Category: Canada
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“El Camino”
Just over a year ago, I was just home from trip to Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland and was researching my next Canadian adventure when I came across the West Coast Trail in British Columbia. Admittedly I had not heard of it before which perhaps is evidence of Canadians’ general disregard or ignorance of…
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Garden of Eden
If you were looking for a window into the earliest periods of Earth’s existence, Gros Morne National Park would be the place to start. And if you wanted to see some of the most stunning scenery in Canada, you can’t do much better than here. The park is situated on the western shore of Newfoundland…
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Escape from St. John’s
On Monday I got on the road to drive to my first destination, Terra Nova National Park. The park, situated about a 3 hour drive from St. John’s, is the lesser known of Newfoundland and Labrador’s great national parks but deserves a visit. The park is full of great hiking trails. I was only there…
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Return to the Rock
As with most places I’ve travelled to for a second time, one of my first thoughts upon arriving in St. John’s on Friday was “where did the time go?” The previous time I was here was 21 years ago. I was in my 20s then, an idealistic hill staffer who still had hair. My only…
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Backcountry style
September 6-7 I did a fair bit of hiking on this trip. Unlike hiking back home, all of Yukon is bear country and so I’ve had to mentally prepare myself for the eventuality that I would find myself face to face with a bear. I have bear spray but that is only used in certain…
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Stepping into the Yukon cathedral
September 3-5 After a quick overnight in Whitehorse to swap out my enormous SUV for something more economical and to replenish my supplies, and to eat an enormous dinner at the very popular Klondike Rib and Salmon restaurant that looked like THIS: I headed west to Haines Junction in the foothills of the towering St.…
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Dawson City or bust
August 30-31 My return trip down the Dempster went without a hitch – mostly. I managed to make the entire trip up and back without a flat tire, a fairly common occurrence on that slate gravel road. The only issue was my ongoing misfortune with the weather. Cloud and rain followed me for much of…
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Top of the world
Monday, August 28-29 (yes, I’m way behind in my blog) For now, Inuvik sits at the end of the Dempster highway. Come November, though, all that will change with the opening of the Dempster extension to Tuktoyaktuk just east of the Mackenzie delta on the Arctic Ocean. This additional 190 km of gravel road will…
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As the raven flies
I forgot to mention in my last blog post a great little story from my second night at Tombstone Park. I was making dinner in the common kitchen shelter (which, by the way, was fully enclosed and contained a kick-ass wood burning stove that kept the shelter toasty warm and its occupants dry) when a…
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The end of the road
When I was 12 years old, my parents gave me a Readers’ Digest Road Atlas of Canada. It was supposed to be a Christmas present but Mom tucked it away in a closet after receiving it in the mail and then forgot to give it to me. Months later, as my birthday approached, she stumbled…
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