I purchased my kayak in the spring of 2012 from Outdoors Oriented at their Pack and Paddle day they have annually. It's such a great idea! They set up a bunch of booths and have some of the line reps come out and they have a bunch of their boats at Jordan Harbour for people to test them out. It's definitely hard to try a boat in a store and this is a great solution for that! [...]
Once upon a time I applied to be the woods explorer. It seems like a lifetime ago, but it was really only about 6 months ago. My application video was different than pretty much every one that I'd seen and I was hopeful this would make me stand out and have a better chance of being picked. Instead of listing all the reasons why they should pick me, I tried to show them, that I [...]
On Sunday I had a free day, which is rare for me as I have been on 13 trips so far, camping and exploring nature and have rarely been home! I decided I would ride the TC Trail in the morning and paddle in the afternoon. I was so excited to go paddling here, its been so long, so after putting my bike away in the shed, I got my awesome little kayak up on [...]
I have been hearing about the great Bon Echo Provincial Park for many years now. I had wanted to explore it and seeing as I had a free weekend in September and a willing and eager camping partner, the time to visit there had come! I did my best to research Bon Echo but other than the Ontario Parks Website and a few posts here and there, I couldn't find a whole lot. I contacted Bon [...]
In 2002, I completed my first backcountry trip in Algonquin Provincial Park. It was awesome and I was immediately hooked! Over the years, I have completed approximately 25 backcountry trips and have loved every single one of them. I have gear to both backpack into the backcountry, or paddle in to sites, however, I much prefer the latter as it is a lot less work! I love the solace of the backcountry but do not need [...]
Every year for four years now, I pick a weekend to spend at Mew Lake in Algonquin Park. This year was no different, what was different though, were the people I was going with. I was lucky enough to have two of my most favorite people on the planet accompanying me on this adventure and we were all excited and ready to get it underway! We headed out at 5am and had a wonderful, traffic-free journey. [...]
I have always been interested in paddling the Welland Recreational Waterway, (reffered to from here on out as WRW). Today was super hot and I was in town, strangely not off camping somewhere, so I decided it would be a good day to check it out. I put my kayak on my car, packed a tonne of water, and headed to Welland using the directions in Jamie Bingham's book which can be found HERE. It [...]
Every year I take my mom to the Parkway Cottages & Resort in Dwight, Ontario. I went there in 2001 after my very first backcountry trip in Algonquin Park. Five days of roughing it, followed by 5 days of cottaging. It was a great trip and since then I have been going back occasionally. One year, I decided to take my mom for her birthday and she has wanted to go there every year since. [...]
On Saturday August 1st, I put my kayak up on my truck and headed to Outdoors Oriented http://outdoorsoriented.com to meet my friends Andrea and Kim. We had made plans to go for a paddle today at the Welland Recreational Canal http://www.canalcorp.ca/site/home, but after checking the weather forecast, I needed to make a tough decision. Do I risk paddling with new paddlers in 33km gusts in what people have called 'a wind tunnel' in an area I've never [...]
I woke up to a beautiful day Sunday, birds chirping, sun out and the promise from the Weather Network of a warm day! I was supposed to go out for a hike with my good friend Andrea, but she advised me she was a bit under the weather and couldn't make it. As I am going on a canoe trip next, then car camping without my kayak following, I decided I needed to get out [...]