Tag Archives: Hiking

Postcard from the Canadian Rockies.

It’s shoulder season again – my favourite season – and we’ve just been chased down from the alpine of the Canadian Rocky Mountains by bad weather.  The sky had been threatening all morning, but in the mountains such threats make no promises one way or another so we went ahead and hit the trail up to Sentinel Pass.  Hours later, the weather finally materialized overhead and a cold wet snow blew heavy in our faces with the summit of the mountain pass only a few steep switchbacks…

Postcard from Kananaskis.

Hello from Kananaskis!

After experiencing the hoards of people that flock to the Canadian Rocky Mountains during July and August last year on my Pedal Powered to the West bike tour, I swore I would never go back in the summer.  Shoulder seasons are much more my thing.

But as life would have it, an off the cuff idea from a friend turned into a spontaneous whirlwind of a road trip across four provinces to the Rockies.  Having never spent much time in the mountains, it was …

The road to California – Part 4: Land of the giants.

(continued from Part 3: Desert)

There is a place where you can wander a forest full of giant trees.  Isolated in a spot of high elevation between two deserts, these trees are left alone to grow, and grow, and grow.  Taller than 26 storey buildings, wider than some roads, and with 2500+ years of life experience under their bark…these trees are humbling.  Every once in a while I stumble upon a place that is so surreal it feels as if I am dreaming, and the giant sequoia…

The road to California – Part 3: Desert.

(continued from Part 2: Mountains)

Heading south from Montana, mountains give way to plains, plains give way to canyons, and finally the canyons give way to desert.  Elevation drops, temperature rises, and RVs start to fill up the campgrounds everywhere.…