Often I get to go out to some nice locales for hiking -- last fall we went south (well, east) of the border into upstate New York a couple times, and to a few provincial parks on this side of the border. "Going upstate to see the leaves change colour" is a common reason for Americans to travel in the autumn months.
On this day we were slow on the uptake and didn't have the time in the day to make any journey over the border, so we tried one we'd never been to -- Short Hills Provincial Park, west of Thorold.
And what these photos don't contain is the constant noise of gun fire all afternoon during this hike. I'm not sure if there was a shooting range next to the park, or a special event that weekend, but whenever there wasn't rifles firing there were planes and helicopters flying overhead.
Suffice to say, there's some improvements to be made at Short Hills. Usually one would expect the human interruptions at a provincial park would be on a busy long weekend with lots of hikers, or some festival event.
What was great about the experience though, is now several months later refecting on it via the photos from that day. You'd never know such a place was noisy unless you were there. As I recall it was difficult to get the images I wanted from some of the all-yellow maples, there's something about the contrast of yellow against the grey-brown bark that can't be photographed. Or at least, I can't get it to work.
I'm expecting to add some more photos to this blog as the week goes on. It feels like there's a million of them on my computer -- even many I haven't even looked at myself yet!
