Crooked Slide Park

Crooked Slide Park sits on Byers Creek, tucked away along Old Barry's Bay Road between Barry's Bay and Combermere. Its centrepiece is a restored log chute, a long timber trough that once carried logs past the crooked bends that gave the place its name. Loggers floated timber down it in the early 1900s, sending down the creek on toward the Madawaska River and the mills. What stands today is a reconstruction of heavy hand-hewn beams that have now greyed and lichened with age. Water still pours down the wooden channel and drops about three metres into the creek in a small, steady waterfall. That cascade is fun to experiment with! Set up low and shoot the chute from an angle so you catch both the run of the water and the grain of the old wood. A tripod and a long exposure smooth the flow into silk, and the weathered beams give you texture to play with. You can easily move over onto the walking bridge for a completely different the view from the other side. Overcast light is perfect here, cutting glare on the wet wood and lifting the colour. Soft morning light filters through the trees. In mid October the surrounding forest turns rich colours, adding to how photogenic this park already is the rest of the year. Getting here is simple with just a short drive off along Old Barrys Bay Rd with free parking right by the chute. There is no fee, and the rocky creek banks and smooth picnic stones give you room to explore. The water can get quite high after the snowmelt or a big rain so you may end up with wet feet if you aren't careful. (Barry's Bay, Ontario, Canada)