After a week on Lake Ontario and a week on the Rideau Canal, I paddled into downtown Ottawa two weeks ago, where my wife Lisa and some friends welcomed me home with hugs and champagne. The weather was beautiful for this last leg — crisp mornings, sunny and warm days, starry nights — although the crosswinds…
What a summer it has been! After paddleboarding from Ottawa to Montreal in early June, I resumed my journey on June 23 on the Richelieu River south of Montreal, crossing the border into the United States and heading down Lake Champlain, the Champlain Canal and Hudson River into New York City. After a few days…
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…
“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…
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.…
In the second chapter of Born to Walk, which focuses on how walking can address mental health concerns such as depression and anxiety, research conducted by University of Glasgow epidemiologist Richard Mitchell provides the scientific basis for many of my arguments. I spent some time walking around Glasgow with Rich, whose work explores the roles urban environments can…
Two years ago, while doing research and reporting for my book, I joined an Active & Safe Routes to School walkabout at an elementary school in Ottawa. The intervention, part of a program led by a national non-profit called Green Communities Canada, is part of a process that involves collecting travel behaviour data, traffic observation…
water borne 