of Backpacks and Beards

Archives

Everything You Need to Know About – The La Cloche Silhouette Trail Killarney’s La Cloche trail is an apparent 78km loop through the parks rugged interior that comprises beautiful lakes, rugged quartzite mountains, and serene mixed woods. The reason I say apparent is because when I tracked it with my Fitbit I got a total of 86km. After having completed the La Cloche trail in 4-days, my first recommendation… TAKE YOUR TIME…. Read More

If you’re anything like me, packing is a one-hour affair, whereby I’m convinced I’ve lost everything important, regret not doing anything sooner, and slowly realize that it’ll all be okay. I mean the beautiful thing about living out of a backpack is that you literally carry everything you’ll need to go about any regular day, on your back. There’s little debating as the day progresses, “What should I wear out tonight”, “I… Read More

  I like to consider myself and advocator for planning out a lavish backcountry camping trip, complete with sites, route lengths, meals and consistently checking the weather to see what else needs to be packed. However, I took a drive up through Lake Superior Provincial Park just south of Wawa and learned that often times the least planned or prepared trips have the best impact on your overall experience. I arrived at… Read More

After spending a night out in the beautiful countryside of Sudbury, enjoying a pig roast and many a drink, waking up early Sunday morning to be adventurous and active wasn’t high on my priorities list. My buddy John and I had talked about the potential of a one-night Killarney trip, but when we both stumbled into the kitchen at 11am it didn’t seem very plausible. It took us roughly an hour and… Read More

Despite having traversed Algonquin’s interior many times from May-October I never had once tried out winter camping, until now. I suppose it was the initial purchase of snowshoes that I decided, “hey, I might as well get some use out of these”. So with a steady heart I threw out a general Facebook message and sure enough snagged two good friends who were up for the adventure. Not one of us had… Read More

In the Autumn, the farther north you head in Ontario, the more awestruck you are by the vast beauty that mother nature reveals. As I sit in the 2002 Ford Freestar heading north of Highway 11, I begin to see the thick reds, vibrant oranges, and piercing yellows become more and more defined the further I drive. This eventually leads me to Algonquin Provincial Park. We had decided to test out the… Read More

Packing up from Manyatta Backpackers and hopping into the 14-person Mutatu with 15 people and 15 large backpacks made it feel a bit crammed. However, everyone was in and we were off. About 5 minutes into the trip we realized that an iPhone was left behind, although this person was quick to let it go for 6 weeks I jumped on the going back wagon since I thought I’d left my passport… Read More