Before I’d climbed aboard Dervla, my red Bike Friday, to begin pedalling on my solo 800km crossing of Southern Ontario, I had proof. Ontario’s lack of respect isn’t due to a shortage of spectacularity, it’s because we do a lousy job of identifying and celebrating the spectacular province where I was born and live. The…
The Trail: A Novel, by Ethan Gallogly, illustrations by Jeremy Ashcroft, Sierra Nevada Press, 356 pages, 2021 When I contacted Ethan Gallogly to get a copy of his 2021 book, The Trail, he made it clear that his book about hiking the John Muir Trail in California was a novel. He explained that a novel…
Water Borne: A 1,200-Mile Paddleboarding Pilgrimage: Not what I expected. Had I read the author’s first book: Born to Walk: The Transformative Power of a Pedestrian Act (ECW Press, 2015), I might not have been surprised by Dan Rubinstein’s new volume: Water Bourne. Pleasantly surprised that is. I really enjoyed Water Bourne. Rubinstein, an Ottawa-based…
It will surprise some people that Spain has wonderful village-to-village hikes that do NOT lead to Santiago de Compostela, and that are not caminos! The 450km Andalusian Coast to Coast Walk is one of them. From mid-April to mid-May this year (2025), my sister Dori and I tackled the Andalucian Coast to Coast…
Of Canoes and Crocodiles: Paddling the Sepik in Papua New Guinea By Tony Robinson-Smith (2024, University of Alberta Press, Edmonton, Alberta, 225 pages) A fellow author once suggested that because women have historically been less able to travel as freely as men, they learned to journey inside their heads. Whereas men, she surmised, tend…
FKT – Chasing the Smokies Moon within a lunar cycle
Around Africa on my Bicycle By Riaan Manser 2007, Jonathan Ball Publishers, Jepperstown, South Africa, 705 pages I read a lot of books about long bicycle, kayaking and, especially, hiking journeys. My favourite ones include a balance of the author’s personal story, details of the journey and information about the places they visit and the…
The Spout Path is the East Coast Trail’s most iconic hike. The Spout, a fresh water geyser, is what draws most people to this trail, and it’s a pretty neat phenomenon. The Spout, however, is only one of the features of the Spout Path that has made it one of my all-time-favourite hikes. I warn…
Walking Through Wayne Johnston’s backyard I left you a few days ago admiring the humpback whale that came uncomfortably close to our small boat. A bit scary, but magic too. Next up was the Flamber Head Path where we saw a lone seal, a seriously phallic mushroom, a grumpy man’s profile and ate our lunch…
In my last post, I was still in St. John’s and only about one-third of the way along the East Coast Trail. I’ve now completed my hike and have some stories to tell and photos to present. So let’s go. Hiking solo, I set out on another glorious day on the 15km Cape Spear…
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