Great Borers Falls Hike!

Hi People who follow this blog!  I know there aren't many since I haven't updated this is a long time!  I am hoping to change that with atleast a post a week about something whether its hiking adventures, the weather, gardening, faith or even cars!  So basically lots of information on a lot of differant topics will be on here.

Anyway Hopefully I will see some more followers and people enjoying the blog.

My update for today will be regarding last weekend which was the 12th and 13th of January!  Things around these parts got rather interesting the temperature warmed right up the snow melted in about a day and on saturday night the Hamilton area saw record amounts of rain.

Anyway I was off work so on Saturday I just had to get out for a hike the temperature was 14 Degrees Celceius with a bit of cloud!  Perfect weather for checking out some waterfalls,  and that is exactly what I did.

At first I paied a visit to Shaver Falls in Hamiltons West End is the vicinity of The"Linc" and the 403 this falls in on private property so the visit was short!  In the neighbouring property is an executive club which has a shoot range on it.  I wasn't aware of this fact until this day when all I could hear were gun shots going off!  This made me a little leary at first!  Anyway I took a few shots here and was on my way.

After leaving this location I battled within myself on where to go next!  It was mostly a case of what waterfalls haven't I shot recently!  I decided I would check out a few falls the the Rock Chalpel area of Flamborough! 

I parked my car at the end of Romar Drive off Sydenham Road and took the Bruce Trail from that point!  The trail initially is flat and huge the edge of the Niagara Escarpment evenutally a secondary trail descended and set of narrow metal stairs which also containes an explantaion of the various layers of rock!  At the base of these stairs I took a trail the contiuned to the east towards Borers Falls.  The plan was to work my way over to lower borers Falls.  I had been here on two previous occasions the my memory of the area was pretty foggy.

After hiking for 3-4kms I eventaully left the path and worked my way over to Rock Chapel Creek.
The creek for raging and much to my joyful suprise the area is much more Rugged and wild then I had remembers full of fallen trees, massive boulders and all that on a 45 degree angled slop. 

I slowly worked my way upsteam to lower Borers Falls.  The so much water going over the falls looked amazing.  I spent some time take images from a few differant spots!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gods_eyes/8375394540/

After leaving Lower Borers I continuted up stream towards Borers Falls!  This hike was as before with the trees and rocks etc,  After reaching Borers Falls there was too much spray for photos from the base so I climbed the ledge and took a few shots from the top.  From here it was time to head back along the Bruce Trail as it was starting to get Dark.

I will post about the 13th in a couple of Days!

Hurricane Irene

I thought I would give an update on the one thing I know will be all over the news by Thursday or Friday.  That would be Hurricane Irene.  Their is both good news and bad news with this hurricane.

The good news is that this storm is going to avoid Haiti as that nation has had many years of devastation from various tropical disturbances as well as the big earthquake a few years ago.

The bad news, is that as I type this Hurricane Irene is going through a period of rapid intensification.

Irene going through Rapid Intensification! (click to animation)

What this means is that she is going from being a Category 1 hurricane at 5pm to a Category 2 hurricane as of 8pm.  Their is a chance that she could reach category 3 intensity by 11pm.  If this isn't the case then I expect to see category 3 status by dawn tomorrow.

Current projections take Irene from its location just north of The Dominican Republin through the Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas towards the East coast of North America anywhere from Florida(less likely) to North Carolina(most likely at this point).  There is sitll a chance that she should completely curve out to sea and miss main land North America all together although not likely at this point in time.

I will be posting more on Hurricane Irene as things progress.

H. plantaginea, the heavenly scent in the Garden

This past May my Wife and I bought this wonderful house,  with the house came this wonderful garden,  as I said we moved into the house in May.  In this part of Canada in early May the plant life is really just starting to come out of the ground.  The only plants that we're growing in the garden were 3 Bleeding Heart bushes, 4 Peonies Bushes several flox cumps and these enormous Hostas.  These Hosta's are atleast 2-3 feet across with the deep green leaves that are about 6 inces long and maybe 4 inches wide.

Anyway I don't mind hosta's but these specific plants which are called H. plantaginea  are huge and take up about a 3rd of my garden space.  The plan is once thay finish flowering for the year they are to be moved into various areas of the yead.

What is so wonderful about this specific breed of Hosta is that it has so many character traits that are remarkably differant from the other types.  For example it flowers in august, where most other types flower in late june or early july.  Another remarkable diffeance is the flowers are pure white, instead of the purple or mauve color of most types.

H. plantaginea in my backyard garden.

The final differnace which is the most impressive feature of H. plantaginea variety is the unbeliveable fragrance the flower lets out.  It's had so far been the best thing in my garden which has made me second guess where to move these plants.

Long story short if your looks to add a hosta into your backyard garden H. plantaginea  is the type to purchase, you wont be disappointed.

Port Burwell Visit

Happy Long weekend everyone
My Wife and I just got back last night from Port Burwell which is located on Lake Eire about 15 minutes south of Tillsonburg.  Her family has an annual camping extravaganza in the provincial park located there.

Having been camping all over ontario at various campground in my life, this is one of the nicer parks.  Other then the play area the whole camp ground is in a very mature tree forest.  You are literally in the woods.  Its great.  the facilities are nice as well and the park is within walking distance to the beach.

As far as the beach itself is concered its beautiful.  Its very wide so their is lots of room to relax and get some son, or you can play a game of volley ball or bocce ball or any other sports that wet your whistle.

Over all I would say that the 2 days of our visit were nice.

If your looking for a nice place to get away and not too far from Hamilton,  I would suggest you check out Port Burwell.

Have a great Monday everyone,  Its out to the garden for me.

First Time

So after a few trips out with a new photography friend Kyle and teaching him some photography techniques, showing him some cool places and things to take photos of, and then reading about our outings on his blog I thought I think I am going to try this blogging thing out for myself, so here I am with a blog.


If your wondering why I have called my blog Urban Natural, it is because I am such a big fan of both of these subjects which is kind of Ironic seeing that the contradict each other.  Is that to say that all my blog postings are going to be about either urban subjects or subjects of the more natural topic, probably not, for example,  I am a big sports fan as well, atleast when it come to hockey and CFL football.  Their will rpobably be some periodic posting about the weather and music.  Really who knows what you might find here.

Anyway this is just an introduction,  more to follow later.