After publishing my post on the Marmot Connect Gloves and finding the ones I had too large for me and not as effective as I'd like them, I spoke to my favourite outdoors store contact, Jamie at Outdoors Oriented. He advised that the gloves did indeed look too big for me and he wanted to resolve the issue for me. Hence, why I love this place so much! I went in on Thursday after work and Jamie [...]
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! [...]
Thanksgiving weekend I was in Mckellar, Ontario at Glenwood Resort with my adopted Up North family, the Burnetts. I brought my kayak up and paddled all 3 mornings I was there, along with a few evenings, and took quite a few fall photos. I thought it would be fun to share them here with you in a photo blog. Hope you like it! Last year when I was here, I took a picture of [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
After many hikes in the forest, paddles on lakes, rivers, streams, creeks, and even just walking our city streets, I am realizing what a huge issue trash is becoming! Yesterday my friend and I hiked Rockway Conservation Area in Pelham, ON and came across so much trash that I couldn't just stand by and do nothing! Our parks are where we play with nature and borrow the space to obtain serenity and peace for ourselves. [...]