Over the last couple years my pass times have become few. I visit breweries. I go for long walks (typically to breweries). I watch films (at theatres when they are open). I play board games. And, I frequent record stores. Calgary has a wonderful assortment of centrally located record stores. Within 45 minutes walking distance … [Read more…]
I suppose I’ll blog about why we backpacked for a solid month another time, for now, I’ll focus on journey. On the eve of July 1, 2019, my son Blaise and I flew to St. John’s, Newfoundland and met up with my father, Robi. We spent Canada Day wandering around in the fog – literally … [Read more…]
A couple weeks ago, Blaise and I headed out on our second 3-night/4-day backpacking trip. This time we tackled the local Elbow Loop which follows the Big Elbow upstream then at Tombstone pass crosses over and follows the Little Elbow back downstream to where the two meet to form the Elbow River which flows into … [Read more…]
Since we are planning on a monumental backpacking trip as a right of passage for Blaise in the coming summers, we had to get started with some short trips this summer – both to test equipment and our legs. I decided on a three night in-and-out with a couple day hikes between the heavy lifting … [Read more…]
Doing my part for the 150th anniversary of the Confederation of Canada was a real pleasure this summer. While I understand the protests against the celebration, I think we can acknowledge the flaws in our nation’s history and systems while at the same time celebrating the beautiful aspects of Canada. I choose to celebrate Canadian … [Read more…]
This is my first backpacking trip. Car camping, cycling camping, canoe camping, but never backpacking. Apparently, this is a pretty tough one to begin on, but it is definitely a good one to get me hooked on backpacking. My companions are the same three from the Cannonball Run: Kris, Ty and Glen. Kris and Ty have both … [Read more…]
Until now, there is no record of anyone completing a trip from Vancouver to Halifax with the following conditions: travel by car stay within Canada (there is a shorter route through the United States) stop as little as possible for as short a time as possible to make the trip as direct as possible follow … [Read more…]
Data. Data. Data. It’s no secret that I’m a list person. Having a smartphone makes it incredibly easy to meaningfully keep track of things. Here are a few of the apps I use regularly. Untappd For quite a while I used Beer Buddy to log my beer exploits. The app became buggy, so on Jasen’s … [Read more…]
A couple weeks ago my longtime friend Jeff “no relation” Robichaud took me up in a Cessna west of Calgary. Jeff and I have known each other since 1983. All those years, he’s demonstrated that he likes to master things. I think getting his pilot’s license a few years back is a vestige of having … [Read more…]
We spent a sunny spring break in Squamish with my sister Salomé and her beautiful family. I was anticipating some low-key visit where I could finish my theory of computation course (which I did) and read peacefully (which I did), but we did so much more. Sea-to-Sky Gondola – Howe Sound – Sky Pilot Mountain … [Read more…]