Urbanus Magnus

Last post involved the path down at the base of the bluffs, and how it would make a great bike path (read the dedicated "Commuting, a Trail Proposal"  page). However, construction efforts have been stupendously slow.  Almost no actually progress has been made since two summers ago; dump trucks are only piling up the fill at the one end of the path. The red circle is where the current construction is ongoing.  Upon closer inspection of the site, a bulldozer and an excavator can be seen - these have served only to force the dumped loads into mounds. In the future (who knows how long), the rubble will be pushed into the water to construct the remaining section between Gates Gully and this path situated below the Guild Inn. The red line indicates the path being built now - about 240 meters. This is less than 1/17 of the amount of the path needed to be newly constructed (including breakwater trails), and has taken a full year to get only th...

School may have come to a close for this year - but it will soon rear its ugly head (on the 3rd of January - ugh!). There are only...  4 days left as I am writing this There are a few more highlights to go through on the 2010 review itinerary, this one being about cycling. What's not to like about it? I personally am very fond of the sport, recreation and leisure offered by the activity. Well, so far, I'm still fairly novice - I've only logged a little over 5500 km in my life - but that's not  too  bad a start. This year's cycling mileage is roughly 2000 km - almost half of my total. Why 'roughly'? My cyclometer died half-way through the year, resetting its data, and I don't ride with it all the time. Counting school commuting, I'm much closer to 2750 km. A milestone in itself, at least, one to note and beat in the coming year - once I manage find my cyclometer again (*sigh*). Another milestone: first long-haul tour, from Toronto to Kingston. O...

Went to visit family in Kingston this past weekend. The Clan is getting larger by the year... I've too many cousins to count. Well, 13. Or is it 14? Oh, and enough aunts and uncles to sink the Titanic as well - which, for all we know, they may very well have. We (my immediate family) who live in Toronto, however, are not that numerous, but still manage to have a very poor track record for being punctual, despite not having to deal with as many bodies to get organized. The plan this Christmas: we get packed Friday to leave by 8:30 AM Saturday for K-town. The actual result: finished packing by 2 AM Saturday, left at 10:00 AM after we dragged ourselves out of bed. And then we got caught in a snow storm: Scary drive up - hit snow squalls in Trenton, the average speed on the 401 dropped to ~50 km/h, but yet a few intrepid drivers (a crazy in a wee hatchback and then a redneck in a hummer) plugged away at high-speed. And with them too went many of the 18-wheelers (...

Went for a few hours' ride today - the first full test of the 'new' tyres; they are actually 16-year-old 'Dual Sport' (i.e., wide as a mountain tire!) Chen Shins which came with the bicycle. They did a real swell job, once I let some air out to run them at ~45 psi, handling the snow, road, gravel and even some ice without slipping. .  My GT has lots of extra room for an even wider tire, despite already having on 42mm ones.  The steep hill down to the buffs is  salted and in use by dump trucks   I headed down to Guild Inn to access the bluffs' lakeside trail, and enjoyed a pleasant photographing and sight-seeing session. The bluffs change so much from their summer appearance!  The bluffs look even more awesome in person. Sadly, they are predicted to gradually turn into steep hills, some as soon as 15 years from now.  Even in the winter, dump-trucks laden with dry-fill keep on tipping their load...

This is the first post of what I like to call "2010 in Review" - a review of all the notable events and achievements of the past year. 1. Started to do some real UEing (that is to say, urban exploring) this year. What an experience, I didn't know what I was missing! I particularly like draining: Trying my hand at 'light painting' - look it up. Taken in "O'Malley's Lair" # Drains explored: 5 # Building explored: Really, none, but that's cuz there are no abandones in my area! (There are, however, lots of little tunnely-drain things!)  Map of some recently found or explored drain systems.  I've never done really technical drains, only the fairly linear systems. A good few to check out are "Beefy McFistpunch's Tunnel" (nick-named after my burly friend who showed me it) and "O'Malley's Lair" (another friend's nickname - we like Irish nicknames). Nothing dangerous in these - the first is actua...

There is going to be a shorter post today - I've homework to get though, and a laser-quest game! Yes, laser-quest; I am a Scouter (well, scouter-in-training) with a scout troop (good for the community hours, and having a few outtings isn't so bad either!), and I'm there supervising tonight. But I get to play too, so I'm not complaining! I'll post some pics of this later... its sure to be fun. Ahead of time, I would like to apologize for my poor pictures - my Sony DSC just doesn't cut the mustard anymore. On friday, my friend and I built some mini-crossbows out of rubber bands and rulers in math class - it was a free period - and perforated apples with 'em. This gave me an idea: what other 'weapons' can I fashion from things lying around my house (or school room)? The result: the humble sling, made from cotton twine and a strip of an orphaned sock for the basket.   My homemade sling. Can you believe Goliath got toasted by one of these? ...

 How exactly does one go about kicking off a new blog? Well, I'm not sure exactly, so I'll just start with an introduction. I'm a highschool student in Toronto, and today I should be working on my homework, but as I have recently finished a 18-page long maths portfolio (for friday!), I feel like being lazy. And the weather isn't making me want to get it done, either: Raining - no biking today.   With the day miseable,  I should be spending time on academic purposes. However, with rain comes no motivation to finish - it is not as if I will be able to spend my time in ways I like. Perfect day to start a blog, non?  I enjoy the experience of getting to know my city better - since I've taken up cycling four years ago, I've become a lot more familiar with the Scarborough area (where I live!) as well as the more 'Toronto' part of Toronto. So, to elaborate, I've made my way down town by bike - I don't just stic...