highway, to help promote ice and snow melt on the road.
Young's General Store
More tourist trap than general store, Young's is a fixture in Wawa and always has cars parked in the lot, as people look for souvenirs (guilty) or wander around the out-buildings photographing the various pieces of machinery from times gone by.
Sand River
The final glimpse and farewell, to a lake that treated us well once again, for the Excellent Adventure.
Thank you for sharing this trip with me. If you want to see more, you can visit my Flickr Site. And if you want to read (and see) more about the trip, I encourage you to check out my Spark Story.