Outdoor Adventures - The Drafting Table

Greenland Paddle

In this post, I wanted to share a project I did this year: building a kayak paddle. The paddle I built is more-or-less in the Greenland style. I adapted the instructions/dimensions from here. Here is a summary of the steps I followed: Starting with a piece of white cedar

Water

Wilderness Water Treatment Workshop

At a camping symposium this fall, I had the privilege of leading a workshop on wilderness water treatment. I figured it would also be of interest to share my notes here. Note: This information is only provided for educational purposes. Drink water in the backcountry at your own risk. There's

New Brunswick

Sam Orr's Pond

This past weekend, I went on my first camping trip of 2019. I started off the weekend in the town of St. Andrew's, walking around and looking in a few shops. Just outside the town is the Caughey-Taylor nature preserve. I've previously mentioned wanting to go for a hike there,

Movies & TV

Recently Watched: 3 Foreign-Language Films

This post is just a few quick reviews of some movies I've watched recently. Incendies is a French-Canadian movie from 2010. It was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign-language film. It is directed by Denis Villeneuve (who's done a few other movies I like); it's been on my list

New Brunswick

Frostival

Frostival is an annual winter festival in Fredericton. I've gone to some events in it the past several years, but I don't think I've written about it before. One of the events that I was looking forward to (and even got a ticket for) but ended up missing due to

Water

Open Channel Hydraulics for Paddlers

This post combines two of my interests: engineering and paddling. During my undergrad studies (at the University of New Brunswick) I took a course called "Open Channel Hydraulics". Recently I decided to re-read some of my notes and textbooks and think about how they could provide insight for

Outdoor Adventures

A Day Off of Deer Island

The weekend that just passed was the New Brunswick Day long weekend here. As in previous years I wanted to get out and enjoy some of the natural beauty in the province. Deer Island is one of the inhabited islands in the Bay of Fundy. I went there for a

Travel

Appalachian Appellation

I was recently down in northwestern Virginia on a business trip. Because I was there over a weekend, I had the chance to do a couple of hikes in the area. One spot I went hiking was in Shenandoah National Park. While there, I drove the northern third of the

Travel

fietspaden en droge voeten

This is my final post based off of my trip to the Netherlands. It focuses on reviewing a book about land reclamation and flood control infrastructure in the Netherlands and sharing a couple of bike trips I took out into the countryside around Amsterdam and Rotterdam to see some of

Travel

Zuid-Holland

The second part of my visit to the Netherlands was spent in the Rotterdam area (there are a lot of "'dam" places in the Netherlands; I also passed through Zaandam and Schiedam). In this post I'll share some of the highlights of my time there. Rotterdam is the

Travel

Five Days in Denmark

I didn't have a post last week because I was returning from vacation. In the next few posts, I'll be writing about the places I went: Denmark and the Netherlands. As the title says, I stayed in Denmark for five nights. My accommodations were in Copenhagen (at Bedwood, a hostel

Outdoor Adventures

National and Local Parks, 2017

We're approaching the end of another year so it is time to start looking back at 2017. One of my goals for this year (since it is Canada's sesquicentennial anniversary) was to visit a few National Parks. I also had the privilege of spending time in a bunch of great

Outdoor Adventures

Mushrooms and Messier Objects

This weekend I went camping in Kouchibouguac National Park with a friend from the West Coast. This was my 2nd time tenting this summer (well, it was technically the beginning of fall). It was a really fantastic weekend—the warm, clear weather certainly didn't hurt! As a bonus, admission to

Outdoor Adventures

Chignecto

My apologies for not having any posts for a couple of weeks. Summer is winding down here and I've been trying to make the most of it. This weekend and last weekend, I was at a couple of different spots along the Bay of Fundy coast. Below, I share some

Travel

2 Lakes

I was on vacation last week, hence not having a post. To start with, I went to Nova Scotia for the weekend to attend a wedding; after that, I flew to Ontario for a week. Below are some pictures and a brief description of some of the things that I

New Brunswick

Cost of Housing in New Brunswick

In recent times, it has been hard to escape noticing the very expensive cost of housing in Toronto and Vancouver (though it seems to be stabilizing for now). I decided to do a little investigation on the cost of housing in New Brunswick for comparison. Method I searched on Kijiji

New Brunswick

Looking for Whales in Charlotte County

I was on vacation for a few days last week and went on a couple of fun day trips with my girlfriend. The (free!) Irving Nature Park in Saint John offers some interesting short hikes through diverse ecosystems. I've mentioned it before, but haven't been hiking there in many years.

Outdoor Adventures

Mactaquac to Morell

On the weekend, I took a kayaking trip down a 20-km stretch of the Saint John River, from near the Mactaquac Fish Hatchery to Morell Park in Fredericton. I stopped at a few islands along the way. This post is mainly photos of the trip. My first stop was on

New Brunswick

Flooded Forests

This weekend, I got my kayak out from winter storage and paddled around the mouth of the Nashwaak River. Around a month and a half ago, I was snowshoeing, but now the weather has warmed up enough to get out on the water. Because of the high water level, I

Outdoor Adventures

Links about Walking

For this week, I just have a short post with some links I've come across recently related to hiking and walkable cities (a topic I've written about before). Strong Towns has some ideas about making more walkable communities. They are too anti-car for my preferences—I think good infrastructure for

New Brunswick

The Last Long Weekend of Summer 2016

Long weekends are a good time to get out and explore. This past weekend, I managed to get out biking, hiking, and kayaking (a different activity each day!) in places I hadn't been before. I went biking on Saturday along a section of trail from Keswick Landing to Burtt's Corner,

New Brunswick

The Red Rocks of St. Martin's

This weekend, I went on a short sea kayaking tour in the Bay of Fundy. Red Rock Adventure in St. Martin's, New Brunswick, offers sea kayaking tours and other outdoor adventures. It's a great spot to get out on the water as it has a quaint harbour, some sea caves,

New Brunswick

Portobello Creek

Quite a bit closer to home than what I've been writing about recently, this post is about some kayaking I did last weekend. I went out to French Lake and Portobello Creek. The launch point I used was by the bridge over the throughfare between French Lake and Maquapit Lake.

France

Calanques-en-Provence

Continuing my short series about my recent trip to France, this week's post is about the time I was in Marseille. Marseille is a very cool city, centered around a large harbour. The harbour entrance is flanked by forts, and numerous vantage points (Palais du Pharo, Notre-Dame de la Garde

Map

Mapping Hyla Park

Hyla Park is a little-known park in Fredericton. I had the idea that more people might use it if there was a map available, so I decided to make one. Hyla Park is the result of a private land conservation effort by the Nature Trust of New Brunswick. It is