Chad Guenter, a firefighter and rescue instructor in Canmore, Alberta, stands six-foot-three, weighs 250 pounds, and is covered in tattoos. He has seen a lot of troubling things while working: a seven-day-old baby who died of cardiac arrest, the bodies of three railroad engineers he helped recover from the crumpled wreck of a freight train.…
“If one were to engineer the optimal activity to help us not only navigate but even enjoy the cold, dark months ahead, it would need to satisfy certain criteria. To be safe amid this pandemic, it should be outdoors, regardless of snow or sleet. It should provide a boost for our bodies and brains, to…
Last weekend, I had planned to go for what would perhaps be my final paddle of 2019. Then, on Saturday night, the day-long rainfall that raised the river level (and would have made paddling more fun!) abruptly changed to snow as the temperature plummeted. So on Sunday, with blowing snow whipping around the city, I…
“If you have the need to broaden your horizons while on holiday — if feeling small and vulnerable and getting jostled out of your comfort zone is on your downtime to-do list — sailing up the southwestern flank of Vancouver Island in late September is a pretty good start. Especially if you have never set foot…
Growing up in Ontario, Mark Scriver paddled anything that floated. He started canoeing with his family as a kid, then drifted into kayaking, progressing from flatwater to whitewater. In 1985, Scriver moved to Ottawa and joined the crew of canoeists and kayakers who played on the standing waves that rise for a couple months…
“I paddle away from the dock in a soft drizzle, sheets of pale-grey mist hanging low on the green mountains that flank a long tendril of ocean. The precipitation is to be expected – we’re in British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest, so named for good reason – and the propulsion is no problem. Sufficiently attired…
Three and a half years. That’s how long I’ve been working as a writer at Carleton University — and how long I’ve been looking at the rapids on the Rideau River, just upstream from the O-Train bridge, thinking about taking a run at them on my paddleboard. It doesn’t help (or hurt, depending on your…
In July 2020, Karl Kruger will embark on an unprecedented journey: a solo expedition through the Northwest Passage on a stand-up paddleboard. He will encounter unpredictable ice and weather, as well as intense isolation and the risk of polar bear encounters during roughly two months of travel in one of the most remote regions on the…
Stand-up paddleboarding is usually associated with places defined by warm waters. Like, say, Belize. Newfoundland, where the Atlantic Ocean off the east coast soars to a summer average of about 12°C (and a balmy 15°C or so off the west coast), is not one of these places. My trip to the island a couple weeks ago…
For those of you who don’t live in Canada and/or don’t recognize the iconic building in this photo, it’s the back of the Centre Block on Parliament Hill. I’m on the choppy waters of the Ottawa River, riding the wakes of power boats and cooling off with frequent swims amid an early summer heat wave.…
The narrow highway is flanked by a pair of mist-shrouded mountains. Hairpin turns descend to the head of a long freshwater loch. As we pull over to behold the view down the glen, sunlight glistens off a rainbow and the soaring drone of bagpipes comes on the radio, which is tuned to BBC Gaelic, one…
I’m thrilled to announce that the Portuguese version of Born to Walk — Nascemos para caminhar: O poder renovador de andar a pé — has been released by Brazilian publisher Livrarias Martins Fontes. The title, best I can figure (i.e., Google translate), means “We are born to walk: The renewing power of walking,” which sounds pretty good…
I’ve always been a solo traveller. Whether walking, running, cross-country skiing or paddling, I typically prefer being out in nature alone with my thoughts. As the English novelist and journalist Will Self once said, “I walk in order to somatically medicate myself against the psychosis of contemporary urban living.” Ditto, for me, for other forms…
born to walk (and paddleboard) 