Tag Archives: Canada
Valentine’s Weekend Winter Backpacking
Mike’s birthday falls the day after Valentine’s, so typically I try to plan something fun and special to cover both of those occasions. This year, we decided to test our mettle and do a weekend in the backcountry that involved snowy camping, and a snowshoe trek in. We’ve been out to The Point many many
Backpacking With Children: A Week On A Remote Island
All through the spring we worked on getting the kiddos ready for our big (secret) backpacking trip of the year: a week on Flores Island. Mike and I have been there before, and since we were going to Vancouver to see my brother and his lovely fiancee get married, we decided to make a vacation
Backpacking At Lake Minnewanka
Determined to get the most out of backpacking season this year, Mike and I started hitting the trails earlier than usual. A mild winter and incredibly early spring meant that we had almost now snow by mid-April, which allowed us to start spending nights outdoors before May long-weekend. Very early in May we found ourselves
Backpacking With Children: Our First Time
On May long weekend we loaded up 5 backpacks, the kids, their dad (Jason) and headed for the mountains. It was raining lightly, but we’d already booked The Point for two nights, and I was determined that all my planning and packing was NOT going to waste. So off we went, stopping for brunch on
Oh Hai, It’s Me Again!
Right, this blog, I had sort of forgotten about it, and then 2014 was the year of “maybe next month will be better” and of course next month never was. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t terrible, but it definitely had it’s moments. Mike worked away, which was wonderful and terrible all at the same
Backpacking Flores Island: Camping At Kutcous Point
After spending four nights and three amazing days at Cow Bay, Mike and I decided to cut the hike out into two pieces, and go back as far as the low-tide shortcut on Thursday afternoon. We would cross the shortcut at low tide and camp on the other side of it, so we could do
Backpacking Flores Island, British Columbia
I’ve just purchased our fishing passes, which I suppose makes it official: Mike and I are embarking on 18 hoours of travel, which will include 1,200 odd kilometers of driving (around 750 miles) a ferry ride, and a jaunt on a water taxi. Our destination is Flores Island, which is a remote Provincial Park, just
May Long Weekend At Sibbald Lake
For the long weekend, Mike and I took the kids out to Sibbald Lake for three days of camping. Yes, THREE whole days, and four nights, to be exact. We had a BLAST! There was fishing, minnow-catching, hiking, waffles, camp fires. It was perfect. And the weather was pretty awesome too. I think Smidgin’s expression
Hitting The Slopes, Eating Weird Things, And Other Goodness
Some months back, Mike’s mom, Ruth, and his sister, Michelle, came out to Alberta for a visit! It was so great to see them, and the four of us headed out to the mountains for a two-day ski vacation in Banff. I hadn’t been on skis in almost a decade, and it had been quite
Underworld L.A.R.P – September 2011
Dear LARPing, We’ve missed you terribly! I know I am not finished posting about our trip to Alaska (my free time is seriously lacking lately) but I wanted to interject this little post before I forgot.
Random Camping At Running Rain Lake – Day Three
Sunday was another gorgeous day, starting with sunshine and blue sky first thing in the morning. We all got up and made coffee and oatmeal again for breakfast. We pulled the tents apart to dry them from the rain that fell overnight. Then there was time for taking more photos and getting our gear rounded
Random Camping At Running Rain Lake – Day One & Day Two
Over the weekend, we were fortunate enough to be able to take Dan and Kerri on their first backpacking trip (which coincidentally ended up being our first random camping excursion as well). After a not unsubstantial amount of discussion and indecision, we settled on Running Rain Lake, which falls inside of one of the Wildland
Adventures In British Columbia: Wildhorse River & Yoho National Park
While I am normally a planner extraordinaire, Micheal is more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants kind of guy. This makes going on trips together…interesting, if not an extreme exercise in frustration for both of us. And so it was that we recently ended up on the road, with no real plan, but enough gear to spend several
On Adopting A Pit Bull
As I’ve alluded to, our little motley crew has recently been joined by a four-legged cohort: Smidgin, the pit bull. Smidgin is two years old, and arrived from LA (indeed, I do mean Los Angeles) in June, via Prairie Pit Bull Rescue. She was a stray (or as Mike calls her, a “California Street Dog”)
Backpacking In Peter Lougheed Provincial Park
One weekend, not so long ago, Mike and I found ourselves with time to spare and no solid plans (a rarity to be sure) and so we took a spur-of-the-moment backpacking excursion to Peter Lougheed Provincial Park. There are several backcountry destinations to chose from, but being that we only had a regular weekend, we
Camping With The Kids: Radium Hot Springs Edition – Day Three & Day Four
On our third day in camp, we got up bright and early to have breakfast, which consisted of bacon and cinnamon buns (cooked in foil over the coals from our fire). Mike and I made coffee with the MSR filter that his brother Ben gave us for Christmas. It was a beautiful, relaxing way to
Camping With The Kids: Radium Hot Springs Edition – Day One & Day Two
Yesterday afternoon we returned home after a long weekend camping excursion into British Columbia with the kiddos. We camped near Radium Hot Springs at Lake Enid, which is about four hours drive from home. We headed out after Mike got finished work on Friday night. The SUV was packed and we were all very excited.
Photo Post: Mountsberg Conservation Area, Ontario – Set Three
Photos from June 2010 Click to view full-size
Photo Post: Mountsberg Conservation Area, Ontario – Set Two
Photos from June 2010 Click to view full-size
Photo Post: Mountsberg Conservation Area, Ontario – Set One
Photos from June 2010 Click to view full-size
Our Weekend At The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel
Last weekend Jay invited Mike and I to join him and the kids in Banff for a couple of days, and to spend the night at the Banff Springs Hotel. We headed for the mountains early on Saturday afternoon (after we finished up with the condo developers) and after arriving in Banff, we checked into
We Are Headed To Banff This Weekend!
My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing – Aldous Huxley I know my recent updates have been a lot of random photos and other fluff, but there is good reason for that. Mike and I have both been rather busy with job hunting, and we are both starting new
On Snowshoeing And Our Visit To Ontario
On Tuesday Mike and I returned from our trip to Ontario to visit his family. We had a really wonderful time. It was so good to see everyone and catch up with them. Made me miss living there and being closer to all of them. We spent most of our time indoors, spending time with
