Banff Mtn. Film Festival coming Jan. 20 & 21, 2009

Algonquin Outfitters presents the 2008/2009
Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour

Tuesday, Jan. 20 & Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2009

Algonquin Outfitters is again bringing the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour to the beautiful Algonquin Theatre for two nights. Each evening will feature a different selection of films. Stay tuned to this blog, film descriptions will be posted mid-December.

For the last ten years, Algonquin Outfitters has hosted this spectacular showing of mountain films in Huntsville. Films in the world tour bring the spirit of adventure to life on the screen and feature a wide variety of stories - from mountain sports, mountain culture and the environment - to entice and inspire viewers.

The tour features a collection of inspiring and thought-provoking action, environmental, and adventure mountain films. Traveling from remote landscapes and cultures, to up close and personal with adrenaline-packed action sports, the World Tour is an exhilarating and provocative exploration of the mountain world. The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour is produced by Mountain Culture at The Banff Centre, and features award-winning films and audience favorites from approximately 300 films entered in the annual festival in Banff, Alberta. The world tour spans the globe, making its way to North and South America, Europe, South Africa, India, Poland and Iceland.

Advance tickets will be available at the Algonquin Theatre box office at 37 Main St. E., in historic downtown Huntsville, on-line at algonquintheatre.ca or by calling the theatre box office at (705) 789-4975, or 1-888-696-4255, ext. 2352.

Admission is $15 for adults and $12 for students. Folks buying tickets for both shows can exchange their two ticket stubs for a 15% discount on their next purchase at Algonquin Outfitters in Huntsville or Oxtongue Lake.

Huntsville has a great reputation among the BMFF tour coordinators - let's give them another warm Huntsville welcome in 2009!

Snow!

Tuesday, October 21 marks the date of the first significant snowfall this fall. And me without snow tires on yet...

Ooops, still need to wash, er, shovel, a few canoes.

The safest place for a kayak or canoe in this weather is on shore.

The trusty '53 GMC is always ready to go on a canoe trip...

Fall colours are peaking NOW in Algonquin Park

You have to see it to believe it but the colours are spectacular right now. Quick, get in your car and drive north!

The Algonquin Park web site has an informative page on the fall colours, with a cool graph showing leaf change activity, recommended leaf viewing locations and more.

While you are there, check out the annual Fish Survey Results and start planning your spring fishing trip for 2009!

See the fall colours from space

You don't need to buy a ticket on Richard Branson's rocket to see the world from space. Regular followers of this blog will remember that we recommend the NOAA satellite image for the Great Lakes region for following ice-out progress. These images, updated several times daily, are also a useful tool for checking on the advance of fall colours in southern Ontario. Since the colours in this image are true, green and red forest cover shows up quite clearly. Check the image for Sept. 23 and you will see that the western area of Algonquin Park is showing a lot of red tinge. This corresponds with what we can see on the ground - the colours on the west side of Algonquin Park are lovely right now, with a nice mix of brilliant red, orange, yellow and green. Peak red will happen in another week or so depending on the weather. The danger of waiting too long to see the colours is that heavy rain and/or wind can knock the leaves out of the trees.

If you haven't looked at the NOAA satellite images before, here are a few tips. When the image first opens on your screen, you will find that you are looking at the upper left-hand corner, somewhere near Thunder Bay. Scroll to the right and down until you can recognize Georgian Bay, then go right (east) and look for familiar landforms and lakes of the Algonquin Park area. Bigger lakes like Opeongo, Cedar and Burnt Island are easily distinguishable. If you look carefully, you can even make out the thin line of Hwy 60 stretching across the region.

For a second opinion, and an overview of the fall colour situation throughout Ontario, visit the Ontario Parks Fall Colour Report.

Algonquin memories of September 11

Every generation has defining moments that cause people to ask "where were you on such-and-such a day." Some are celebrated, like "the day a man stepped on the moon," but sadly, most of these days are tragic, like "the day JFK was assassinated" or "the day John Lennon was shot." September 11, 2001, is now one of those defining moments and I can't help thinking thinking about my own experience that day.

My wife and I were finalizing plans for a road trip down to the eastern seaboard of the US, specifically to Assateague Island. Just before 9 am, around the same time planes were crashing into the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, I was trying to call the US National Park Service and change my camping reservation. Of course, I had no idea that all the government buildings in Washington DC had been evacuated, so was getting a little frustrated that I couldn't get through to anybody. Eventually I called the park directly and the friendly park ranger told me that he couldn't get through either and that something funny seemed to be going on. While not that far away, that person, like me, had no idea what was happening. So, off I went to the hardware store to get a few items. While there, I noticed that an unusual number of people were gathering in front of the display television and that the news coming from it was very strange. I watched for a while, then went home and like many people, spent the rest of the day glued to the television watching the bizarre and tragic events of that day unfold.

The strangeness didn't end there, though. Over the next few days, back at work at Algonquin Outfitters, I had the unusual task of explaining to people returning from canoe trips what had happened in the world while they were out in the park. I would say something like this: "OK, you are not going to believe what I am about to tell you but...." Reactions were predictably shock, disbelief, sadness and frustration over messed up travel plans. I remember one woman who absolutely refused to believe what I told her. How could you make this up? After I explained to him that he might want to call the airline, since all fights were grounded, a British fellow commented that he had noticed the absence of jet trails in the sky. He had assumed, since he was in the wilds of Algonquin Park, that planes didn't fly over the area at any time!

Needless to say, we changed our travel plans as well. We were planning to leave on Sept. 15 and our route would have taken us through both New York City and the outskirts of Washington. It just didn't seem like a good idea to go there at that time. We opened up the road atlas and drove east, to our own Maritime Provinces and had a great trip with no itinerary.