Posted on 8 Comments

Upper Kananaskis Lake Winter

Like all bad ideas, it started innocently enough. “The kids have no school on Friday, let’s go camping.” The Point campground on Upper Kananaskis Lake is a spot that we have walked past, but not camped in. It is only 4km from the trail head if you go the hard way, and 7km the easy…

Read more

Posted on 1 Comment

Winter Elbow Loop Successful Attempt.

We had some trouble deciding where to go on our father and son fatbikepacking trip. We’ve had some warm weather and some of our favourite trails are an icy mess. We debated trying a few new routes, but some of them were likely to be 90% what Scott refers to as, “hiking with an awkward…

Read more

Posted on 2 Comments

Kids and Cold: a Few Tips on Winter Outdoors

People often ask me how I get my kids to go out camping in the winter with me. The truth is, when they were young I acted like it was normal (and it is), so by the time they noticed that no one else was with us at the backcountry campground, they were hooked. Now…

Read more

Posted on Leave a comment

New Years 2017 fatbikepacking campout

[click pictures to enlarge] There are 3 nights of the year that connoisseurs refer to as “amateur night” at the bar, Saint Patrick’s day, Halloween, and New Year’s Eve. Even though we don’t go to the bar very often, we avoid those nights at all costs. This year I talked Tania into joining me and…

Read more

Posted on 2 Comments

2011 KVR tour

[This is the original writeup from our KVR trip in the summer of 2011, I have transposed it here to make it easier to access and to avoid accidentally seeming like I endorse Spot. In the years since this trip took place, I have lightened my setup substantially, but I would still consider the Cetma …

Read more

Posted on Leave a comment

“Emergency” Elbow Loop Bikepack August/September 2016

For various reasons, we decided at the last minute to take a holiday at the end of August. There are, of course, limits to what can be planned at the last minute, and so we decided to go bikepacking on another section of the KVR trail. I packed the food and we each packed our…

Read more

Posted on 2 Comments

Fish Lakes, Family Backpacking, August 2016

My buddy Scott at Porcelain Rocket has been several times to Fish Lakes, up the Mosquito Creek trail on the Icefields Parkway in Banff National park. He has consistently talked about it being one of the best hikes he has been on. We have been watching for vacancies in the campground that lined up with…

Read more

Posted on 3 Comments

Family bikepacking at Lake Minnewanka

[Click images to enlarge them] Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park is one of the few trails close to us that allows bikes and is long enough for a reasonable bikepacking weekend. As such, we tend to go there a lot. Sometimes I get the feeling that it is a compromise to go there since…

Read more