Visiting Family, and Our Good Friend Bruce

Of course, by "Bruce" I mean the magnificent Bruce Peninsula.

Just a taste of this beautiful piece of the province.

Family, in this instance, was my Uncle Tom and Aunt Leona.

These photos are actually from the long weekend that we had a week ago, but I have managed to take a week getting things posted online.  Not entirely uncommon for me I suppose...

When my aunt and uncle retired they moved up to a great place they had built up on the Bruce and I, to my shame, hadn't ever been up to visit it.  Last weekend Euphy and I decided to remedy that situation.

Even the drive up from Toronto is stunning.  Once you're outside of the city and heading north it really doesn't take long before the countryside is composed of rolling hills which provide great views at surprising intervals.  Driving in Toronto puts me into an entirely homicidal state of mind, but if I can escape its clutches I'm quickly reminded how much I actually love a good drive.  I could spend hours cruising around just about anywhere else in Ontario.

 Our first day was spent largely exploring the area.  I imagine that it's impossible to live in a place like that without feeling a great deal of pride in the region that you've chosen to call home.  I'd be pretty eager to show it off too.

Also, the weather wasn't half bad.

In the evening we were treated to a fireworks show from the comfort of the balcony.  My family's neighbour is an amateur fireworks creator and he was lighting off some his latest creations.  I was having fun trying to photograph them.

My success was limited, but I definitely improved as time went on.

Since we had some beautiful clear skies I also spent a bit of time photographing the night sky.  It's a passion that I rarely get a chance to explore.

Tell me how you could possibly have any complaints about living there?

On Sunday Aunt Leona took us out for a hike on a section of the Bruce Trail.  The entire trail stretches over 800km from the Niagara region up to Tobermory, and there are some great stretches of it just a short drive from where we were.

We'd just got started on our hike when I spotted a patch of trilliums in full bloom just off the trail.  I excitedly ran up to get a shot.  For any non-Ontarians reading right now, the white trillium is our provincial flower.

I couldn't think of a better flower for the job.

After that burst of excitement we continued on and I discovered that the vast majority of the trail we were following was lined with trilliums.  Perhaps I didn't need to go off-trail to get that earlier photo...

As far as the eye can see.

Of course, no hike would be complete without getting out towards the shore for a gentle reminder that you're on an escarpment.

Quite the view.

We really did have a fantastic weekend.  It was great to spend some time catching up with family, and it's been far too long since I've been in that part of the world.  It's now up to me to ensure that I don't go so long again between visits.

A Return To Camp Bison

Hello everyone!  Some of you may remember a similar post from last year when I ventured up with some friends to check out the remains of Camp Bison, the old abandoned prison in Burwash.  It's an annual tradition for some of my friends who are quite fond of photographing derelict buildings and I decided to join them again this year.  This time around Graydyn and Jay decided to come out for the fun as well.  Have Gray, Jay, and Richard in the car made for a fun ride up to Burwash, and we all got to have a good belly-laugh when we arrived courtesy of Canadian Tire; they sold Jay two left boots.  Actually, if memory serves, I don't think Jay was laughing...

So it was that the noble team of adventurers, including our friend Lefty, began the hike into Camp Bison.  Along the way there's a substantial beaver dam that has created a lake to one side of the road.

Someone left this perfectly good boat there.

Approaching the prison.

One of the main hallways, with cells to either side.  The doors are long gone.

It's funny some of the things that remain.

There's a surprising quantity of wiring and electronics still sitting there.

As we wandered around I made my way up on to the roof.  It really is the best place to observe the state of the structure.  It's hard to say how much longer that building can hold on, but some of the exterior walls are looking pretty rough.  I can't imagine that this old building is long for this world.

A courtyard wall, completely stripped of the outermost layer of bricks.

The process by which a brick building disintegrates.

This, I believe, represents the ultimate death of the building.  Those trees are managing to take a pretty good hold in the drainage pipes on the flat roof.  I have to imagine that if their roots take hold they'll eventually tear the roof to pieces.  They were numerous, and all looked quite healthy.

Glorious view from the rooftop.  I'll repeat my sentiment from last year: it would be a beautiful spot to visit in the Fall.

Flashes of colour in the most unexpected places.

I love all the old equipment still sitting around.

My crew.

That is a piece of a drum kit.  There was evidence of this kit scattered throughout the facility.  I can't imagine hauling a full drum kit the 4-5km into the prison... maybe that's why they left it there.  The ice on the floor is ubiquitous in the windowless basement.  With no windows it's hard to say if it ever fully melts.

We found a room with ingredients listed at regular intervals along the one wall.  There was no shelving left, but I have to assume this used to be a storeroom.

I love the patches of moss that you come across in some of the lower levels that still have access to sunlight.  Such a vibrant contrast to the drab surroundings.

The equipment may rust away, but branding never dies.

I thought it would be good to share a picture that I'm not particularly happy with as a reminder to myself.  I like where I was going with this, but it would have been better with a larger depth of field; as it is it gets out of focus too quickly.

I was playing with a lot of close-up shots of things that I found interesting on this trip.  I spent most of the time with my 50mm lens as a challenge to myself to work within a fixed focal length.

Moss on rust... I love it.

Dick hole.

Dials and gauges seem to be a recurring theme for me on this trip.

Trip on.

I continue to be amazed by the amount of effort some people will go to in order to deface a piece of public property that is so remote and has been abandoned for so long.  This stencil of a solider was spray-painted everywhere in the prison, but I was particularly impressed with this offering, which appears to be the same stencil used to clean the rust off of an old piece of equipment.  That seemed like way more effort.

On this trip there were a huge number of a casings and shotgun shells on the ground.  Someone has been coming out here for target practice.  I think Brian's tendency to wear high-visibility jackets may be the correct course of action in the future.

Playing with my red headlamp and a long exposure in the basement.  I always feel like somebody's watching me.

On the way out we saw this tree stump which is clearly the work of that most industrious of rodents.  What was interesting was that it was absolutely soaked, but it hadn't been raining.  I think it may have been chewed down only moments before we arrived and that it's actually covered in sap.

That concludes my photo tour of Burwash for the year.  As usual I've scaled the images down to facilitate uploads, but if you'd like full-sized versions just ask.  I'm actually looking into the best options for storing my photos online so that everyone could check out the full album if they were so inclined.  Any personal recommendations would be more than welcome.

Euphy and I will be heading up to the Bruce Peninsula in a couple weeks, so hopefully I'll get a chance to get the camera out again.  I'll be sure to make a post!

Pearl Land

In a previous post from China I mentioned that we visited Pearl Land.  I also mentioned that I simply couldn't make a post about Pearl Land without including pictures.  Now that I'm back home and comfortably working on my normal computer I figured that it was time for me to finally give this fascinating place its due.

Pearl Land was an amusement park tailored to young children.  I say "was" because it's really no place to bring a child at this point.

It is, sadly, just a little run down.

As we were driving past on our way to Chimelong I noticed the rather dilapidated sign and asked Euphy if, as the exterior implied, Pearl Land was an abandoned amusement park.  To my surprise and delight she told me that we could go check it out.

Tickets anyone?

Wandering around the place it reminded me a lot of Storybook Gardens back in London, Ontario.  For those not familiar, but curious, check the Wikipedia article.

I found this map to be extremely helpful.

Hooray?

Euphy actually was REALLY excited to be back here.  Apparently it was a pretty happening place when she was a kid, a despite its current state it was bringing back a lot of great memories.  It's bittersweet to see something that she loved so much still here to enjoy yet fallen into such disrepair, but it didn't seem to phase her at all.  She was just happy to wander around with me as I snapped photos.  For me it was just a surreal experience to be in the fading remains of a place that was obviously once so bright and cheerful.

I'd mentioned before that I didn't want to make a post until I could do this place justice with photos, so I'll largely let the photos (and brief captions) do the talking.

Maybe in need of a fresh coat of paint.

The bustling walkways of Pearl Land.

Vibrant and full of (plant) life.

What this building needs is more rust stains.

I love the painting of palm trees being reclaimed by actual jungle.

Nothing creepy at all about a baby bottle laying discarded on the ground.

Also nothing unsettling about these characters.

Or these ones.

Everywhere there are signs of plant life pushing their way in.

Yes, someone has come in here and hung their laundry up on the jungle gym.  Also, the eagle-eyed among you will have notice that the laundry also includes a fish.

Not sure if this statue is dirty, or is depicting a crying prostitute's running mascara.

Oh, and chickens.  No amusement park is complete without them.

So romantic.

Even the plastic flowers are wilting.

I'm sure this restaurant normally does a booming business.

Olympic rings.

This deer(?) has seen better days.  I hope.

High hopes for the swimming pool?

Sorry.

I'm sure it's delicious.

If you can't see the smaller sign (you can click to expand these images) it says "The Dark Journey."  Sounds fun.

I poked my head in and noticed the horizontal claw marks dragged across the wall.  That's as far as I decided to go.

I don't know why, but the broken beach scene is one of my favourite pictures.

We continued to push our way through the crowds.

Pearl Land's High Street.

The Spinning Lotus.  When I'm naming a children's ride I always go for something that sounds like it's straight out of the Kama Sutra.

I'm sure this carnival is absolutely delightful.

For the purpose of brevity I've just included this one shot of the arcade, but it was massive.  Lots of classic games in there, none of which would fit in my luggage.

A bizarrely well-stocked claw game.

One of the few signs of life.

The packed parking lot.

I took a lot pictures around this place, but that's all I'll subject you to.  Now for the fun part of this whole experience.  I'm sure a lot of you were looking at the crumbling ruins of this place and wondering how I got in here in the first place.  That's the really entertaining part; I paid the admission and went in the front gate!  Yes, that's right, this is still an operational park.  It cost roughly $10 Canadian to get in and there were actually a handful of other people wandering around.  There was even someone there to turn on The Spinning Lotus for us so that we could go for a ride.  That, I think, made the entire experience even more surreal.