Explore Magazine

My body relaxes the moment my feet transfer from pounding pavement to the soft spring of the natural grassland trail. My legs burn on the short incline—hills have never been my strong point—and my breath hitches when I reach the top for an entirely different reason: Calgary’s skyline stretches neatly into the distance, framed by the Medicine Wheel that graces Nose Hill Park. I live in Calgary, Alberta, and I’m an avid trail runner.

Photo by Destination Toronto When I tell people that I spent 12 years living in Toronto, they often respond, “That place is a concrete jungle! How did you survive?” I used to wonder the same thing. Toronto is one of those cities where you can easily go months without leaving the downtown core. It happened to me.

Photos by Warren Giovannetti My feet pound packed dirt as I veer around a burnt-out tree, the ground dropping away on one side. Feeling slightly unsteady, I reach out and place my hand on the blackened trunk, only to come away with a sooty and sobering reminder of what this region has endured when it comes to wildfires. But the charred stumps don’t detract from the beauty of the landscape I’ve found myself in.

There’s a new trend happening at Ontario Parks’ campsites, and it’s not a good one! Campers are tossing their garbage into the fire pit before packing up and leaving their site. I witnessed this unwelcome movement while staying at Bon Echo Provincial Park this fall. Before I pitched my tent, I gave my site a look-over to see if there were any slight blemishes left behind by the past occupants by mistake, like a forgotten camp sock or a tiny bread twist-tie.

“It’s a hike on AllTrails. I downloaded it, we’re good.” The youngish man telling me this was absolutely confident that he and his party of older “hikers” were on an established trail with some, “scrambling well within our abilities.” I’d just come down the same route, where we’d done two roped-rappels I would not comfortably climb up without a rope and proper gear.

It’s peak hiking season right now—so we have a special guest today who’s going to talk to us all about hiking safety. But don’t worry—we’ll make it interesting and fun. Today, we are chatting with Dr. Rob Scanlon, author of “Surviving the Trail: Five Essential Skills to Prepare Every Hiker for Adventure’s Most Common Perils.” Rob’s an ICU doctor and an avid hiker.

What would you do if you had five nights for two in Golden, BC, two days at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort and a day of heli-skiing—for free? That’s exactly what you have the opportunity to win in this contest, of an approximately $10,000 winter getaway complete with flights, accommodations, transportation, dining and shopping expenses. In other words, you bring the warm layers and a sense of adventure and we’ll take care of the rest.

The historic port of Saint Andrews By-the-Sea in Southwest New Brunswick brims with charm. Beyond the city limits, you’ll find one of the most biologically productive ecosystems in the world. The challenging 40-kilometre Lighthouse Trail marked by lighthouses leads you past cliffs, volcanic rock formations and waterfalls. The forested-climb to the rocky top of Chamcook Mountain is lush green in summer and a pristine snow shoeing trek in winter.

Canada has no shortage of beautiful, otherworldly landscapes and impressive wildlife. Yet, some of our country's most unusual sights are not the turquoise lakes, rugged peaks or thundering waterfalls. I was interested in learning more about the natural phenomena that occur here: temporary events created in the right conditions by the exact combinations of temperature, water, ice, geology and microscopic life. Some appear for hours while others appear every year, if the conditions are exactly rig...

My canoe tripping colleague Hap Wilson recently published a post on his social media page knocking some paddler who had slapped a bunch of flagging tape along a portage in one of Temagami’s remote wilderness river sections. He was pissed that someone would foul this wild place with countless strips of flashy coloured pieces of plastic ribbon.