The BBC has put together Love Earth, a great website on wildlife. The site includes a section on tracking, in which the tracks of various radiotagged wildlife are recorded. Very cool for kids. If only technology had been this far along when I was tracking willow ptarmigan up at Chilkat Pass in NW BC nearly 20 years ago. Of course, willow ptarmigan aren’t as cool as bears and elephants, but still would have been neat to follow them in Google earth, instead of the DOS-based program I had!

Snowshoeing is a blast, and it can get you out into some great mountains around Vancouver. But some guys take the sport to the extreme. Watch the YouTube video.

Canada’s government just announced that it will protect 10.8 million ha of boreal forest in the NWT. That is 2.5 x the size of Holland or Vancouver island:
- 1.5 million hectares designated for a future national wildlife area
along the Mackenzie River near the town of Fort Good Hope under the
Northwest Territories Protected Area Strategy;

- 3.3 million hectares identified for a new national park (2.6 million
acres of new protection) on the East Arm of Great Slave Lake; and

- 6 million hectares of priority lands between the new park and an
existing wildlife refuge to be managed for conservation and
appropriate development by the Akaitcho First Nations under a pending
treaty agreement.

Great news for conservation in Canada.

Last weekend we decided to rent a canoe on the Pitt River, just NE of Vancouver. I thought it’d just be for a brief paddle, but little did I know that this is actually one of the best daytrips in the Vancouver area! You rent a canoe from Ayla canoes (rather pricey at $50/day, but it includes life jackets etc.), and paddle across the Pitt River into Widgeon slough and up Widgeon creek, in Pinecone Burke Provincial Park. After about an hour’s leasurely paddle you reach a small campsite. Beach the canoe and walk for about an hour or so to a small waterfall. The creek along the way has gorgeous clear blue water. The falls are great for a picnic. Stroll back, and paddle back to the rental area.

Especially for visitors it’s a great introduction to the area: an easy paddle with stunning mountains as a backdrop, and and easy hike. You could camp at the campsite if you wanted. Highly recommended.

The fame of the West Coast Trail as Canada’s greatest trail has been strengthened in a recent “Best of…” article in Explore Magazine. Pacific Rim National Park received a first place in the adventure section of the article, because of the trail. The authors call the trail the “crème de la hiking crème” of Canada’s trails, and refer to it as one of the world’s great adventures. They describe the treachery of the trail when it rains, combined with the 200-rung stairs, the cable cars and suspension bridges as … Perfect. Couldn’t agree more. But when it’s sunny, it is pure bliss!

Yet another best-of list. This time in Explore, June 2007, an opinionated list of the best national parks in the country. The authors created five categories, adventure, scenery, wildlife, natural science, and history. In each of the categories, they listed the top ten parks. Some parks scored high in many of the categories, so I decided to I rank the results and see which were the top parks in Canada. I gave first place got 10 points, second place 9 points, etc. Maximum number of points would be 50 (first place in all five categories).

And the winners are….

1. Gwaii Haanas 29 points. Top rankings: First place in history, fourth in adventure and scenery. Also got sixth in natural science.
2. Quttinirpaaq 27. Top rankings: First in wildlife, sixth in scenery, eighth in natural science, and second in history.
3. Yoho 21. First in Scenery and natural science, tenth in history.
4. Banff 18. Got rankings in four of five categories.
5. Gros Morne 16.
6. Grasslands 14.
7. Wood Buffalo 11.
8. Kluane 10.
9. Jasper 10.
10. Pacific Rim 10. First in Adventure (because of the West Coast Trail).
11. Nahanni 9.
12. Fundy 9.
13. Torngat Mountains 8.
14. Auyuittuq 8.
15. Point Pelee 8.
16. Kejimkujik 8.
17. Prince Albert 7.
18. Aulavik 6.
19. Fathom Five 6.
20. Pukaskwa 6.
21. Bruce Peninsula 6.
22. Ivvavik 5.
23. Prince Edward Island 4.
24. Wapusk 4.
25. Mingan archipelago 3.
26. Kootenay 2.
27. Cape Breton Highlands 2.
28. Saguenay 2.
29. Forillon 2.
30. Kouchibougac 1.

No park got ranked in all five categories, but the winners are clear: Gwaii Haanas (Queen Charlotte Islands, BC) and Quttinirpaaq (northern Ellismere Island) blow the competition out of the water. Both had rankings in four out of five categories. Others don’t even come close. And no wonder, they are supposedly amazing. So they have promptly moved to the top of my places to go in Canada, even beating out the Torngat mountains. Check out this trip by Black Feather into Quttinirpaaq park - where do I sign up?

Great to see that two newer and lesser-known parks came out on top. I suspect that 95% of Canadians has never heard of either of them.

Banff is still close to the top, but again is beaten by its lesser-known neighbour, Yoho. I agree that Yoho has some stunning scenery, and of course the world-famous Burgess shale. At least all provinces are represented in the list, but four are in each BC and Alberta (Wood Buffalo is in Alberta/NWT, but they mention the Athabasca delta, which is in Alberta) - goes to show these provinces have some stunning scenery!

Canadian Geographic of May/June 2007 has a great arcticle by the first visitors to Torngat Mountains National park in Labrador, Canada’s newest national park. The article includes an online in-depth backgrounder. This is definitely a must-visit park, if one can manage the polar bears, who seem to be as thick as rabbits in the park.

I see Labrador as one of Canada’s hottest new destinations - I’ll have to find a way to get there. There is much more to do there.

While most famous hiking trails require multi-day treks, some of the more successful ones are local multi-use community trails. Vancouver’s Stanley Park Seawall and Victoria’s Galloping Goose are great examples of hyper-popular trails. There are some lesser-known gems too:

• The 10 km Seymour Valley Trailway is amazing. Running up the Seymour valley, it is a wide, paved trail, excellent for young bikers. Tip: got to the end, park your bike and hike through some beautiful stands of old-growth forest.
• Ucluelet’s Wild Pacific Trail. A true community trail, which is becoming a tourist draw. Even in the rain, lots of visitors walk it. Good views of the ocean, a lighthouse. lots of eagles, and a sealion haul-out are some of the attractions. You can either walk a short 2km loop, ro do the entire 8km trail. The success of this trail should be a great example for other communities.
• Now the BC government has announced a new 35 km trail in North Vancouver. That should be an amazing draw for the north shore.

It’s spring, so you’re ready to drag out the canoe, raft, or kayak. But how about donning a wetsuit and taking on the rapids of the Richelieu river in Québec? Bring on the Aquafête, an annual celebration of spring in Montérégie, Québec. At the end of April, 2,500 people don their wetsuits and jump into the river, letting the current drag them 2 km downstream. 25,000 people show up to cheer them on.

Watching a spawning salmon is a great Canadian tourism product, but Kynoch West Coast Adventures has turned the concept into a great experience, by offering guests to get up close and snorkel with the salmon. To further enhance the experience, biologists are on hand to answer any questions. Their operation near Bella Coola also offers eco-rafting, wildlife viewing and hiking trips, also accompanied by biologists.