SKIING & SNOWBOARDING
MOUNTAIN BIKING & CYCLING
PADDLESPORTS
HIKING & BACKPACKING
ROCK CLIMBING, ICE CLIMBING & MOUNTAINEERING
WILDLIFE-WATCHING
FISHING
SCUBA DIVING
SURFING, WINDSURFING & KITEBOARDING
HORSEBACK RIDING
I’ve ridden my bicycle halfway around the world. But I haven’t seen Mt Fuji, tasted authentic pad Thai or sipped local tequila. I haven’t seen the Great Wall of China or snapped photos of the Pyramids. In fact, I haven’t even left Canada. That’s how big this place is; you can cycle the equivalent of half the globe without leaving the political boundaries. Not even close. I did see three oceans – the Arctic, the Pacific and the Atlantic – and traversed all of Canada’s mountain ranges and its vast prairie region. And I can explain it all in two simple words: endless and staggering.
Within the grand tour lie many of the best outdoor opportunities in the world. In every corner of Canada there lurks some superlative landscape, some epic adventure like rafting the Yukon’s Firth River or surfing a dreamy swell in Nova Scotia. No matter what your ability, no matter what your taste, there is something here for you. And you don’t always have to drive for days to find it (unless you’re looking for seaside surf in Saskatchewan!).
Adventures for the rank beginner or the seasoned veteran are all over the place, even just on the edge of, and sometimes within, city limits. Whatever outdoor activity you can imagine, it exists in the highest of quality, right here in Canada.
‘Welcome to the Great White North, eh?’ That’s how television’s belching, beer-drinking fictional hosers (aka, stereotypical Canadian males) Bob and Doug McKenzie referred to Canada in their film Strange Brew. Playing up a pervasive stereotype – that we dress like lumberjacks and talk in half-stupor – is a legacy of that comedic duo. But, for nearly half the year, much of Canada really is snow-covered, and hockey and beer-drinking really are favorite pastimes.
But there is so much more here than that oversimplified pictorial and those stereotypical flannels. Welcome to the most abundant, most breathtaking, least busy playground on the planet. Welcome to half the world. Eh!
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Skiing and snowboarding are what make the ‘Great White North’ great.You’ll find lift-serviced hills near nearly every city. Hills in the flatlands, like Saskatchewan and southern Ontario, are built on available or creatively used geography (river hills or garbage dumps). They’re not huge, but they serve as perfect starting points for the bigger hills. So if the timing of your trip is right – and winters are long, so you’ve got a 50-50 chance! – you really can slip right into Canadian (skiing) culture.
The big hills are the real reason to go skiing, and they’re found in two main regions: the west (the Canadian Rockies, Columbia Mountains and Coast Mountains) and Québec’s eastern mountains. Québec boasts big hills – Le Massif, near Québec City, has a vertical drop of 770m (2526ft) – that are close to cities. Most of these non-alpine hills, like Mont Tremblant, are a day’s drive from Toronto and less than an hour from Québec City and Montréal. Ski areas in Québec’s Eastern Townships, such as Sutton and Owl’s Head, offer renowned gladed runs – runs that weave through a thinned forest.
Out west, it’s all about big mountains and a lot of alpine terrain. You’ll slip down gargantuan slopes at Whistler-Blackcomb, which has the highest vertical drop (and cost), and the most impressive terrain variation in North America. You’ll also ride into stunning postcard landscapes in the Canadian Rockies (eg Sunshine, Lake Louise, Marmot). Between the 2500m peaks of Whistler and the Rockies, you’ll find an abundance of lift-serviced ski/snowboard areas.
There’s no such thing as Alps-style droughts or dismal snow years here – even the dry-summer Okanagan Valley resorts like Big White and Apex boast good snow year after year. Snowpack ranges from 2m to 6m-plus, depending on how close the resort is to the Pacific Ocean.
Travelers in search of the deepest, driest snow in the world should check out Nelson’s Whitewater, Rossland’s Red Mountain or Fernie’s Alpine Resort for the best snow in lift-serviced skiing and snowboarding. As an alternative, powder-seekers can pay a little extra for guaranteed and untouched deeps with British Columbia’s world-renowned helicopter and cat-ski operators (pioneered by www.canadianmountainholidays.com), which offer a range of experiences for intermediate and expert riders.
Instead of swishing through the snow, go straight on a set of Nordic skis. Most ski resorts in Canada offer a groomed network of cross-country ski trails (which are much cheaper than a downhill lift ticket). Try out the Sovereign Lakes Trails next to Silver Star mountain Click here in Vernon, BC. Compare lung capacity with Canadian national team members at the 1988 Olympic site in Canmore, Alberta. Or mix some culture with your diagonal-stride atop track-set battlegrounds on Québec City’s historic Plains of Abraham. Urban areas that get lots of winter snow – like Montréal, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Ottawa – convert their park’s walking trails into ski routes, and many bike shops convert their stock into Nordic skis and often offer rental equipment.
Ski touring, downhill skiing with a backpack instead of a lift, is the cheapest way to tap into the deep and dry snow that is world-renowned in BC. Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park has the most beautiful glacier tours and tree skiing within a single-day tour. Or fly into a backcountry lodge like Blanket Glacier Chalet (www.blanketglacierchalet.com), near Revelstoke, for your own piece of paradise. Make sure you’re equipped and educated (or hire a guide), and check the local avalanche forecast (www.avalanche.ca). BC towns like Revelstoke, Nelson and Golden are touring hubs and have a number of shops that can provide gear, maps and information on snow conditions, where to park etc.
For the hut-to-hut ski pilgrimage dubbed ‘The Canadian Haute Route,’ Banff and Yoho National Parks have four Alpine Club huts (www.alpineclubofcanada.ca) on the breathtaking Wapta ice cap. Québec’s Parc de la Gaspésie, with over 800 sq km of rare eastern alpine highlands and glacial cirques in the Chic Choc Mountains, has a system of 14 ski-in huts.
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Cold winters and long distances have shaped cycling in Canada: it’s less lifestyle-oriented (like riding to work) and more for recreation. That said, Canada has revolutionized mountain biking and provides an expansive landscape for two-wheeled exploration.
To start gently, BC’s Kettle Valley Rail (KVR) Trail has no more than a 2% grade. Well, at least try not to go off course when you’re cruising across one of the towering wooden trestle bridges or rolling through a dark tunnel in Myra Canyon. This dramatic segment of the 600km converted railbed is one piece of a growing rail-to-trail system that offers cyclists the perfect chance to explore quiet areas without the worry of traffic – or steep hills.
And the KVR is just a tiny section of something much, much bigger: the Trans Canada Trail. The trail – one of the most ambitious trail projects ever undertaken – is not complete, but many thousands of kilometers of this future record-breaking trail, like the KVR, have been incorporated into it. The entire 18,000km trail (some of it river routes) will link 600 communities from coast to coast to coast and provide for multi-use access to cyclists, snowmobilers, horseback riders and hikers.
Prefer the verticals? On Vancouver’s North Shore, you’ll be riding on much narrower and steeper ‘trestles.’ Birthplace of ‘freeride’ mountain biking (which combines downhill and dirt jumping), this area offers some of the most unique innovations: elevated bridges, log rides and skinny planks that loft over the wet undergrowth. Since the explosive rise in popularity of this kind of riding, BC ski areas have taken on mountain biking and now offer lift-serviced, North Shore–inspired trails. Most popular ski areas like Panorama (www.panoramaresort.com), Apex and Sun Peaks offer well-built trails for a reasonable fee.
If you like mixing ups with your downs, try Ontario’s Hardwood Hills (www.hardwoodhills.ca), located an hour north of Toronto. With six different trail systems totalling 80km, there’s something for everybody, from the Fun Trail to the Radical Trail for experts. Or try one of the Canadian Epic rides from IMBA (International Mountain Biking Association), such as Rossland, BC’s 30km Seven Summits ridge-top trail Click here. For an exotic ride in a surprising part of Canada, plunge into the Badlands of Drumheller, Alberta, where you’ll be riding next to dinosaur fossils in a lunar landscape. Or stick with classic Alberta Rocky Mountain cross-country riding in Kananaskis Country, the Calgary area’s giant recreational marvel.
If you love road touring, take the big tour – an 8000km-plus trek from Halifax to Vancouver – or challenge the north by riding to the Arctic Ocean on the remote Dempster Hwy. Or you could choose shorter regional rides. The east coast, with more small towns and less emptiness, is a fantastic place to pedal, either as a single-day road ride or a multi-day trip. Link together some of New Brunswick’s covered bridges (www.coveredbridges.ca); circle Québec’s Lac St Jean, or try any part of the 4000km Route Verte (www.routeverte.com), the longest network of bicycle paths in the Americas; conquer Nova Scotia’s hilly Cabot Trail; or follow Anne of Green Gables on the red Heritage Roads (www.freewheeling.ca) of Prince Edward Island.
For around-town cruising, Canada’s urban centers, like Toronto, Montréal, Edmonton and Vancouver, have excellent bike paths that crisscross the city and weave through its natural areas.
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There are few modern recreational activities that haven’t gone through some great transformation since they were invented. But for sea kayaking, things aren’t much different than they were 4000 years ago, when the Inuit stretched animal skins over a wooden frame and paddled to hunt whales. Sure, we use plastic and fiberglass today, but boat design and techniques have hardly changed.
No longer used for hunting, this double-bladed, covered-deck paddlesport is still the most efficient human-powered way to move across lakes and along coastlines. The Canadian Arctic, kayaking’s motherland, still remains one of the special places: cruise the polar fjords of Ellesmere Island and watch narwhals and walruses during the fuse-short summer. Further south, slide silently along BC’s Johnstone Strait and watch orcas breaching, or meander through the 30,000 polished granite islands of Ontario’s Georgian Bay, where you don’t have to think about tides, saltwater or currents.
Unlike sea kayaks, white-water kayaks have changed dramatically. Playboats – tiny plastic kayaks with flat hulls like surfboards – are designed to surf on a river’s stationary and recirculating waves. The world’s playboating mecca, serving up some of the biggest waves and hundreds of beginner-friendly, warm-water bumps, is just upstream of the nation’s capital, near Beachburg on the Ottawa River. Other hot playspots (single locations you can session all day) include BC’s Skookumchuck Narrows tidal rapid, near Sechelt; Sturgeon Falls, near Winnipeg; Montréal’s Lachine Rapids; and Reversing Falls tidal rapid in Saint John, New Brunswick.
Playboating’s gnarly brother, creekboating, uses rounder boats with more flotation to help paddlers career down steep, narrow, waterfall-riddled rivers. Make sure you have a solid Eskimo Roll for righting yourself when you flip. Go with a team of safety-conscious boaters as you try BC creeks like Callaghan Creek (near Whistler;), Kuskanax Creek (in Nakusp, Click here) and the Kicking Horse River (in Golden, Click here). Or take a shot at the Taureau, near Québec City on the Jacques-Cartier River, dubbed the ‘toughest run in the east.’
For a similar thrill without the years of practice, take a trip on one of Canada’s rivers in a guided raft. You can test the Ottawa’s big rapids, rage down Golden BC’s Kicking Horse or spend a week on the Yukon’s glacial Tatshenshini River (near Whitehorse).
As old as kayaking, and equally Canadian, is the canoe. Because of Canada’s water-soaked landscape, it’s still possible to travel throughout Canada like the natives or the fur traders on the most primitive routes. Start by canoeing in flatwater in Ontario’s Algonquin or Quetico Provincial Parks, or under the mountains on BC’s Bowron Lakes chain Click here.
Once you’ve gathered moving-water skills, paddle one of 33 Canadian Heritage Rivers (www.chrs.ca). Some of the best include the Northwest Territories’ Nahanni River (near Fort Simpson, Click here) and Ontario’s French River (near Sudbury, Click here).
Canoeing is so deeply entrenched in the Canadian culture that even Canada’s former prime minister, Pierre Trudeau, spent many summers traveling within Canada by canoe. ‘What sets a canoeing expedition apart,’ he wrote, ‘is that it purifies you more rapidly and inescapably than any other travel. Travel a thousand miles by train and you are a brute; pedal five hundred on a bicycle and you remain basically a bourgeois; paddle a hundred in a canoe and you are already a child of nature.’
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Canada has lots of land and few people. Three-quarters of Canadians live in cities close to the US border, and above them is a behemoth of a nation, with an almost endless wilderness that’s crisscrossed with hiking trails of every level.
Start in Canada’s hiking capital: Lake Louise in Alberta’s Banff National Park. From here you can march through dense spruce and pine forests that burst into a stunning bright-yellow canopy in the fall. Then ascend into alpine meadows that are carpeted with wildflowers and surrounded by crumbling glaciers and azure lakes.
In BC’s Yoho National Park you’ll find the extension of this hiking wonderland at Lake O’Hara (accessible by bus reservation). This trail network weaves together pristine lakes with some of the largest peaks in the Rockies.
Pacific Rim National Park Reserve offers up the rugged and salty West Coast Trail, a six- to eight-day trek on Vancouver Island’s wild side, where a raging ocean meets a Paul Bunyan wilderness. And the BC Parks system (www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks) contains over 100 parks that offer short several-hour walks to multi-day hikes, like Garibaldi Park’s landscape of ancient volcanoes Click here, Mt Robson Park’s popular Berg Lake alpine trail Click here and Valhalla Park’s manicured nirvana of high-elevation trails Click here.
Head north so as to not miss the Chilkoot Trail, where you follow the ghosts of the men and women on their way to seek their fortune in the Yukon goldfields. Or explore the all-alpine wonderland of Tombstone Park, north of Dawson City’s goldfields Click here.
There are sizable mountains out east, too. Peaks in Newfoundland’s Gros Morne National Park punch out of the ocean at over 800m. And check out the beautiful day-hikes (and moose) in the undulating hills of Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Highlands National Park.
For the serious backpacker looking for the least beaten path and the biggest mountains east of the Canadian Rockies, plan on visiting Torngat Mountain National Park in Labrador. ‘I believe,’ wrote explorer Jacques Cartier in 1534 about Labrador, ‘that this was the land God allotted to Caine.’ This savagely unforgiving land is dramatic with unpredictable weather. But the payoff comes at the top of the 1652m summit of Mont D’Iberville.
Little – or a lot – more civilized trails exist in southern Ontario, especially on the Bruce Trail, which tracks from Niagara Falls to Tobermory. It’s the oldest and longest continuous footpath in Canada and spans more than 850km. Though portions are near cities like Hamilton and Toronto, it is surprisingly serene.
In fact, while many wild places and parks exist across Canada, you needn’t go far from its urban centers for a good walk in the woods. There are many good trails within Montréal’s Parc du Mont-Royal or in the 361 sq km of wooded hills in Gatineau Park, just outside Ottawa. Edmonton is known as the greenest city in Canada and is bisected by the North Saskatchewan River’s steep-sided river bank, a perfect place for escaping the city under a comforting canopy of trees. Most famous of all is Vancouver’s Stanley Park: right next to corporate towers, an idyllic peninsula of gigantic trees surrounded on three sides by the lapping ocean.
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Mountaineering in Canada began in the late 1800s when CP Rail, which owned a couple of swanky hotels in Banff National Park, hired Swiss mountain guides to make sure adventure-seeking guests would return to pay their bar tabs. Mountains such as Lake Louise’s Mt Victoria remain prized peaks in one of the world’s most impressive climbing regions.
You can access climbs of a different sort in Mt Victoria’s shadow: quartzite sport climbs (bolted single-pitch climbs) at the ‘Back of the Lake’. Canmore, just outside Banff, is the ideal place for beginners and beyond. Climbing shops, a climbing school (www.yamnuska.com) and thousands of limestone sport climbs within a 30-minute radius of town make this a one-stop vacation that’s sure to rock.
But in April, the endlessly wintry Rockies are no match for the Skaha Bluffs in BC’s semi-arid Okanagan Valley. All levels of climbers bask in the spring sun while climbing the 700-plus gneiss (and nice, too!) sport climbs. The variety of single-pitch climbs won’t make you feel woozy, but the tastings you’ll do afterwards at the valley’s renowned wineries just might.
Slicing northwest from Canada’s other wine region in Niagara, Ontario is a limestone escarpment that is littered with sport climbs for all levels that satisfy the nation’s bulging population center. Climb Rattlesnake Point, Kelso Park, or above the azure waters overhanging Georgian Bay in Lion’s Head on the Bruce Peninsula.
Once you’re ready – really ready – to expose yourself, try climbing the granite monolith deemed ‘the Big Chief.’ The Chief pops out of the Pacific Ocean like a gladiator’s furious fist in Squamish, BC Click here, Canada’s climbing capital. If you can manage the Chief’s Apron, you’ll reach the Grand Wall of this ‘Yosemite North.’ But don’t fret if the Chief has you quaking – there are plenty of surrounding cliffs with a variety of opportunities. Check for detailed information at one of Squamish’s climbing shops.
For similar big walls in the alpine style, brave the granite Bugaboo Spires in the Purcell range, near Golden, BC Click here. The Cirque of Unclimbables’ Lotus Flower Tower (near Watson Lake, Yukon;) and the big walls on Baffin Island are the pinnacle of many climbers’ careers. So save your money for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Far North – just be patient with the weather.
When the summer rock-climbing season ends, Canadians don’t stop climbing. They just don a pair of warm mitts, a down jacket, crampons and an ice axe, and are pretty well ready to take on the most abundant and consistent ice climbing in the world.
Northern Ontario’s Orient Bay (near Thunder Bay, Click here) is a spectacular ice-laced escarpment with more than 100 single-pitch climbs for all levels. Québec’s Pont-Rouge, northwest of Québec City, produces some of the best ice climbers in the world. Rouge’s annual Festiglace (www.festiglace.com) highlights this region’s delights.
But the world’s ice palace is the Canadian Rockies. Banff, Kootenay, Yoho and Jasper national parks remain frozen for six months a year, and by early November notorious routes like Polar Circus and Curtain Call are in full form. If those are a little out of your league, step into Louise Falls (Lake Louise, Click here) or Professor Falls (Banff, Click here). As in summer, Canmore is the place to get started and take a lesson.
Up – way, way up – you’ll start to gain on the 11,000ft (3350m) peaks, like Mt Forbes, in the Canadian Rockies. If you prefer the European approach, climb the Matterhorn of Canada, BC’s Mt Assiniboine – from a full-service lodge and an alpine hut. Other western classics include Alberta’s Mt Edith Cavell, in Jasper; BC’s Mt Robson; Glacier’s Sir Donald and Garibaldi Peak, in Garibaldi Provincial Park, near Whistler.
Perhaps a nation’s most legendary climb is its highest. The Yukon’s Mt Logan (the second-highest in North America;) is no exception. Give yourself a couple of weeks to work your way up (19551ft or 5959m) this ice-riddled Kluane National Park massif. While there aren’t as many Swiss guides left, you’ll still find Canadian guides (www.alpineclubofcanada.ca) to be the best in the business as they follow in the foosteps of their forebears.
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If you’re lucky, you might just catch a glimpse of Bigfoot in the forests of BC. But if you’re really lucky, you’ll see a wolverine – though you’re more likely to see Bigfoot than this wary and wild member of the badger family. For better odds all around, watch out for the more common and visible Canadian critters.
For a spectacular wildlife-viewing experience, go whale-watching. You’ve got about a 98% chance of seeing gray whales, humpback whales or orcas on a tour along Vancouver Island’s west coast Click here. The Arctic has tusked narwhals and belugas, while Nova Scotia has humpbacks, minkes and the rare North Atlantic right whale.
Polar bear can be spotted in Churchill, Manitoba on the shores of Hudson Bay. Operators will tour you around the Polar Bear Capital of the World in elevated tundra buggies. Just don’t step out – these 1000-pound-plus carnivorous predators look at you as if you’re a walking filet mignon.
At one time 60 million bison roamed the North American plains. But European settlement and ‘open-season’ hunting brought the species to the brink. Today these half-ton grazers roam free in Elk Island and Wood Buffalo National Parks.
With 35 million birds, it’s no wonder Newfoundland is the Seabird Capital of the World. About 95% of the world’s puffin population make their home here, and Cape St Mary houses nearly 70,000 nesting seabirds. Migratory birds stop at Ontario’s Point Pelee National Park while large raptors float the thermals near Saskatchewan/Alberta’s Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park. For bald eagles, see up to 4000 in winter at Brackendale near Squamish, BC Click here.
Every fall, you’ll see chum salmon fight the current for egg laying – and their inevitable death – in Vancouver Island’s Goldstream Provincial Park. Every four years, some of the 15 million sockeye salmon reach the Adams River near Chase, BC Click here. You’ll see red if you’re around in the fall of 2010, 2014, 2018…
In 1994, coastal BC’s Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary (near Prince Rupert, Click here) was protected. Over 50 grizzlies live on this 45,000-hectare refuge. A few eco-tour operators have permits for viewing this at-risk species. The mountain national parks (Banff, Jasper, Kooteany, Yoho) also offer a chance to see these rare omnivores.
As for other critters like wolves, black bear, moose, deer, beaver, muskrat and otter, 35% of the Canadian landscape is covered by the boreal forest, home to all of them. You can spot these animals anywhere between Newfoundland’s Terra Nova National Park, Saskatchewan’s Prince Albert National Park and the Yukon’s Kluane National Park. But driving, hiking or cycling in Algonquin Provincial Park is a golden opportunity to see each and every one.
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It should probably come as no surprise that some of the best fishing in the world can be found in a country that harbors more freshwater than any other. Elaborate native societies based their entire nutritional structure around fish, and fishing has since become a sacred recreation.
Fishing is one of two Canadian sports where fighting is allowed; hockey is the other. Less controversial than a hockey scrum, fights at the end of a fishing line are equally exciting. The fiercer, the longer and the more unpredictable the fish fight, the better. And on just about any Canadian freshwater lake, you could get yourself into a serious brouhaha.
Canada is swimming with an abundance of walleye, pike, rainbow and lake trout, and muskie. Northern Saskatchewan contains some of the most productive lakes, and many are serviced by fishing lodges. North of 60 degrees latitude – the Canadian North – is also a pretty sure bet to catching your supper, albeit a little pricier to access. But you’d be surprised how lucky you can get by just fishing in the lake at the side of the road.
Check local, provincial and federal fishing regulations wherever you are; most hardware or fishing shops can tell you everything there is to know.
Canada also has the longest coastline in the world and over 52,000 islands, so it’s no wonder that saltwater fishing is also top-shelf. West-coast salmon are the usual draw on the Pacific, while it’s not uncommon to catch a dozen mackerel or flounder in the Atlantic’s many bays and inlets in places like Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. It’s always a good idea to hire a guide; weather and seas can change dramatically over a short period of time, and local experts can help you find what you came looking for: a big fight.
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Imagine a crystal-clear ocean teeming with so much life that it isn’t blue anymore – a body of water so alive that the very life in it affects its color. Welcome to BC’s Emerald Sea! Scuba divers can become one with one of the most abundant and diverse marine areas on earth from the perfectly-placed ocean cities of Vancouver and Victoria. Plunge into world-class dive sites like Race Rocks in Victoria or Porteau Cove Provincial Park near Vancouver. Water quality, visibility and access to dive sites is superb, and you’ll see whales, wolf eel, sea lions, octopus, harbor seals, dolphins and much more in an aquarium of life.
Atlantic Canada contains many fine dive sites, too – pretty much anywhere you go underwater, you’ll find something. Ocean life here also benefits from the cold, nutrient-rich water. With its great trans-Atlantic shipping history, there’s an opportunity to check out 4500 documented shipwrecks such as the Empress of Ireland, which sank off the Québec coast, near Rimouski, in 1914.
To keep your lips from chapping in the saltwater, try freshwater diving at Ontario’s Fathom Five National Marine Park, which boasts crystal-clear water, underwater cliffs and caves, and more than 20 wrecks.
Water temperature throughout Canada is by no means tropical – it’s chilly even in summer. So forego the bikini (unless you’re hitting beaches like those on Prince Edward Island in the peak of summer) and slip into a drysuit: it can make the cold feel like a comfortable bathtub.
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Wind and wave sports in Canada have one thing in common – chilly water. But with the abundance of high-quality gear, you won’t notice temperatures while you’re ripping up world-class wind and waves on unpopulated beaches and lakes.
In Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, on Vancouver Island’s ‘Wild Side’ (the west coast), you don’t have to deal with any attitude or any line-up fisticuffs. Locals here are pretty laissez-faire, because when the fog rises there’s an endless sand beach, and behind the last footprints the landscape becomes enveloped by a gigantic, dark jungle of soothing old-growth cedars. June and September are best for mere mortals, but if you want to test some of the fiercest storms the Pacific can dish out, try surfing in winter.
Eight thousand kilometers east along the Trans-Canada Hwy, Nova Scotia can also dish out some serious surf. The US south coast’s hurricane season (August to November) brings Canadians steep fast breaks, snappy right and left point breaks, and offshore reef and shoal breaks in areas like Lawrencetown, just outside Halifax, as well as the entire south shore region. First-timers will enjoy the challenge with many great surf schools both east and west. Tofino, outside Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, has a superb choice of surf schools and offers the most variety for learning.
While the surfers hang ten around the outer fringes of the country, wind rolling inland makes for perfect windsurfing and kiteboarding conditions on Vancouver Island’s freshwater Nitinat Lake. Not far from the Wild Side’s surf, this is one of the most consistent wind locations on the planet, with daily thermal flows coming in off the ocean. Squamish, BC Click here, benefits greatly from a wind-funneling venturi effect, which gets wild in Howe Sound.
Alberta’s Oldman River Reservoir – far from anything wild – is a guaranteed hot spot for wind. No trees hold back the wind; only power-generating wind farms compete for a chunk of the gust. In the center of Canada, surfers have four Great Lakes and the gigantic Georgian Bay (try access through Midland, Ontario, Click here) to choose from.
It would seem that Québec’s Magdalen Islands – a small chain of sand dunes in the middle of the Gulf of St Lawrence, accessible by ferry from Québec or Prince Edward Island – were made for wind sports. It’s the kind of place so blessed that if the wind is blowing the wrong way, you can drive a few minutes down to another beach where it’s just perfect. Sheltered lagoons offer safe learning locations for testing kiteboards or seeking shelter during heavy days.
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Riding a cayuse (that’s cowboy-speak for a range-bred horse) in the western mountains takes you back 100 years, when cowboys and First Nations peoples moved across the rugged land almost solely on horseback. From Alberta’s mountains to the edge of the Coast Mountains all the way into the Yukon Territory, horses played a significant role in opening up the land.
Today, horses help all kinds of people, from couch potatoes to the uberactive, get out to enjoy the landscape. Take a weeklong pack trip from Banff, Jasper or into the Willmore Wilderness Reserve (near Hinton, Alberta;) with real cowboy outfitters: sleep in canvas, stove-warmed tents; cross swift creeks; tie the diamond hitch; hear old-time music; and eat some of the best home-cooked meals outside Mom’s house. Or saddle up in Alberta’s sacred Porcupine Hills (south of Calgary) for a genuine ranch experience of cattle drives and roundups. Be ready to get down and dirty.