There was an awful lot of rain on Sunday, and when I made my way down to the Don Valley trails there was lots of evidence - muddy paths, one tree down, and the plants along the river all patted down.

Certainly passable, but the mud was really slippery in sections.

First an earthquake in Ontario and Quebec, then a tornado touched down in Midland later in the week. I headed north to one of my favourite bike trails near Tiny Beaches and was happy to see very little damage along the trail.

I'm a huge fan of TED videos - I was watching one while doing the dishes looking out over Nottawasaga Bay and thought I'd post it here. From the TED site:

"Before becoming the center of the Western cultural universe, Manhattan was Mannahatta, 'Island of many hills,' in the language of 17th-century Native Americans. Using computer modeling, painstaking research and a lot of legwork, Wildlife Conservation Society ecologist Eric Sanderson has re-envisioned, block by block, the ecology of Manhattan as it was when Henry Hudson first sailed into the forested harbor in 1609."

OK, the last of the Snowshoe videos - one more educational video, a fun one, and one I actually made myself:

• Walking downhill in Snowshoes
• Extreme Snowshoeing
• Short video of walking in the woods in Ontario

Enjoy, as always!

If you've already run through the three beginner snowshoeing videos then you're ready for three more:

• Safety hints
• How to use poles on Snowshoes
• How to run in Snowshoes

Some good skills to master whether you're out on a trail at your local ski resort, or if you're breaking new trails in the forest. These quick videos are by Sheryl McGlochlin for eHow.com and are worth a look.

A quick search on YouTube and I found some good introductory videos on snowshoeing by Sheryl McGlochlin for eHow.com. We'll start with the basics:

1. How to put on Snowshoes
2. How to walk in Snowshoes
3. How to get up if you fall

I found it really quite easy, once you have the snowshoes on, but these videos will give you a sense of what to expect.

We managed to get out on the snowshoes for the first time this season in mid-December. There wasn't a ton of snow yet, maybe a foot, but enough to enjoy the Ontario forest. In some places there were branches sticking up through the snow, but not a lot. Here are some shots of the wonderful old lodge nearby, the afternoon sun in the forest itself, then down to Nottawasaga Bay which still has exposed sand. You can't see it in the photo, but the ski hills of Blue Mountain are directly across the bay, and look amazing all lit up for night skiing.

Rannie Turingan is a prolific and influential blogger and photographer here in Toronto. For one of his latest projects (which won him a Nissan Cube) he set out taking panoramic photos with his iPhone. Here are three ways you can enjoy those photos. Whether you're just visiting Toronto on vacation, or if you live here, they are well worth a look!

We'll run through three choices:

• Standard web page and online map
• iPhone and Blackberry specific web page
• iPhone application (that also runs on an iPod touch)

There is a wonderful multi-use trail called the Tiny Beaches rail trail, running north just outside Elmvale up to Penetanguishene. It is a snowmobile trail in the winter, and a great biking, running, and hiking trail in the summer and fall (there are LOTS of bugs in the spring...).

Here's a short video of a few sections along the northern end of the trail from July, 2009.

We were in Ottawa last summer, and I've finally got around to adding some music to a time lapse video I made of one of the locks on the Rideau Canal, right downtown.

I used a Canon PowerShot SD870 IS and the built in time lapse function, trying to hold the camera as steady as possible against a railing.