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Scenes From a Road Trip Part 2: New Brunswick to Ontario

Camping in the smallest campsite I've ever seen has advantages beyond the short walk to the facilities. It was so small it was virtually perched on a ledge over looking the awesome downriver side of the not-so-subtly named Grand Falls.

It turns out that Grand Falls aren't always as grand as the name suggests, but they are still impressive in their own hydro-electric way. Most of the year, we learned in the fantastic visitor centre, the river is diverted under the town and drops down to a power station down river, around the bend and in the valley below.

Another place definitely worth another visit in the spring, when the river is in spate, and the full force of the falls is returned to the the river. It would be great to see how the falls, downstream rapid and pools earned names like The Coffee Mill and Logger's Rest in the early logging days.

An unforseen highlight of the road trip was a night spent in my wife's small, suspicously sleepy home town of Deep River. Following a great recommendation for a curry (genuinely, very very good, and an all-you can eat challenge ;) in one of the two bars in town, we set out on a mini-tour of all the hot-spots of a childhood messing about on the Ottawa River.

As we settled down to a few well deserved beers and a(nother) fire we all noticed how clear, and dark, the sky is in deepest Ontario. When you can see the Milky Way overhead, it's probably time to get a tripod and a cable release set up before opening another can of hoppy IPA. A few tests shots and I had exposure settings dialed in to shoot as long as possible at the wide end of my 16-35 without getting noticeable motion blurring of the stars. The fill light from the fire gave me a canvas to have a play with too while waiting for the 30s exposures.

As our riverside spot was facing directly north I decided to frame up on the Pole Star, lock the shutter on the cable release and rejoin the skunk spotting and storytelling by the fire with another beer. You probably shouldn't measure exposure time in beers, but if it works...

Photoshop stack up of a total exposure time of ~4beers

As another day dawned to the smell of Tim Hortons, we packed up and hit the round once more.

Poutine extraordinaire and road views for miles...

...And miles. All the way to Algonquin. We only managed a whistle stop tour because we'd heard that the weather was changing up ahead and we had a boat to catch. I've heard a a lot about Algonquin from Toronto friends over the years, and even from two quick, road-side stops, I can see why. It looks amazing, and I was quite jealous of the folks we watched pack up their boat and paddle of into the distance.

We made it to the boat before the weather closed in, just. And we were back in familiar territory in the family cottage for a few days of swimming, logging, more swimming and campfire beers.

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All in all a great adventure through some more of the world that I'd never seen before. If only we'd had more time to stop and explore each new location... but then again, that woudn't've been a road trip would it?!

Credits:

© pelicanImages | Lee Irvine