I actually had a specific purpose for this hike and, I knew exactly where I would be going, before I left my place this morning. That’s fairly unusual for me but, it does happen, from time to time. As was apparent, from my last blog post, I now have the new drone that I purchased, specifically to use on my hikes. But, as I also mentioned, it came with a defective battery, which I knew about beforehand. Still, I had no issues with buying this drone because, I’m confident that it will work the way I want it to, when I get a good battery for it.
Even though the drone can only fly for about 30 seconds right now, I figured that it would be long enough to get some first video footage from it. And, I had the perfect place in mind to do that. There is a high, smooth rock hill, in the Spanish/American Mine site, which would make an excellent take-off point for the drone. Also, the scenery, from the top of that hill, is quite nice. So, that is where I headed for, once I had finished my coffee and banana over at, a now fully liquid, Prodan’s Pond.
Prodan’s Pond is really too small to put my kayak in but, the larger lakes are also starting to break up and, I expect that, in another week, I will be able to get the kayak back in the water.
Now, over at the entrance gate, to the Spanish/American Mine site, you can see the there has been much improvement in the snow conditions, although, the thick bush still has a considerable amount of snow.
I did encounter some snow on the shady areas of the road in here too but, it sure is nice to get my feet back on the bare ground again. 🙂
It was a beautiful day, on this Sunday morning and, there were a few white clouds in the sky, which was no worry at all. The temperature was around 6 or 7 degrees Celsius and, this is the first time that I didn’t wear any kind of jacket for a hike this year.
The reason I have that electric bike is, just to give me an option, in case something should happen to my truck. It’s always good to have options lined up and, I try to do that as much as I can.
Here, you can see the bicycle tracks going through a patch of snow along the road. I really didn’t have too many issues with snow on this hike today.
As a matter of fact, I’d rather just forget about the word ‘snow’ right now, until it forces itself upon us again.
This is Northspan Lake and, you can see that it is in the process of breaking up. It can’t been soon enough for me!
Just a few shots of Northspan Lake, as I pass by.
It’s not unusual for the water levels to be high, at this time of year. The real test is, will they stay high, once the meltdown is finished. I feel that they will, this year because, I’ve heard that the Great Lakes are also running high so, that will keep the water levels up here high too.
Recently, I’ve mentioned that I have heard, and seen, some Sandhill Cranes but, I wasn’t able to get any on camera yet. That changed today, as you will see, in the next video.
Not much but, at least I got it, before it disappeared. 🙂
This is the hydro slash that saved my ass this winter, during a snowshoe hike where I had bitten off a little more than my ageing body could chew. 🙂
Way down, at the bottom of this hill, to about as far as you can see the road, I will make a right turn, toward that high smooth rock hill.
And, there it is!! No snow in sight, which is a welcomed relief. 🙂
Actually, the wind got even stronger, after I left here so, I guess I was bit lucky getting out early this morning.
I guess that I set the little S100 camera up a bit crooked. I had it screwed on to the top of the hiking stick and, it’s hard to tell how straight it is, although, the wind could have blown it crooked, after I set it up.
I really like this new hiking backpack that I got, during the winter. This is the first chance I’ve had to use it and, it’s very comfortable to wear, even though I have a fair bit of weight in that little pack.
I’m all geared up, for the bare ground hiking season now. Or, should I say bear ground hiking season? 🙂
I really like getting my feet on this smooth bare rock. It’s some of the oldest rock in the world and, who knows what kind of creatures have walked on it, over the millions of years that it has been here. It emphasizes how temporary everything in this world is.
When I got to this area, I was using both cameras, that’s why you can see some differences, even in similar photos.
Making my way to the top of, the newly named, Smooth Rock Hill. 🙂
The temperature is just right for hiking now, so that, I don’t overheat.
Now I’ve reached the top but, I’m not at the very highest point just yet.
Okay, so, before I do launch the drone, I want to explain a couple of things. I’m not that familiar with this drone yet and, there are a lot of settings that the user can make. I was unaware that it was setup to take just short videos so, as a result, when I did launch it, it took two short videos, instead of just one video, for the whole flight. So, I had to stitch the two videos together and, you will notice where one ends and, the other begins. I’ll fix that for next time. Also, as I mentioned, I only have about 30 seconds flying time right now and, I was a bit concerned that, if the battery ran out, before the drone was back on the ground, it might have a hard landing. So, I did force it to land, before that happened. However, the battery was nearly fully depleted, after this flight, which it shouldn’t be. Anyway, I’ll eventually get that fixed too but, overall, given the short flights that I’ve been able to do, I’m very impressed with this little drone. Take a look;
LOL!! And, as you saw, Rooster Rock was almost dead high center of the video, not a bad guess at direction!! 🙂 But, the video was quite stable, given the fact that there was a bit of a gusty wind. Not quite level but, pretty nice just the same. I know that I will enjoy flying this drone, as soon as I can get a battery that lasts about ten minutes. And, I’ve seen videos of people flying this same drone for more than ten minutes too.
Anyway, this is the first time I’ve taken the drone to any height. I had it at about 50 or 60 feet but, it’s capable of going to 300 feet, using my smartphone and, it can go more than 1,000 feet, using a dedicated controller. So, I’m still very confident that this will all work out for me.
Okay, so, I’m going to end this blog post here because, I created this post on the same day as I did the hike and, it’s getting late now. 🙂 It’s possible that my next post might be on the water, in my kayak. 🙂