My wife and I went hiking yesterday at Killbear Provincial Park. The park is located just north of Parry Sound, about a 2-hour drive from home.

We dressed in layers for the cold and spent several hours hiking in snow and ice. Yesterday was supposed to offer some sunshine and it did not. The clouds remained gray and gloomy. So I made the best of the photo shoot.The first is from my wife’s camera to give you a sense of the area and the rest of the pictures are from my D200. For those of you who follow my blog on a regular basis, Santa did not come through with a new D3. It’s okay. With some therapy, I can get through this tragedy.

Today was my open day and a time to take some pictures in the Seattle area. I had no idea what to expect from a weather perspective and that influenced my decision on location.

I was up at 4:30 this morning. And I was on the road by 5:30. I decided to head out to Denny Creek. This is a scenic trail roughly an hour or so southeast of Seattle. I arrived at the exit around 6:30. Light was not going to be out for another hour or so and the sideroads were almost impassable due to snow. I left my rental car just off the exit from the Interstate and hiked in the dark to the trailhead. About 3 miles. The trailhead sets off on a mere 4.4 mile trail through the mountain. Steep climb and a pretty hard hike in the snow. The trail was somewhat packed although there were sections when a pair of snowshoes would have come in handy.

My legs are very, very sore.

The weather was perfect. Sunny breaks, light cloud and no rain. Amazing. Here are a few shots from the morning. I will post the full set on my flickr and photoblog over the next couple of weeks.

I am staying at a wonderful hotel called Willows Lodge in Woodinville, Washington. A friend of mine wanted me to take a few pictures of the Christmas tree in the lobby. Here they are. And since I know you are checking the blog, let me know if you want any of the photos and I can pass along the full size images over to you.

Arrived in Seattle today after almost 11 hours of travel. Actual flying time was only 6 hours but total elapsed time from the door of my house to the door of the hotel was 11 hours. Long day.

Enjoyed flying on a relatively new aircraft on the run from Toronto to Vancouver. A nicely dressed 767 with audio and video on demand and an electrical outlet for the laptop. Hooray.

The next two days will be pretty long. On Friday, I plan to make my way to Denny Creek which is supposed to be a very scenic area about an hour or so from Seattle. I have my hiking gear with me. I just hope that the rain forecast for Seattle is snow in that area. Otherwise the photography opportunities will be quite limited.

And, for my family, in case they think I am roughing it while I am on the road, a couple of photos of the hotel room.

I know. Travel is tough.

I’m dropping by to visit a small software company in Redmond this week. Last time I was there, I was in a big, windowless room watching lots of powerpoint on a really big screen. This time, it will likely be a small, windowless room watching lots of powerpoint on a much smaller screen.

I have planned to take one extra day for some photography. The long range forecast for the Seattle area is not too promising. Rain.

We’ll see how it goes.

Although I have far too much on the go, we decided to take a day away yesterday to hike Rosseau Falls and Six Mile Lake Provincial Park. Here are some photos from the day.

So last week was quite intense. I do not blog about my corporate side of life for a number of reasons. But part of the job does incur its fair share of stress from time to time. And so, after a major presentation yesterday morning, I took a mental health break in the afternoon. Lorraine, Matthew and I headed up to Awenda Provincial Park. The park is fairly close to where we live, about 100 kilometers, and we arrived there at 5pm. The trails are easy and the crowds at this time of year are light. We spent most of the time walking along the shore on our own.

Here are a few shots from the hike.

Last week-end we went to Hardy Lake Provincial Park and Torrance Barrens. A great day for hiking and photography. Here are a few more pictures from the day. Three pairs of shots: the first in each pair is a picture from Lorraine’s camera and the second in each pair is the view from my camera.

Good thing we had two cameras.