Adventure Zone

Photos: © Mike Was There Photography The best little adventure race in Eastern Canada By Tracy C. Read © Mike Was There Photography Back in another century, Sean Roper left Ontario to spend a few years in North Vancouver, just long enough to become “obsessed...

Photo: The Water Brothers Two Canadian brothers surf international waters during Canada Water Week Staff Report Photo: The Water Brothers While Canada’s waterways are central to adventure travel and our most beloved wilderness sports, water is also an...

If you can walk, as they say, you can snowshoe. But at the World Snowshoe Championship, held this year in Quebec’s Forêt Montmorency, walking has little to do with it....

The first park in Canada’s cherished national park system, Banff National Park encompasses 6,641 square kilometres of mountains, glaciers, ice fields, forest and alpine country, and today, the sheer beauty of its rugged vistas make it one of the world’s...

Photo courtesy Evergreen Brick Works Occupy Toronto with some skates on! By Tracy C. Read Photo courtesy Evergreen Brick Works Sustainability and environmental stewardship may be concepts that are out of fashion with some politicians, but those of you...

Photo: © Gary McGuire At this annual B.C. festival, the iconic eagle is king By Tracy C. Read © Istock The bald eagle has had a tough go of it over the years, thank to human activities. Early settlers trapped and poisoned it, and the logging industry...

Photo: courtesy of Photo courtesy Banff Tourism Banff-Lake Louise pulls out the stops for the holidays Staff Report © Carmichael While many Canadians are still enjoying autumn’s fading splendour, the folks in Banff and Lake Louise are gearing up for the...

Tiny but mighty, Canada’s smallest province takes the food world by storm By Tracy C. Read By festival standards, four-year-old Fall Flavours is barely past the toddler stage. But the rich breadth and depth of what this harvesttime celebration has to...

Courtesy Montgolfières Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu /Stephanie Lachance The International Balloon Festival is full of only the best hot air By Tracy C. Read Courtesy Montgolfières Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu /Isabelle Lajoie The oldest flight technology devised...

Photo courtesy Lance Thomson/Folklorama Where Winnipeg welcomes the world By Tracy C. Read Photo courtesy Lance Thomson/Folklorama The debate continues: melting pot or mosaic? In Canada, we’ve long supported public policies that encourage newcomers to...

At Mont-Tremblant’s Ultimate XC, the spoils go to the hard-core competitors , By Tracy C. Read Photo: Ultimate XC Just three days. At the 2011 edition of the Ultimate XC, from June 17-19, that’s all it takes to separate the endurance athletes from the...

Put the universe in perspective at Ontario’s Long Point Observatory , By Tracy C. Read With meteorologists forecasting a sizzling hot summer, escaping the city for a cool evening of star-gazing has extra appeal. Light pollution from densely populated...

Quebec’s wild water is the unforgettable setting for two manic weeks in May By Tracy C. Read It’s springtime in Quebec, and the whitewater kayaking is anything but easy. Massive runoff from a long, snowy winter surges through rivers both large and small,...

© adwalsh/iStockphoto.com On Vancouver Island, the great grey’s return is reason enough to throw a party By Tracy C. Read © Marilyn McEwen/Pacific Rim Whale Festival Each year, the West Coast grey whale population undertakes an arduous round-trip journey...

All photos © Alberta Pond Hockey™ Alberta’s take on the good ole hockey game By Tracy C. Read All photos © Alberta Pond Hockey™ Is there a Canadian kid or an NHL player who doesn’t remember being part of a game of pick-up hockey on a tiny piece of outdoor...

At 57, the Québec Winter Carnival shows no sign of slowing down By Tracy C. Read It’s an exuberant salute to the city’s joie de vivre, its intrepid history and the frigid, snowy wonderland that is winter in la belle province. Informally launched in 1884...

’Tis the Season By Tracy C. Read Nobody can argue with spectacle, and when the country’s biggest and most diverse city kicked off the holiday season with the Cavalcade of Lights on November 27, it was an evening to remember. The 44th annual show drew...

The Reel Rock Film Tour 2010 celebrates bouldering — and so much more By Tracy C. Read From the 12-foot wall at the neighbourhood climbing gym to the rugged peaks of Yosemite, there’s a big wild world of rock climbing out there, and it attracts all kinds....

Photos courtesy: WRS Edmonton is on the march for injured and orphaned wildlife By Tracy C. Read Photos courtesy: WRS Anyone who spends time online knows that cute animal stories rule the Internet. In Edmonton, Alberta, however, citizens are making sure...

Photo: impossible2Possible Endurance athlete Ray Zahab touches down at the lungs of the lower Mainland By Tracy C. Read Photo: Paul Whitfield/Burns Bog Conservation Society They call him the Running Man, but it wasn’t always so. About a decade ago, Ray...

Photo courtesy VOWSA The City by the Sea Takes the Plunge By Tracy C. Read Photo courtesy VOWSA As boomer cartilage wears out and sports injuries take their toll, swimming is once again having its day in the sun. It’s not hard to understand why. A low-impact...

Photo: Tom C. Wilson/Hike the Highlands Festival Hardy Islanders go big on Canada’s Parks Day By Tracy C. Read Photo: Tom C. Wilson/Hike the Highlands Festival It’s a tough but spectacular landscape in which to carve out a life, but the people who have...

Courtesy Luminato The Luminato Festival generates a welcoming glow in Canada’s biggest city By Tracy C. Read Courtesy Luminato It’s the season of the really big show in Toronto, there’s no doubt. Yet the two major events coming to town this June couldn’t...

Photo © iStockphoto.com Touting the wily dandelion in North Grenville By Tracy C. Read Photo: North Grenville Dandelion Festival This year in central Canada, the unseasonably warm sun shone all April. The leaves came out a little earlier than usual. And...

Photo © iStockphoto.com Putting the planet back on the green agenda By Tracy C. Read Photo © iStockphoto.com When the global economy crashed and burned in late 2008, the biggest price was paid by ordinary people. But the next biggest hit was felt by Planet...

Photo © iStockphoto In March, proud Canadians embrace their sweet tooth By Tracy C. Read Photo © iStockphoto Canadians took a bit of a pounding in the lead-up to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games. Last fall, American political satirist Stephen Colbert famously...

Photo © VANOC/COVAN Ski cross makes its debut at the 2010 Winter Games By Tracy C. Read Photo © Canada Ski Cross Think Moto Cross without the motorbikes. Think freestyle snowboarding, with skis instead of boards. Think about a wild downhill ride where...

Photo Courtesy Arc’teryx Equipment A farewell to Canada’s favourite ice climber By Tracy C. Read Extreme sports athletes are inspired by challenge and animated by adrenalin, but the best of them know that rigorous mental discipline and physical endurance...

Photo © iStockphoto.com In the Haliburton Highlands, learning to love the snowy season is job number one By Tracy C. Read Photo © iStockphoto.com The grassroots embrace of environmental stewardship has done its share of the heavy lifting in paving the...

Photo courtesy Banff National Park In Banff National Park, it’s snowtime By Tracy C. Read Photo © iStockphoto.com A summer solstice party? Absolutely. A harvest celebration? Why not? The tradition of embracing the changing seasons is as Canadian as maple...