Hiking The East Coast Trail: Notes From A Thru-Hike In Newfoundland

The East Coast Trail. Tell people you are about to embark on this hike and you’ll most likely get inquisitive looks. Questions will follow such as: where is that? how long is it? and, is that like the West Coast trail?. Having now completed the trail I can tell you that this 312 km route on the far east side of Newfoundland is nothing short of spectacular. Over 14 days we learnt some valuable lessons for a thru-hike and came away with a huge appreciation for this special trail.

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CYCLING THE CABOT TRAIL: 5 Favourites From A Bucket List Cycling Trip

12 years ago I sat on a beach in a far off foreign land, doodling in a journal and sketching out a life long bucket list of adventures. At the top of that list – cycling the Cabot Trail.  For years I dreamt about this quintessential Canadian cycle trip while steadily diving more into cycle touring and testing out trails and routes throughout North America, Europe and beyond. Who knew it would be over a decade since writing in that journal that I would finally spin my wheels on this amazing route; it was certainly worth the wait.

Paddling The Shield: Canoe Tripping in Killarney Provincial Park

 

It’s 7 am on a chilly February morning. Huddled up to our phone outside a quaint little cabin in the Adirondacks of New York state (while on a ski trip) we are desperately trying to maintain reception while we talk with the parks office in Killarney Provincial Park. We’re attempting to book our first trip there, a canoe circuit, in this historical Ontario park 8 hours drive away. Our first selected route is unavailable-the lakes are booked solid. Unbelievable. It’s not even possible to book earlier than 5 months before the trip date. Exactly 5 months before our planned start date, at 7:02, and our route choices were already unavailable! We glanced at the map, made some adjustments to our route and tried again. This time the parks officer confirmed our dates, we were in. But what we were in for? We stood in the snow, where the thought of summer and days paddling seemed so far away. Thinking of a foreign park so many miles north and wondered: how busy would this place be? would we be paddling alongside dozens of canoes everyday while we wished for solitude? would we be racing our fellow paddlers for campsites, fighting over prime spots? would all this planning so many months in advance be worth it?

Testing the Waters of La Verendrye, Quebec: Trip #2

We fell in love with the wildness and beauty immediately on our first trip to La Verendrye. You can read about that trip here: La Verendrye Trip #1. Three weeks later we went back and were again spoiled by the pristine water, private waterfront camping and solitude!

Testing the Waters: Canoe tripping in La Verendrye, Quebec

Three hours north of Ottawa, a midst the untamed forests of Quebec, lies a wilderness of dozens (maybe hundreds?) of interconnecting lakes and rivers, surrounded by rocky shores of Canadian shield and dense bush and tall trees. This is La Verendrye and we feel so lucky to have found this beautiful spot so soon after making the move to Ontario.

Smith Rock to Sisters, OR: An Overnighter

Riding Oregon

A cyclist’s dream, the state of Oregon exudes bike friendliness. Portland, it’s most populous city, is a multitude of bike pathways and bike lanes and rates consistently in the top 5 cities in the country for most bikeable city; there are numerous websites promoting bicycle advocacy in Oregon (thepathlesspedaled, rideoregonride, traveloregon, cyclingsojourner) and there are 12 designated Scenic Bikeways dotted throughout the state. One sunny weekend this past June we did one of them: Sisters to Smith Rock.

2 Bikes, 8 Panniers, a trailer….and a Puppy?

 

Bodhi

Yes, a little Springer Spaniel has been added to the adventure. We picked up Bodhi at 8 weeks old and have been gearing him up for a life of bikes, trails and the great outdoors ever since.

At 10 weeks old in the Doggyride

We purchased a Doggyride bike trailer weeks before we even brought Bodhi home, crossing our fingers that the little guy would love bike touring as much as us! We were encouraged by blogs such as cyclinggypsies, ofpeadalsandpaws and worldsbetweenlines; these people have cycled hundreds, even thousands of kilometres with their four legged pals (so we knew we weren’t crazy!).

Day tripping-Wallace, Idaho

And now 5 months old, tipping the scales at 30lbs, Bodhi has done day long rides in Idaho, an overnighter in Oregon and spends an hour travelling in his trailer almost everyday. In the coming months we’ll post about the triumphs and challenges of touring with a dog, as well as a review of the Doggyride, as we prep for a full week long cycle tour with our Bodhi on the Olympic Peninsula.

Oregon

 

 

 

The Daily Commute

South of South

Three planes, two buses, a shuttle and many kilometres on our feet we found ourselves in the deep Patagonia of Argentina and Chile. The vast area is renowned for it’s mountain towers, rolling pampas, layers of glaciers and wind!. We spent 3 1/2 weeks trekking and navigating (not always successfully!) our way around Parque Nacional Los Glaciers and Torres del Paine Park, as well as a few days on either side in the metropolis of Buenos Aires. Over the next couple of posts we’ll share pictures and stories of our favourite highlights, struggles!, and logistics of this magical place.

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Mindfulness

“We rarely hear the inward music, but we are all dancing to it nevertheless” (Rumi)

A weekend of meditation, mindfulness and looking inward. Two days hosted by very dear friends, this was something very new to me but an area that had intrigued me for quite some time.