Tales from the road
This summer, we started gathering stories about people we’ve met and places we’ve been.
Our good luck dodging wind and rain finally runs out
The ConnecTour team has been incredibly lucky with the weather through most of the ride across Canada. Yes, there was that scary day when we were hypothermic near Nancy Greene Provincial Park in British Columbia, the day-after-day intense summer heat in Saskatchewan, and a steady downpour as we headed out of Ottawa. But our rain
Bearing witness to Africa’s climate migrants
Gilbert Desjardins witnessed the genocide in Rwanda. But not the one that dominated the headlines in 1994. Instead, the artist who lives in the small Quebec town of Mont-Laurier, about an hour north of Mont Tremblant ski resort, was a young traveller in that tragedy-laden African country in the years 1965 to 1969. It was
This Ottawa family is all-in on the car-free, cycling lifestyle
When Richard Briggs was in his early 20s, he offered to buy his father’s Ford Fairmont which his father had decided to get rid of. But his father refused to sell it to his son, Briggs recalls, “Because you don’t need a car.” A decade later, when his father offered to sell Richard his used
Traumatic accident led former nurse to new passion and artistic success
Walking through the burnished wooden doors of Katherine Muir Miller’s gallery on the main Street of Perth, Ont., is like walking into a delightful cross-section of Canada’s natural beauty, painted impressionist in style in lush and vivid colours. Muir Miller’s large landscape oil paintings draw you into iconic places, like British Columbia’s majestic Mount Robson,
Scaring away a middle-of-the-night invader
The ConnecTour team had the opportunity of being hosted by a Warmshowers couple in the heart of Ottawa’s Centre-Ville district, beside the Ottawa River. But the overnight campout in the backyard was filled with drama. In the middle of the night, Lynn Marshall was awaken by someone sneaking into the back yard. Fearing the person
Amish follow a humble path to a simpler way of life
Canada’s secondary roads are not only more peaceful and scenic to ride, but they also often lead to the serendipity that adds to the richness of our experience. We were on one such road, Maple Ridge Road, in northern Ontario, about an hour’s bicycle ride east of Thessalon (near the head of Lake Huron) when