Highlights from a Long Hot Bucket List Summer

That was one crazy summer!   Both for the adventures I’ll never forget, and the adventures I’d like to (here’s looking at you Air Canada Flight Attendant Strike).   With the arrival of September, it’s time to take stock and look back at what I got up to, gathering new stories for my Canadian Geographic column, this blog, that blog, and also the stage for my popular keynotes.   Not to mention future editions of The Great Canadian Bucket List, although it might be a while as the third edition – completely revised and re-designed – is out in November.   In the meantime, here’s what a Great Canadian Summer Bucket List looks like: 

June

Things kicked off early this summer with a family adventure house-boating down the historic Rideau Canal.  You can read all about that adventure on Canadian Geographic – or watch the super fun video above – and either should get the point across.   Le Boat, Europe’s biggest houseboat rental company, have a range of boats stationed at Smith Falls Ontario, catering for 2, 4, 6, 10 and 12 passengers.  For this to work, the waters need to be calm, there needs to be ports to call on, and it’s all about the locks.  Later in the summer I went on another luxury houseboat experience, this time in France, but as with the rest of Canada, this Le Boat experience is an entirely different experience.  Forget the cheese and wine,  when you cross Big Rideau Lake or take on hundreds of lake islands, this houseboating trip is more rugged, adventurous, spacious that anything you’ll find in Europe, and you won’t have to worry about parking the boat with millimetres to spare in the locks. You also have the friendly lock masters from Parks Canada guiding you along the way.   My extended family joined me on this one, and we had a ball, spending a couple nights in Ottawa on the way.  I love Ottawa in summer.  The festivals, the buzz, the views… it just might be my favourite city under the sun.

Hitting the Harley for another Bucket List BC Roadtrip

When I got back from that trip, I jumped on a Harley Davidson for my annual ride into the BC interior. Thanks to the Vancouver office of Eagle Rider, riding the roads of BC with fellow bikers is a tradition I picked up researching other chapters for the Canadian Bucket List, and I’ve come to look forward it immensely.  This year, we ditched plans to visit the USA and did a big circular loop from Vancouver, spending nights in Lilloeet, Revelstoke, Nelson and on the beach in Osoyoos, before heading back.   There’s always an adventure on these trips, and this one was recorded in a story I wrote for the Harley Davidson Owners Group in Canada (which I can’t share unfortunately, as it’s a member-only publication, and innocent parties need to be protected!)   There was also time for one more speaking event, taking the Heli Jet over to Vancouver Island’s Bear Mountain to inspire some folks with travels, wildlife, and what seeing bears, whales, elephants, lions, and other creatures can teach us about life.  Very rarely, I do in fact feel like a Mysterious International Man of Mystery, especially when I take helicopters wearing a waistcoat.

Robin Esrock: International Man of Mystery

July

Somewhat unusually for me, July was dominated by international travel to France and Ireland, where I could finally compare the Wild Atlantic Way to Newfoundland, and back up my claim that you’re simply not comparing Apples to Apples!     Only one will give you a much better appreciation about the country in which you actually live!   We had a fantastic road trip to Sligo, Derry, Belfast and the rock star attraction of Giant's Causeway. You can read all about our adventures in Ireland here.   Taking on active summer kid duty, I did shuttle the kids to Squamish for a wood-working lesson at Create Makerspace they both thoroughly enjoyed.  Teach my kids (and myself) how to use power tools.   You don’t have to travel far to tick off something on your bucket list.   I also took my aunt, visiting from Florida, to see Flyover Canada, as it’s a goose-bump inducing experience for any visitor to Canada, to get a sense of the overwhelming size and beauty of this country.  Given the high cost of everything these days, it’s also very well priced.  My aunt absolutely loved it.

Bucket List Item #783: Teach the kids (and myself) how to do woodwork.

August

The prime month of summer was dominated by a road trip up north with my son into BC’s beautiful Cariboo-Chilcotin region.  Over the course of a week, we’d spend 18 hours in the car and drive about 6000 kilometres, so to make things more interesting we rented a Mustang Convertible from Enterprise, which ate up the miles with unnervingly smooth gusto.  It just doesn’t feel like you’re going 150 km/hr…I mean 100 km/hr,  I mean, why would you break the speed limit on a remote road in a muscle car?  Who would do such a thing?   Not I, not I.  Anyway, our first stop was the Flying U Ranch, Canada’s oldest guest ranch and truly a special place to take the family.  Staying in rustic, century-old cabins, it’s a communal experience with folks who seem to come year after year, drawn to the natural beauty of the ranch, the glimmering waters of Green Lake, and the experience of being paired with your own horse for fabulous rides into 60,000 acres of British Columbian wilderness.  There’s so much personality and character about, both in the property, the folks who work there, the people who visit, and the 100 horses who call it home too.   Here's my take in my Canadian Geographic column, but be warned, it might just add another box on your bucket list.

How to make a kid happy on a road trip: Do it in a Convertible muscle car!

From the Flying U, we continued towards Quesnel and a long overdue visit to the historical town of Barkerville, a historic gold rush townthat’s been preserved as a living museum and heritage site. Founded in the 1860s during the Cariboo Gold Rush, at its peak it was the largest city north of San Francisco and west of Chicago, with a population of around 5,000 people from all over the world seeking their fortune.  Today, the town has been meticulously restored to its 1870s appearance, featuring over 100 heritage buildings, many original structures, and costumed interpreters who bring the era to life.   We dressed up in period costume to learn about life in the 1860’s, from printing and gold panning to the Chinese community and geology.   The full report will be out in the new year, but in the meantime, I really wish I had discovered Barkerville – and the Flying U – earlier to add it into the third edition of The Great Canadian Bucket List.   It’s always the case with these things:  tick off one item at the top and three more will pop up at the bottom.

A few days later, I found myself on a plane to Cusco, Peru.  It's a long way to go and yet I felt like I was merely travelling full circle.  20 years ago, Peru was my first port of call on my first big journey around the world, when I was just another backpacker with a wild dream for adventure and the discipline to somehow record it along the way.  I've been to Peru a few times since, but this was my first time back in Cusco, and now I was accompanied by my 12-year old daughter.   We had arrived to do a shortened version of the Inca Trail with an Indigenous-owned local company called Alpaca Expeditions.  I'd also be doing another story about the amazing food in Peru, taking a cooking class and a fabulous street food tour.  I brought along the kid with the adventurous appetite, hoping she'd be able to cope with the altitude and the pace of an assignment.  As you can see in the video, she did more than cope, she thrived.  Cusco looked exactly the same as it did 20 years ago, but a lot has changed too: the crazy traffic, the smart phones, the high-end restaurants and hotels.  Sprinkled among it all were the scraggy backpackers, heading to the Andes for the adventure of a lifetime.  Thinking back to my own adventure in 2005, I could never have imagined returning to Sun Gate - older, wiser, fatter - with so many once-in-a-lifetimes I've lost count, and with a beautiful daughter to keep me company.  Full circle indeed! 

Luxury river boats in France.  Road tripping Ireland.  Hiking in Peru. Racing horses (and a Mustang) in the Cariboo.  Helicopters to the island, Harley Davidsons and a Gold Rush.  How was my summer?   Epic, as always.