Too Square to be Hip
A narcissist's guide to travel and culture
Just west of the city of Ottawa (then Bytown), on the shores of the river of the same name, you will find the remnants of a man’s dreams, the creation of a powerful settlement on a 1000 (4km2) acre land grant. Today Hamnett Kirkes Pinhey’s estate, the life’s work a forgotten man, lies in ruin …
Just east of the city of Ottawa, you will find the Mer Bleue Conservation Area. This ancient channel of the Ottawa river was once part of the Champlain Sea, massive body of water created by the malting of Laurentides ice sheet, a large mass of ice that once covered large parts of Canada. The swath …
Cobalt, a place of decaying legend, whose evocative rusting headframes and dilapidated concrete ruins bring about nostalgic reminiscing for a world long forgotten by the folks in southern Ontario. The old industrial boom town is emblematic of the north of yore, when boom towns sprouted overnight and altered the landscape in broad strokes for better …
In this post, we will be exploring a small sub-section of north-eastern Ontario, known for its mining boom – specifically gold. Although the region has suffered a severe demographic and economic decline there is still plenty to see here, if you can make the trip up. If you do drive to Kirkland Lake would recommend …
Tucked in along the Ottawa River between the metropolis of Montreal and the quaint capital city of Ottawa is a region of Canada so bilingual, that the old stock French residents interchange greeting and languages within a single sentence. The venerable patch of earth is located far away from all of the action of the …
Many young men will surely remember the exploits of brothers Frank and Joe Hardy better known of the Hardy Boys. Although they are but simple stories written during the 1920’s to the 1940’s they still resonate with readers today (including a much younger version of this writer) for their take on boyhood masculinity as well …
An offshoot of the much larger Yoho National Park of Canada, Emerald lake is one of those scenic places that inspire awe and wonder, yet still feels under appreciated. Although Yoho itself has sixty one lakes, Emerald has the distinction of being the park’s largest, hence why it has landed its own post. To access …
Driving west past the Alberta border, along the historic Kicking Horse Pass into British Columbia, I came into Yoho National Park, perhaps the most underrated place in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Unlike many of the hikes I had done in nearby Banff, Yoho is all about the waterfalls. Above all else “Yoho”, a Cree expression …
Driving through the rocky mountains is always an memorable experience, one evoking primitive instincts of worship, as if those ancient peaks were themselves pagan gods of old. Serving as background noise was my friend Tyson’s strange, yet wonderful, taste in indie music in this case the song “One Great City” by the Weakerthans a satirical …
Just east of Toronto, along the magnificent shores of Lake Ontario, you will find the Toronto Suburb of Scarborough. Although mostly unremarkable by any stretch of the imagination it does have two distinct attractions the “Ontario Famous” Scarborough Bluffs and Guild Park and Gardens (Guildwood Park), a monument to Toronto’s 20th century past. Speaking of …
